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Sokoto Caliphate: A Visual History

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The jihad of Usman dan Fodio created the largest state in nineteenth-century Africa, a federation of emirates that the British conquered but kept.

Existed
1804 to 1903
Duration
99 years
Existed
1804 to 1903
Peak area
About 400,000 km2 (1850)
Population
About 10 million
Capital
Sokoto
Founder
Usman dan Fodio (Shehu)

The Sokoto Caliphate was founded in 1804 when the Fulani scholar Usman dan Fodio launched a jihad against the Hausa kings of northern Nigeria, accusing them of corruption and lax Islam. By 1812 his followers had overthrown the Hausa states and pushed into Nupe, Ilorin and Adamawa; the caliphate became a federation of about 30 emirates owing allegiance to Sokoto, ruled by his son Muhammad Bello and successors. With perhaps 10 million people it was the most populous state in Africa. The British defeated the caliph's army at Burmi in 1903 but retained the emirs under indirect rule; the Sultan of Sokoto remains Nigeria's senior Muslim leader.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Sokoto Caliphate. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

130014001500160017001800190020002100Sokoto Caliphate (1804 to 1903)Open: Oyo EmpireOyo Empire (1300 to 1836)Open: Kanem-Bornu EmpireKanem-Bornu Empire (1380 to 1893)Open: Songhai EmpireSonghai Empire (1464 to 1591)Open: Danish colonial empireDanish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Ashanti EmpireAshanti Empire (1701 to 1901)Open: Seven Years' WarSeven Years' War (1756 to 1763)Open: World War IWorld War I (1914 to 1918)Open: Nigerian Civil War (Biafra)Nigerian Civil War (Biafra) (1967 to 1970)Open: Boko Haram insurgencyBoko Haram insurgency (2009 to present)

Sokoto Caliphate territory

01002003004001804: 201812: 2501850: 4001900: 4001903: 01810182018301840185018601870188018901900thousand km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Sokoto Caliphate

  1. 1804
    Usman dan Fodio's hijra; jihad declared
  2. 1807
    Kano falls
  3. 1809
    Sokoto founded
  4. 1817
    Usman dies; Muhammad Bello caliph
  5. 1837
    Bello dies
  6. 1897
    Royal Niger Company takes Nupe and Ilorin
  7. 1903
    British take Kano and Sokoto; Burmi

The jihad

Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani preacher in the Hausa state of Gobir, gathered a community of students and reformers. When Gobir's king attacked, he made a hijra to Gudu in 1804 and was proclaimed Commander of the Faithful. Fulani pastoralists and Hausa peasants flocked to him; the flag-bearers he sent out took Kano, Katsina, Zaria and the rest by 1809, and Sokoto was founded that year. Usman retired to teaching; his brother Abdullahi and son Bello ran the state.

The caliphate

Muhammad Bello (1817-1837) organised the emirates, built ribats on the frontiers, defended against Bornu and Tuareg raids and corresponded with the explorer Clapperton. Each emir governed autonomously, paid tribute and attended Sokoto for confirmation. The economy ran on agriculture, Kano's cloth and leather, trans-Saharan trade and slaves; plantations worked by slaves fed the towns. Scholarship in Arabic, Fulfulde and Hausa flourished, and Usman's daughter Nana Asma'u trained women teachers.

British conquest

The Royal Niger Company's treaties gave Britain a claim; Frederick Lugard's West African Frontier Force took Kano and Sokoto in 1903, and Caliph Attahiru I died fighting at Burmi. Lugard installed a new sultan and ruled through the emirs, making Northern Nigeria the textbook of indirect rule. The emirates survive as traditional institutions in modern Nigeria.

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8 surprising things about the Sokoto Caliphate

  1. The Sokoto Caliphate had the largest slave population of any state in the nineteenth-century world after the United States and Brazil.
  2. Nana Asma'u, the founder's daughter, wrote over 60 works and created a network of women teachers, the yan taru, that still exists.
  3. Usman dan Fodio wrote more than 100 books on religion, government and society.
  4. The caliphate's emirates, including Kano, Katsina and Zaria, still have emirs and palaces today.
  5. The Sultan of Sokoto is the spiritual head of Nigeria's Muslims and chairs the national Islamic council.
  6. The jihad inspired imitators across West Africa, from Masina to Umar Tal's Tukulor empire.
  7. The Hausa language spread as the caliphate's lingua franca and is now spoken by over 70 million people.
  8. Kano's walls, 14 km round, held off British artillery for only a day in 1903.

Sources

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