Sokoto Caliphate

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Lore & Background

The caliphate emerged after the Hausa King Yunfa attempted to assassinate Usman Dan Fodio in 1802. To escape persecution, Usman and his followers migrated towards Gudu in February 1804. Usman's followers pledged allegiance to Usman as the Commander of the Faithful (Amīr al-Muʾminīn). By 1808, the Sokoto Caliphate had gained control over Hausaland and several surrounding states. Under the sixth caliph Ahmadu Rufai, the state reached its maximum extent, covering a large swath of West Africa. In 1903, the twelfth and last caliph Attahiru was assassinated by British forces, marking the end of the caliphate. Developed in the context of multiple independent Hausa Kingdoms, at its peak, the caliphate linked over 30 different emirates and 10–20+ million people in the largest independent polity in the continent at the time.

Reader's Guide

According to historian John Iliffe, Sokoto was 'the most prosperous region in tropical Africa'. The caliphate was a loose confederation of emirates that recognized the suzerainty of the Amir al-Mu'minin, the Sultan of Sokoto. Slaves worked plantations and much of the population converted to Islam. By 1900, Sokoto had 'at least 1 million and perhaps as many as 2.5 million slaves' behind only the American South (which had four million in 1860) and perhaps Brazil (1.7–2.5 million) among all modern slave societies. Jan Stafford Hogendorn and Paul Ellsworth Lovejoy writes that 'Our own estimate is based on the assumption that slaves constituted between a quarter and a half of the population of the Caliphate, which certainly numbered many millions and perhaps as many as 10 million.' Usman Dan Fodio's jihad inspired a series of related jihads in other parts of the Sudanian Savanna and the Sahel far beyond the borders of what is now Nigeria that led to the foundation of Islamic states in the regions that are now in modern-day Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Chad, the Central African Republic, and Sudan. The Sokoto era produced some of the most renowned writers in West Africa with the three main reformist leaders, Usman, Abdullahi and Bello, writing more than three hundred books combined on a wide variety of topics, including logic, tafsir, mathematics, governance, law, astronomy, grammar, medicine, and so on. Some other famous scholars of that era were Shaikh Dan Tafa and Nana Asma'u. All of these scholars are still being widely studied around West Africa and some as far as the Middle East.

Did You Know?

• The Sokoto Caliphate was also known as the Sultanate of Sokoto.
• The twelfth and last caliph Attahiru was assassinated by British forces in 1903.
• The caliphate linked over 30 different emirates at its peak.
• By 1900, Sokoto had at least 1 million and perhaps as many as 2.5 million slaves.
• The three main reformist leaders, Usman, Abdullahi and Bello, wrote more than three hundred books combined.