List of mais of Kanem–Bornu

The mai (sometimes translated as king or emperor) was the monarch of the Kanem–Bornu Empire from its foundation c. 700 until the mais were replaced as rulers by the shehus in the mid-19th century.

The line of mais is largely reconstructed through the girgam, the empire's royal chronicle. The girgam was preserved through oral tradition before transcriptions by European scholars in the mid-19th century. The girgam is not entirely reliable since it was preserved orally and contains some contradictions between different versions. There is however a large degree of agreement across different versions of the girgam as to the names of rulers and the lengths of their reigns. Because the slightly different versions of the girgam and a lack of precise dates, names and lengths of reign assigned to the mais may differ in different sources. For the sake of comparison, this list includes dates from different authors for each ruler.

The Kanem–Bornu Empire used patrilineal succession but there were at least two female rulers of the empire (the regent Fasama and magira Aissa Koli), possibly three (mai Hu).