Sokoto Caliphate | |
|---|---|
| 1804–1903 | |
 Flag | |
.png) Sokoto Sultanate during the reign of Sultan Ahmadu Rufai | |
| Capital |
|
| Common languages | |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
| Government | Caliphate |
| Caliph / Amir al-Mu'minin | |
• 1804–1817 | Usman dan Fodio (first) |
• 1902–1903 | Muhammadu Attahiru (last) |
| Grand Vizier | |
• 1804–1817 | Abdullahi dan Fodio (first) |
• 1886–1903 | Muhammadu al-Bukhari (last) |
| Legislature | Shura |
| Historical era | Fula jihads |
• Founded | 21 February 1804 |
| 21 June 1804 | |
| 3 October 1808 | |
| September 1817 | |
| 1 January 1897 | |
| 29 July 1903 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 2,200,000 km2 (850,000 sq mi)[1] |
| Currency | |
The Sokoto Caliphate (Arabic: دولة الخلافة في بلاد السودان), also known as the Sultanate of Sokoto,[2] was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the Fulani War. The boundaries of the caliphate are part of present-day Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.[3][4] By 1837, the Sokoto state had a population of around 10-20 plus million people, becoming the most populous empire in West Africa.[5][6] It was dissolved when the British, French and Germans conquered the area in 1903 and annexed it into the newly established Northern Nigeria Protectorate, Senegambia and Niger and Kamerun respectively.
The caliphate emerged after the Hausa King Yunfa attempted to assassinate Usman dan Fodio in 1802. In order 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.[7]
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.[8] According to historian John Iliffe, Sokoto was the most developed state of pre-modern Subsaharan Africa.[9][page needed] The caliphate was a loose confederation of emirates that recognized the suzerainty of the Amir al-Mu'minin, the Sultan of Sokoto.[10]
An estimated 1 to 2.5 million non-Muslim slaves were captured during the Fulani War.[11] Slaves worked plantations and much of the population converted to Islam despite being encouraged not to.[8][12] By 1900, Sokoto had "at least 1 million and perhaps as many as 2.5 million slaves" second only to the American South (which had four million in 1860) in size among all modern slave societies.[11]
Although European colonists abolished the political authority of the caliphate, the title of sultan was retained and remains an important religious position for Sunni Muslims in the region to the current day.[5] Usman dan Fodio's jihad provided the inspiration for 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.[10]
The legacy of the Sokoto Caliphate and Usman dan Fodio's teachings has left a lasting impact on the region's history, including contemporary Nigeria and West Africa. 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.[13][14][15]
- ^ Last, M. (2021). The Sokoto Caliphate. [New York] Humanities Press.
- ^ Overy, Richard, ed. (2015). The Times Complete History of the World (9th ed.). London: Times Books. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-00-795956-3.
- ^ Lofkrantz, Jennifer (2012). "Intellectual Discourse in the Sokoto Caliphate: The Triumvirate's Opinions on the Issue of Ransoming, ca. 1810". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 45 (3): 385–401. JSTOR 24393055.
- ^ McKay, Hill, Buckler, Ebrey, Beck, Crowston, Weisner-Hanks. A History of World Societies. 8th edition. Volume C - From 1775 to the Present. 2009 by Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0-312-68298-9. "The most important of these revivalist states, the enormous Sokoto caliphate, illustrates the general pattern. It was founded by Usuman dan Fodio (1754-1817), an inspiring Muslim teacher who first won zealous followers among both the Fulani herders and Hausa peasants in the Muslim state of Gobir in the northern Sudan." p. 736.
- ^ a b Falola, Toyin (2009). Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.
- ^ "Usman dan Fodio: Sokoto Caliphate founder – DW – 02/24/2020". dw.com.
- ^ Falola, Toyin (2009). Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.
- ^ a b Last, Murray (3 March 2021). "The Sokoto Caliphate". The Oxford World History of Empire. pp. 1082–1110. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197532768.003.0040. ISBN 978-0-19-753276-8.
- ^ Iliffe, John (25 August 1995). Africans: The History of a Continent. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-48422-0.
- ^ a b Metz, Helen Chapin, ed. (1991). "Usman dan Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate". Nigeria: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
History_of_World_Societies-755was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Lovejoy1978was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Buba, Malami (2018). "The legacies of the Sokoto Caliphate in contemporary Nigeria". History Compass. 16 (8): e12482. doi:10.1111/hic3.12482. S2CID 149506869.
- ^ "Interview: Why every Nigerian should be proud of the Sokoto Caliphate — Prof Murray Last". www.premiumtimesng.com. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
- ^ John O. Hunwick, Razaq Abubakre (1995). Arabic Literature of Africa: The writings of Central Sudanic Africa. Vol. 2. p. 220.