Songhay
Gao, called Kawkaw by the Arabs, was a kingdom of the Songhay people, otherwise known as Jerma or, in
Hausa, Zabarmawa. It began around the 7th century when the Gabibi farmers and Sorko fishermen allied to form the town of Kukia (south of Gao on the Niger). Around the 10th century a dynasty took over whose kings bore the title Zâ/ Jâ/ Shî. At some time these rulers transferred their capital to Gao itself, where the king lived on the west side of the river and the merchants on the east. Trans-Saharan trade seems to have brought about the foundation of this state and exposed it very early to Islamic influence, but, as discussed above in chapter 9, the evidence is conflicting as to the earliest date its rulers
became Muslim.
Gao remained an independent kingdom except for two periods of subjection to Mali. Mali conquered Gao around 1260, but later in the 13th century two Gao princes, cAlî Kolon and Salman Nari, who were hostages with the king of Mali, escaped and reestablished the independence of Gao. Their successors bore the title “Sonni” instead of the former “Zâ”. Mansa Mûsâ subjected Gao to Mali once more when he passed that way on pilgrimage in 1324. At the end of the 14th century Songhay became independent again and began to expand westward along the Niger during the reign of Sonni Silmân Dandi (d. 1464).
Sonni cAlî (1464-92) continued the conquests, taking Timbuktu from the Tuareg in 1468 and
Jenne in 1473, and in 1483 defeating the Mossi who had constantly been raiding Songhay’s new territories. Sonni cAlî mistreated the Muslim learned class in Timbuktu because he thought they were
favouring the Tuareg who often raided Songhay territory from the desert. For this reason the Timbuktu historians, cAbdarrahmân as-Sacdî (in Ta’rîkh as-Sûdân) and Ibn-al-Mukhtâr (in Ta’rîkh al-Fattâsh), condemn him.
When Sonni cAlî died, his son Abû-Bakr was proclaimed king but was immediately overthrown by
the general Muhammad ibn-abî-Bakr at-Tûrî (1492-1529), who accused Abû-Bakr of rejecting Islam. The kings of the new dynasty, who were given the title “Askiya”, relied on Islam more than their predecessors as a support for their regime. One of the first things Askiya Muhammad did was to go on pilgrimage (in 1496 or 7), retracing the route of Mansa Mûsâ and imitating his style by going with a large entourage and plenty of money to spend. While in Cairo he allegedly got the cAbbâsid caliph (and figurehead of the Muslim world) to recognize his legitimacy by appointing him his deputy as ruler of Songhay. Askiya Muhammad gained further support for the legitimacy of his rule by giving favours to the Muslim learned class in his domains. This class took over the influential and privileged social position traditional priests had enjoyed under the previous regime.
Askiya Muhammad expanded the borders of Songhay westward as far as the Atlantic, and northward in the desert to include the salt mines of Taghâma, while in the southwest he exercised partial control over some of the Malinke provinces. In 1498 he waged a jihâd against the Mossi (of present Burkina Faso), inflicting heavy losses on them, but Mossiland, being difficult to penetrate, was never subjugated by a neighbouring power and has been little affected by Islam until recent times. In the east Songhay power was felt by Agadez and much of northwest Nigeria. In 1513 Askiya Muhammad campaigned against Katsina, and the same year Leo Africanus notes that Gobir, Zamfara, Katsina, Zaria and Kano were all ruled by Songhay governors. But Songhay influence in the present Nigeria was curtailed when the Songhay general, Kanta,
who built the Kebbi capital of Surame (near Sokoto), revolted in 1516 and created an independent state for himself. Songhay never subjected the Tuareg, and could not hold the Tuareg town of Walata, but the Tuareg rallied to Songhay as allies because of the economic benefits of the empire.
An important economic base for the Songhay empire were the newly opened Akan gold fields. These were exploited by the Dyula of Gegho (in modern Ghana) who from 1471 traded also with the Portuguese at Elmina. They founded the state of Gonja towards the end of the 16th century, by which time the Portuguese had been pushed out of Elmina (and most of Morocco) and the gold trade was redirected to North Africa,
leaving only the slave trade on the Atlantic. Gold and slaves were Gonja’s major exports, while its imports were cloth, copperware, beads, perfume and horses. The last item was crucial for military superiority and getting a supply of slaves. The other items were mainly luxury goods for the enjoyment of the upper classes. Essentially the Songhay empire was an exploitative trading oligarchy where the common man did not benefit and even suffered.
In his later years Askiya Muhammad became blind and incompetent. His son Mûsâ deposed him on the occasion of the cÎd al-adhâ in 1529, and the old man lived in retirement until his natural death in 1538. Askiya Mûsâ was assassinated in 1531 and his place taken by one of Muhammad Benkan, who ruled until 1537 when he was deposed by Ismâcîl, another son of Askiya Muhammad. Askiya Ismâcîl restored the legitimacy of the dynasty. Askiya Ishâq (1539-49) raided the very capital of Mali, and his successor Askiya Dâwûd (1549-82) further strengthened Songhay power.
In the meantime, in the 1580s, Morocco was relieved from pressure from Spain (occupied with a revolt in
Holland) and the Ottomans (tied up in a war with Persia), and turned its attention to the outlying territories (bilâd as-sibâ’) which it always held pretensions to control. Al-Mahdî (1576-8) and his son al-Mansûr (1578-1603) attempted to control the trans-Saharan trade routes both along the Atlantic and through Tuwât and Taghâza. The Moroccans took Taghâza from Songhay in 1586, whereupon Askiya al-Hâjj (1582-6) decreed a trade boycott of Taghâza. Al-Mansûr was infuriated by this successful action and by the insulting reply of the next Askiya, Ishâq II, to his threats to depose him. So he sent Judar Pasha, a Spaniard captured as an infant in a raid on the coast of Spain, with a force of 4,000 men, including many European mercenaries, against Songhay. Judar Pasha first took the coveted salt mines of Taghâza and then marched across the desert. In a battle in 1591 near Tondibi (just north of Gao) the Moroccan troops, though weakened from crossing the desert, overpowered Songhay without difficulty because it was a battle of firearms against the bows, spears and swords of the Songhay. After entering Gao, the town seemed so humble and poor that after 17 days Judar Pasha moved on to Timbuktu. There he was replaced by another officer named Mahmûd.
In the meantime Askiya Ishâq fled south to the Gurma people whom he had devastated in two wars. The Gurma king welcomed him, but the next day the people pelted Ishâq and his companions with arrows and killed them. The Songhay who remained in Gao proclaimed Ishâq’s brother Muhammad as Askiya. Forty days later Askiya Muhammad was lured to Timbuktu to pledge loyalty to the Moroccan governor Mahmûd, and there was treacherously killed. The people of Gao then made Nûh, son of Askiya Dâwûd, their Askiya, while at the same time in Timbuktu the governor Mahmûd made Nûh‘s brother Sulaymân a puppet Askiya. Mahmûd vainly pursued Askiya Nûh into the Dandi (Borgu) bush, and after two years of skirmishes and elusive chase Mahmûd returned to Timbuktu and vented his frustrations on the independent minded people there. His soldiers sacked the town, and he deported seventy leaders and Islamic scholars to Morocco, among them the famous
writer Ahmad Bâbâ whose biographies give us much information on West and North Africa.
The Moroccan sultan Ahmad was not pleased with Pasha Mahmûd’s activities and sent another pasha named
Mansûr to replace him. Mahmûd at this time recklessly went out to fight the pagans of the hills and was killed. The hill people sent his head to Askiya Nûh, who in turn sent it to the king of Kebbi who put it on display for a long time. The next pasha, Mansûr, set out against Askiya Nûh and defeated his army once and for all. Although Nûh escaped alive, he no longer was able to challenge the Moroccans.
Islam in the Songhay empire was pragmatically accommodated to the ambitions of power and luxury-hungry
askiyas and to the realities of a society where the traditional religion was still strong. Al-Maghîlî tried to win Askiya Muhammad to a strict application of Sharîca and wrote him some replies on legal questions, but his efforts were in vain, and he had to leave Songhay territory. Some Muslims culamâ’ played the role of court chaplains and fit in with this system, but the Muslim
scholars of Timbuktu, in contrast, kept to a strict Islam and Arab way of life. Ahmad Baba’s writings indicate a strong attachment to Sûfism, although no Sûfic brotherhood was known there at that time. In the Songhay empire Sûfism was still a phenomenon of the elite and had no popular base. Organized Sûfism became popular in West Africa only in the mid-17th century.
The conquest of the Songhay empire was no gain for the Moroccans. The former voluminous trade in gold and slaves with North Africa was greatly reduced, and what was left depended on peace and security.2 This the Moroccans could not guarantee. The pashas soon ruled independently of Morocco and in the 17th century Timbuktu, Jenne and Gao all became the prey of
raiders, either Bambara from Segu, or Tuareg from the Sahara, or Fulani who were beginning to migrate eastward from Senegal.
Until the jihâd movements, mostly in the 18th century, no empire arose to take the place of the Songhay empire. Even in the best conditions empires are difficult to organize and maintain. Songhay suffered particularly from a lack of provision for leadership succession. The death of an Askiya was usually the occasion of a civil war. Nevertheless well over a century of stagnation cannot be merely the effect of the Moroccan invasion. The main reason for the decline of the Sudan at this period was the Turkish occupation of most of North Africa, starting with Egypt in 1517 and Algiers in 1525. The northern coast, from Egypt to Algiers, became part of the Ottoman empire, which extended around the whole eastern and northeastern Mediterranean to the borders of Austria. The Mediterranean itself was an Ottoman lake and a self-contained economic zone. The Turks in North Africa, who controlled only the towns and land along the coast, were interested only in the Mediterranean world and Istanbul, leaving the Sahara to the bedouins and their shaykhs.3 Trade on a small scale, however, continued with Morocco (outside Ottoman control) and the desert tribes, especially with
Senegambia, which exchanged horses for slaves.4
Also at this time American silver and gold was flowing into Europe and European interest dropped in the
more difficult to obtain African gold traded on the West African coast or in North Africa.
With the northern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade cut off, the sub-Saharan empires had no other choice but to die –to die, that is, until the Atlantic trade provided a sufficient substitute to cause a revival. The coastal empires were the first to be born: Benin, Oyo, Dahomey, Ashante, the major ones, while the jihâd empires of the interior followed once they were touched by the reverberation of trade routes to the coast.
Kanem: decline (1350-1507) and restoration in Borno (1507-1670)
Already in the time of Mai Dunama II a revolt broke out. According to Ibn-Fartuwa, Dunama opened the sacred Muani box and by doing so let all the power of the dynasty escape. Dunama’s two sons followed him on the throne and a rivalry grew up between their two families. One family was eliminated and the second split into two more rival clans. Mai Dâwûd (1353-56) not only had to contend with civil war, but also with external aggression from the Bulala, a people east of Kanem related to the Kanuri. In the reign of Mai cUmar (1380-88) the royal family abandoned Kanem to the Bulala and fled to Borno, where the Kanuri immigrants proceeded to subjugate and gradually assimilate the native So people.
Dynastic strife continued in Borno, leaving the land in anarchy, except for the few years of Mai Ibrâhîm (1432-40) who reimposed tribute on Kano, Katsina and Gwangara ( a state subsidiary to Katsina). Mai cAli Gaji Dunama (1476-1503) restored stability to the dynasty and peace to Borno. He built Ngazargamu, which remained the capital of Borno until 1811, and maintained diplomatic relations with Tripoli. cAlî Gaji’s son, Mai Idrîs Katakarmabe (1503-26), defeated the Bulala and reincorporated Kanem into the empire, leaving the Bulala dynasty to rule as his vassals. His grandson, Mai cAlî (1545-7), joined the Tuaregs of Agades against Kanta of Kebbi, but Kanta drove him
back. The next two rulers suffered reverses in raids from the Tubu and the Tuareg from the north, from Kano in the west, from the Bulala of Kenme in the east, and from the Kwararafa (Jukun) in the south.
In 1551 the Ottomans took Tripoli form the Knights of St. John who had held it since 1510. The Ottomans in Tripoli (in contrast to Algiers) showed a continued interest in trans-Saharan trade, again mainly in slaves. Large numbers of male slaves were destined for the Egyptian army. Even as early as the 11th century there were 30,000 black troops in Cairo, while female slaves were usually destined for the
bedrooms of Arab shaykhs in North Africa and the Middle East. The Borno empire owed its existence to the
demand for slaves, and regularly carried out raids on peoples living to the south. Practically no gold passed through Borno to North Africa, but ivory was a second export article of value. For local currency, copper imported form Takedda was used. Other trade items were salt and alum (imported from Bilma), natron (exported to other West African regions), perfume (imported or produced locally from civet cats) and ostrich feathers (exported to North Africa). Kola was imported form Gonja from the 15th century, but cowries became common currency only in the mid-19th century. Like Songhay, the Borno empire appears to have served only the interests of a trading oligarchy by importing luxury goods for their enjoyment
without developing local production and the lot of the common man.
Idrîs Aloma (1571-1603), whose first twelve years of rule are recorded by his imâm Ibn-Fartuwa, restored the power of the empire. Early in his reign he went on pilgrimage, and in Egypt learned about firearms and brought supplies of them back to Borno together with Turks to teach his army how to use them. Although Borno soldiers learned the art of using guns, this expertise never took root in West Africa until late in the 19th century. Even when guns were available, the horsemen were more adept at traditional weapons and fired shots mainly to cause panic. With his military advantage, Mai Idrîs expanded his empire in all directions. In the south he took many slaves, as was usual in a jihâd against pagans, but spared many of the conquered peoples and tried to incorporate them into his empire. In the west he punished Kano, taking all but their Dala hill. In the north he chastened the Tubu and Tuareg who were raiding his people. Although he reimposed his authority over Kanem, he never tried to retake
Fezzân, the fief of the former Kanem empire.
Ibn-Fartuwa praised his master Mai Idrîs for his promotion of Islam and its laws, and notes that in the time of his grandson Idrîs ibn-cAlî ibn-Idrîs, “all the notable people became Muslims except atheists and hypocrites and malevolent persons”.5
The Hausa and related states
The Hausa states had their beginnings in the Middle Ages, but did not come into prominence until the 17th century after the disintegration of Songhay and the involvement of these states in other trading systems. One of these was the old Tripoli network that reached Borno and spread to neighbouring termini. A newer route was to Gonja, which involved the import of European goods from the coast via Ashanti, gold form the Akan fields and kola. These goods were used for local consumption and for trans-Saharan re-export. A third route was through the Oyo empire to the coast, where slaves were exchanged for European imports. The demand for slaves on the coast was perhaps the principal stimulus for the continual wars among the Hausa states, where captives were frequently sold.
Daura and the Bayajidda legend
A well-known legend makes Daura the mother of the Hausa states. Following the pattern of so many other
Muslim-inspired legends in West Africa, the founding ancestor of the Hausa states was an Arab, in this case a man from Baghdad named Bayajidda, the Hausa equivalent of Abû-Yazîd. He first migrated to Borno but because of plots against him fled to Daura. There he killed the sacred snake which lived in a well, and as a reward was married by the queen. Their son Bawo had seven children who founded the seven states
(Hausa bakwai) of Biram, Daura, Katsina, Zaria, Kano, Rano and Gobir. Of these Biram and Rano never became important. Another “spurious seven” states (Banza bakwai) are added: Zamfara, Kebbi (both Hausa speaking), Gwari (with its own language), Yauri (a Hausa colony among other peoples), Nupe, Yoruba and Kwararafa (Jukun). The latter three are in no way Hausa. Muhammad Bello, in his Infâq al-maysûr, substitutes Borgu for Gwari. These “spurious seven” are places which came under Hausa influence. Any of the Hausa kingdoms is made up of many subgroups brought together by political expediency or the imposition of one group on its neighbours. There are Hausa people who belong to none of the above mentioned
kingdoms, such as the Mawri and Arawa, clusters of Hausa clans who were subject at times to Kebbi or Gobir, but most often lived in independent isolation.
Daura was a small town which never was very important, but its pre-eminence in the legend may be due to its proximity to Borno, and tribute from the Hausa states to Borno likely passed through Daura.
Gobir
Gobir began as a state around the 12th or 13th century in the Aïr mountains. Leo Africanus in the 16th
century says that Gobir was surrounded by high mountains but that Askiya Muhammad had killed its king and enslaved most of its inhabitants. According to Boubou Hama, this conquest was the beginning of two centuries of Islamic culture in the Gobir court.6 But the blow that it was, with the addition of Tuareg pressure, may have been the occasion for the Gobir to move their capital to Birnin Lalle in the south. The first king with a Muslim name, however, appears in 1593. After that names are not consistently Muslim.7
Because of renewed Tuareg pressure, Ciroma, who was king around 1700, moved the capital further south to Maigali and later to Goran Rami in Zamfara territory near the present Sabon Birni. In the early 18th century Gobir became strong, raiding the Jerma and Gurma to the west and Ilorin territory, where many Gobir people settled. Thus the Yoruba word for a Hausa man is “Gambari”, perhaps from “Gobir”.
During the reign of Babari (1742-70) Gobir turned its aggression eastward to Katsina, Kano and Borno territory, and attacked its former ally Zamfara. Babari also built the new capital Alkalawa. Under Bawa Jan Gwarzo (1777-95) Gobir was weakened by many battles on all fronts. The king’s two sons were killed fighting against Katsina, and Bawa died of sorrow 40 days afterwards. His brother Yakuba an Babari (1795-1800) continued battling on all sides until he himself was killed while fighting against Katsina. Yunfa an Nafata (1803-8) was defeated by the fulani forces of cUthmân dan Fodiye who destroyed Alkalawa in 1808. Gobir lost much of its territory to Sokoto, but survived throughout the 19th century in
what is now Niger Republic, with its capital at Birnin Konni.
Kebbi
As a historical state Kebbi began as a province of the Songhay empire. The general Muhammad Kanta
brought the area under Songhay control in campaigns between 1512 and 1517. During the division of spoils after a Songhay victory against the town of Agadez, Kanta, thinking he was not getting his fair share, revolted against the Askiya and set up Kebbi as an independent state. He built the towns of Gungu, the
nearby Silame (whose ruins are 50 kms west of Sokoto), and his capital Surame, 16 kms north of Gungu.
Kanta expanded his realm to include Yauri and Nupeland, setting up the vassal state of Gabi at Mokwa. Kanta and Mai cAlî of Borno contested hegemony over the Hausa states lying between them. while once returning form the pursuit of Mai cAlî, Kanta engaged the Katsina army and was killed by an arrow at Rimin an Ashita (southeast of Katsina) around 1561.
Kebbi survived the fall of Songhay in 1591. Perhaps out of fear of the Moroccans, it did not intervene to the save the insurgent Askiya Nûh, even though the latter complimented the Kebbi king by sending him the head of the Moroccan Pasha Mahmûd. Around 1700, because of insecurity in the kingdom, the king Tomo moved the capital from Surame to Birnin Kebbi. In 1715 a successful coup and a severe defeat by Zamfara greatly weakened Kebbi. In 1805 Muhammad Hodi was driven out of Birnin Kebbi by cAbdallâh
dan Fodiye (brother of cUthmân), but the kingdom continued at Argungu until the coming of the British, when it was subjected to Sokoto.
[Leo Africanus (on Gobir & Kebbi):] The kingdom of Gobir is about 300 miles east of Gao. Between these two kingdoms there is a desert with little water, since it is about 40 miles the Niger. Gobir has very many shepherd villages, and they have many sheep and cattle, but they are small. The people generally are very civilized. They have many weavers of cloth and shoe-makers, who produce shoes like those worn by the Romans long ago. The export these shoes to Timbuktu. I have never seen the like in
Italy, but I think they can be found in Spain. When the Niger fills up, iit floods all the plains and surrounds the inhabited areas. They have the custom of sowing grain on the flood plain. One of the villages is very large, having 6,000 households. It is inhabited by local and foreign traders. The
residence and the court of the king used to be there, but in our times he was captured and put to death by Askiya, king of Timbuktu.8 Ishâq also took the grandchildren of the king of Gobir as hostages and made them serve in his palace. He is now master of this kingdom and has placed his governor there. The people are weighed down by taxes. Before it
was prosperous because of booming trade. But now it is empovrished and half as populated as it used to be, since Askiya took away a great number of the men. He keeps them captive and some of them as slaves.
Kano
Much of our information about pre-19th century Hausaland comes form the Kano Chronicle, an oral story of origins first written down in the late 19th century. Bagauda, a son of Bawo of Daura, is said to have come among some previous settlers and become their king around the 10th century. The Chronicle tells of a long struggle of the Bagauda dynasty to discover the secrets of the traditional religion, centred around Tsumburburai, the spirit of Dala hill. Greenberg argues from linguistic evidence (e.g. the word “rubuta” for “read”) that Islamic culture first came to Kano from Borno around the 11th or 12th century.9 But the Kano Chronicle lists Yaji as the first king to become Muslim, in the 14th century when 40 Wangara
missionaries came form Mali. This first planting of Islam seems to have dried up, and in the second half of the 15th century during the reign of Yakubu more Fulani and Wangara missionaries came from Mali with books on Muslim law, theology and Arabic grammar, reviving Islam. During the reign of his successor Sarki Muhammadu Rumfa (1463-99), the greatest of the Hausa kings of Kano, al-Maghîlî visited Kano and advised Rumfa on government. Shortly afterwards another Islamic scholar, Makhlûf ibn-cAlî of Timbuktu, spent some time teaching in Kano.10
As if the Hausa states did not have enough to worry about with Songhay or Kebbi on one side and Borno on the other, they were constantly embroiled in war with one another. Kano is reported to have been at war with Zaria around 1400 and 1500 and with Katsina from 1488 to 1499 when Kano defeated Katsina. Kano, along with the other Hausa states, was conquered by Songhay’s Askiya Muhammad in 1513 but, while still paying tribute to Kanta, Kano fought successfully against Borno in 1550. Katsina inflicted heavy losses on Kano in 1570-80, but in intermittent wars from 1582 to 1645 Kano had the upper hand. Around 1655 and again in 1671 the Jukun, whom the Hausa call Kwararafa and whose capital was Pi on the Benue river, invaded Kano city. The sarkin Kano fled, but not before risking his life to save the Tsibiri shrine and take it with him. In 1700 Kano suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Zamfara, and in 1731-43 fought a drawn out indecisive war with Gobir. In the meantime by 1734 Borno imposed its overlordship on Kano and exacted a yearly tribute until Kano was taken over by the Fulani in 1805.
[Leo Africanus:] Kano is a large region of about 500 miles to the east of the Niger. This region contains various peoples who live in villages, making their living either by raising sheep and cattle or by farming. This area produces much grain, as well as rice and cotton. There are uninhabited mountains full of forests and springs. In these forests there are many orange and wild citrus trees which produce fruits that taste not much different from domestic citrus trees.
In the centre of the region there is a town that bears the name Kano. It has a wall around it made of
[wooden] pillars and mud. The houses are made of the same material. The people are civilized artisans and rich traders. Their king was formerly very powerful. He had an important court, a large cavalry force, so that he had even made the kings of Zagzag and of Katsina his tributaries. But Askiya, the king of Timbuktu, pretended to come to the aid of these two kings, deceived them and took over their kingdoms. Three years later he declared war on the king of Kano, but after a long impasse, he got him to agree to marry one of his daughters and pay him each year a third of his revenue, leaving several attendants and accountants in his kingdom to assure the payment of this levy.
Katsina
Traditions on the beginnings of Katsina go back to around the 12th century. It was an annual meeting site for two nearby towns at that time. Borno invaders took over the area around 1250 and held it until 1468 when it came under Songhay’s sphere of influence, then under the leadership of Sonni cAlî.
Also around the 12th century another state came into being with its capital at Yandoto (a ruins near the new Yandoto north of Chafe in Zamfara State). This state was later called Katsina Laka or Gwangara/Wangara after its Malian inhabitants. It was an Islamic intellectual centre known throughout the western Sudan. From Yandoto in the middle of the 13th century an Islamic scholar named Korau moved up to Katsina and killed the king, establishing his own dynasty. Gwangara, however, continued to exist
independently at least as far as the 15th century (when Borno attacked it). Possibly the Gwangara are related to the Gwandara of Gitata (north of Keffi) who speak a kind of either simplified or proto-Hausa that has linguistic characteristics of a different family of languages.11
Muhammadu Korau (1492-1541) was the first really Muslim king of Katsina, probably as a result of the visit of al-Maghîlî in 1493 (and during the 11 year war with Kano). A few years later the Islamic scholar Makhlûf ibn-cAlî, who was also in Kano, came to teach in Katsina. Another scholar, Muhammad ibn-Ahmad ibn-abî-Muhammad of Tâzakhta (near Walata), who studied under al-Maghîlî at Takedda and later studied in Mecca and Egypt, settled in Katsina and the king made him qâî. He died in 1530.
During Muhammadu Korau’s reign there were wars with Nupe and Kano. In a battle with Kanta in 1513 Katsina became tributary to Songhay, but won its independence in a battle in 1554. Katsina had the upper hand in wars against Kano in 1570-80, but from 1582 the tables were turned. When Songhay fell in 1591 Katsina came under Borno’s sphere of influence, but flourished as a trans-Saharan terminus with the former trade of Songhay diverted to it. In 1645 Sarki Muhammad dan Wari of Katsina inflicted a defeat on Kano
and then signed a mutual defence pact against the invading Jukuns. This was the time of the Katsina Islamic writers an Marina (also known as Muhammad ibn-Marna al-Kashinâwî or Ibn-a-abbâgh), who died around 1655, and an Masanih (also known as Abû-cAbdallâh Muhammad ibn-Masâni ibn-Ghumahu ibn-Muhammad ibn-cAbdallâh ibn-Nûh al-Barnâwî al-Kashinâwî), who died in 1667 at the age of 75; many of these men’s works survive.
In the 18th century, even though still tributary to Borno, Katsina came to its greatest strength, extending its sway over Maradi in the north, Zamfara to the west and Birnin Gwari to the far southwest. From 1750 the major threat to Katsina was Gobir, which took over much of Zamfara territory and the land around Maradi. Katsina held its own and in 1801 its army killed the king of Gobir, Yakuba. In 1805 Katsina fell to the Fulani allies of cUthmân dan Fodiye.
[Leo Africanus:] Katsina is a neighbour of Kano to the east. It has many mountains and sharp soil, but
which is good for barley and millet. The people are very black. They have terribly wide noses and thick lips. All the inhabited places are straw huts that look miserable. No village has more than 300 families. Here poverty goes along with lack of development. This people formerly had their own king, but he was killed by Askiya. Half of the people were wiped out and Askiya became master of the kingdom.
Zaria
The ancient name of Zaria was Zazzau; it was also known as Zakzak or Zagzeg. A state of some sort may have existed in the area around the 12th century, based at Turuku, about 30 kms south of the present Zaria city. The 18th king, Muhammad Abû (c. 1505-30) seems to have been the first Muslim. In the reign of Queen Bakwa (1536-67) the capital was moved to its present site. In 1566 this queen was succeeded by her general Karama until in 1576 her daughter Âmina became queen. She and her younger sister Zaria, after whom the city is named, were great fighters and extended their power south of the Niger-Benue confluence. Âmina died at Ategara, near present-day Idah, and her sister Zaria died at Yauri.
From 1734 Zaria, with the other Hausa states, was overrun by Borno and became tributary to it. Islam was quite weak among the Zaria kings at the end of the 18th century. The Hausa dynasty was expelled by the Fulani in 1808 and fled to Abuja (now Suleja) where it continues today.
[Leo Africanus:] Zagzag is a land that lies southeast of Kano, but is about 150 miles from Katsina. It is inhabited by a rich population that is engaged in trading throughout the region. One part of the region is very hot, another very cold, so much so that to survive the cold season the inhabitants light many fires on the floors of their houses. When they sleep, they put them under their beds, which are raised over the ground. Nevertheless the land produces fruit and has much water and grain. Their houses and villages are like those described above. There was an independent king in this country, but he was killed by Askiya who declared himself ruler of this kingdom as well.
Zamfara
Lying between Kebbi and Katsina, Zamfara’s early history is obscure except for a king list, which shows the first kings with Muslim names in the 17th century. In 1715 Sarki Babba revolted against Kebbi, to which Zamfara was then subject, and with the help of Gobir and the Tuareg inflicted a severe defeat on Kebbi. But in 1756 Sarki Maroki had to flee his capital Birnin Zamfara because of attacks by Gobir. He set up the new capital of Kiawa about 60 kms to the south-southeast. Gobir attacked Kiawa also, but Katsina helped Zamfara and its capital was not taken. Kiawa fell to Muhammad Bello in 1807 and the whole kingdom of Zamfara was absorbed by Sokoto.
Leo Africanus:] Zamfara is a region east of Zagzag. It is inhabited by several dirty and crued
peoples. The coutnry abounds in grain, rice, millet and cotton. The Zamfara people are tall, but blacker than can be described, with long faces like animals. They are more like beasts than men. Askiya poisoned their king and destroyed a large part of the people.
Kwararafa
Leo Africanus mentions the kingdom of “Guangara”, which Epaulard (with H. Lhote) tries to identify with Tessaoua. Yet its location to the south brings immediately to mind “Guandara”, a people of southern Kaduna State, whose name may be confused with the far more important Middle Belt kingdom of that time, the Kwararafa (Jukun).
[Leo Africanus:] Guangara is a territory bordering on Zanfara to the southeast [and west of Borno]. It is inhabited by a numerous people governed by a king who commands 7,000 soldiers armed with bos and 500 foreign horsemen. He has much revenue from trading and taxes on trade. All the villages are made of straw huts except for one which is more beautiful. Its people are very rich because they do long distance trading and get plentiful gold from a neighbouring country to the south. Today, however, this country cannot carry on foreign trade because it has two powerful and cruel enemies, Askiya in the west and the king of Borno in the east. When I was in Borno, its king, Ibrâhîm, gathered his whole army to go and attack the king of Guangara. But when he came near that kingdom he learned that cUmar, the ruler of Gaoga, was preparing to march against Borno; so he immediatley abandoned his enterprise and returned in haste to his kingdom. That was a good opportunity for the king of Guangara. When the traders of Guangara go to the land of gold, they are obliged to cross high and steep mountains where pack animals
cannot cross. So they organise their slaves to carry all merchandise and necessary goods on their heads inside large calabashes. Each slave can do ten miles or more with a load of 100 pounds on his head. I have seen them do this distance twice in the same day. They have no more hair on their heads because of the considerable weight they are used to carry. Besides merchandise, they carry food for thier masters and for all the slaves who are armed and emplyed to guard the merchandise.
Yauri
Archaeological evidence shows that a settlement existed at Yauri, on the Niger, form early in this millennium. Hausa settlers, allegedly from Katsina, founded the nearby Bin Yauri in the midst of Kanbari and Gunga people perhaps in the 15th century. The location was important as a port for river traffic and became more important as a crossing point over the Niger on the route from Hausaland to Gonja. In the 15th century Yauri came for a time under Zaria’s control. In the 16th century Kanta of Kebbi brought
Yauri under his control. At some time (the 17th century?) the kings of Yauri became Muslim. Albishir (1799-1829) surrendered to the Fulani and became a vassal of cAbdallâh an Fodiye of Gwandu.
Because of wars with Kontagora, King Abarshi (from 1888) founded the present town of Yelwa as the new capital of the kingdom.
Nupe
The territory of Nupe was under Idah up to the latter half of the 16th century. Then, according to Nupe traditions, a young man named Tsoede (= Etsu), who was sent as a slave to Idah according to the stipulations of tribute, succeeded in returning home where he became king and built up the Nupe state.
Nupe grew in importance in the 16th century because it lay on the southern branch of the route form Hausaland to Gonja, and also was on the route to y and the Atlantic. Nupe traded in kola, iron and eunuchs, getting horses form the north in exchange.
Etsu Jibrilu (1746-59) was the first Muslim king. At the end of the 18th century there was a
dynastic dispute and the kingdom was divided between two rulers.
In 1805 the Fulani mallam Dendo Helped Majiya, who ruled the west at Raba, to defeat Jimada, who was ruling the eastern part of the kingdom from Gbara. Then Majiya, fearing Dendo’s power, expelled him to Ilorin. Dendo then joined Idrisu, son of the defeated Jimada, and in turn defeated Majiya. Dendo then left Idrisu as a puppet king in Adam Lelu (near Eggan), while he himself became the real ruler in Raba. Idrisu revolted in 1830 and was killed, leaving the Fulani in sole control of Nupeland, except for some
later unsuccessful attempts of the Nupe to restore their indigenous dynasty.
A Muslim missionary, al-Maghîlî
Abû-cAbdallâh Muhammad ibn-cAbdalkarîm ibn-Muhammad al-Maghîlî was born around 144012 in Tilimsân, Algeria. Around 1480,13 while in Tuwât in the Sahara, his religious zeal brought him into conflict with the Jews who had built a new synagogue “in the land of Islam”, which was
forbidden by the strict exponents of Islamic law. Al-Maghîlî “brought upon them humiliation and degradation; moreover he fell upon them, fought them and demolished their synagogues”. The qâdî of Tuwât, cAbdallâh al-cUmûnî, condemned this action. Legal opinions were sought form seven eminent Maghriban jurists, and al-Maghîlî was exonerated by at least two of them, including the jurist-theologian Muhammad ibn-Yûsuf as-Sanûsî. On receiving the replies, al-Maghîlî went ahead and ordered his band “to demolish the [remaining] synagogues, killing anyone who opposed them. No one opposed them. Then he said, ‘Anyone who kills a Jew will have seven weights of gold for me’; and this was done.”14
Possibly because his fanaticism was not tolerated in North Africa, al-Maghîlî moved south, passing through Aïr where he stopped in Takedda to teach the people. He then went on to Kano where he settled for some time, teaching Islam and writing a book for Sarki Muhammad Rumfa on the duties of a Muslim king, and other works. Leaving three children in Kano, he visited Katsina in 1493 where he also was strongly influential in establishing Islam. After a short time he moved to Gao, where he wrote a book for Askiya Muhammad answering various questions, particularly concerning the legitimacy of his coup against Sonni cAlî.
While in Gao al-Maghîlî heard that one of his sons was killed by some Jews in Tuwât. Al-Maghîlî first asked Askiya Muhammad to arrest all the Tuwât people in Gao. The Askiya did so, but one of his
counsellors persuaded him to let them go because they were innocent. So al-Maghîlî set off for Tuwât to take revenge, but died when he arrived there in 1504. Al-Maghîlî is the author of at least 25 works, many of which have survived, and he is a revered figure among traditional Muslims of West Africa.15
1“The mid-fourteenth century capital of Mali,” J.A.H. 14 (1973), 200; cf. David C. Conrad, “A town called Dakajalon: the Sunjata tradition and the quest of ancient Mali’s capital,” J.A.H. 35 (1994), 355-377.
2A.C. Hopkins, in An economic history of West Africa (1973), thinks that the trans-Saharan trade did not decline at all; cf. Eugenie Herbest, “Timbuktu: a case study of the role of legend in history”, p. 440, in B.K. Swartz & R.A. Dumett (eds.), West African culture dynamics (The Hague: Mouton, 1980). But cf. N. Levtzion, “North-West
Africa: from the Maghrib to the fringes of the forest”, Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 4, pp. 145-6 & 151.
3Cf. N. Levtzion, “North-West Africa: from the Maghrib to the fringes of the forest”, Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 4, pp. 145-6 & 151.
4Cf. James L.A. Webb, “The horse and slave trade between the western Sahara and Senegambia,” J.A.H. 34 (1993), 221-246.
5H.R. Palmer, Sudanese memoirs, v. 1, p. 18.
6Histoire du Gobir et de Sokoto (Niamey, 1967), p. 44
7Ibid., p. 14.
8This should be Askiya Muhammad, who invaded Katsina around 1513.
9J. Greenberg, “Historical inferences from linguistic research in sub-Saharan Africa,” in Bennett (ed.), Boston papers in African history, I (Boston, 1964), pp. 3-15, p. 12.
10Ahmad Bâbâ, Nayl, 344.
11Information from Kevin Carroll, S.M.A.
12Judging from the life span of his teacher ath-Thacâlabî, 1385-1470.
13Judging from the death of ar-Rassâc, a consultant in the dispute.
14 Ahmad Bâbâ, p. 330.
15Cf. J.O. Hunwick, Sharîca
in Songhay: the replies of al-Maghîlî to the questions of Askia al-âjj Muhammad (O.U.P., 1985).