¹ For the religious view, see Muhammad, al-Hajj, ‘The Fulani Concept of Jihād; Shehu Uthmān dān Fodio’, Odu, 1 (1964), 45–58;Google Scholarfor the ethnic, Gouilly, Alphonse (pseud.), L'Islam dons l'Afrique Occidentale Française (Paris, 1952), 70;Google ScholarMeek, Charles K., The Northern Tribes of Nigeria (London, 1925), I, 100.Google Scholar

² Mizon, Louis, ‘Les royaumes fulbés du Soudan central’, Annales de géographie, iv (1895), 349;Google ScholarOlderogge, D. A., Chapter V, ‘Vosstanie Osmana dan Fodio’, Zapadnyj Sudan, v. XVXIX vv. (Moscow, 1960), 78–91;Google ScholarHodgkin, Thomas, ‘Uthman dan Fodio’, NM (Nigeria Magazine), no. 66 (1960), 75–82.Google Scholar

³ Smith, H. F. C., ‘A Neglected Theme of West African History: The Islamic Revolutions of the 19th Century’, JHSN (Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria), ii (1961), 175.Google Scholar See also, Crowder, Michael, The Story of Nigeria (London, 1962),Google ScholarHiskett, M., ‘An Islamic Tradition of Reform in the Western Sudan from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century’, BSOAS (Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies), xxv (1962), 577–96.Google Scholar

⁴ Crowder, Story, 85;Google ScholarSmith, H. F. C. in a letter to Boahen, quoted in A. Adu Boahen, Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan, 1788–1861 (Oxford, 1964), 249;Google ScholarSmith, M. G., both in ‘The Jihād of Shehu dan Fodio’, paper presented to the Fifth International African Seminar, Zaria, Dec. 1963, proceedings to be published summer, 1965, and in ‘Historical and Cultural Conditions of Political Corruption among the Hausa’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, VI (1964), 182;Google Scholar and Hodgkin, , Nigerian Perspectives (London, 1960), 38–40.Google Scholar

⁵ For Usuman's place in the tradition of reform, see primarily Hiskett, , ‘An Islamic Tradition’, and ‘Material relating to the State of Learning among the Fulani before their Jihād’, BSOAS, xix (1957), 550–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also, Bivar, A. D. H. and Hiskett, M., ‘The Arabic Literature of Nigeria to 1804: A Provisional Account’, BSOAS, XXV (1962), 104–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ See Usuman dan Fodio, KF (Kitāb al-farq), in Hiskett, , ‘Kitāb al-farq: A Work on the Habe Kingdoms Attributed to U hmān dan Fodlo’, BSOAS, XXIII (1960), 558–79, for Usuman's criticisms of the non-Muslim practices of eighteenth-century Hausa rulers and their subjects.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ As listed in H. F. Blackwell's list of the sarkuna of Gobir, in Arnett, Edward J. (comp.), Gazetteer of Sokoto Province (London, 1920), 12.Google Scholar

⁸ Smith, H. F. C., ‘Neglected Theme’, 171.Google Scholar

⁹ Sir Burns, Alan, History of Nigeria (London, 1958), 42;Google ScholarDelafosse, Maurice, Les noirs de l'Afrique (Paris, 1922), 98.Google Scholar

¹⁰ For Kano, see Palmer, H. R. (tr.), KC (‘Kano Chronicle’), in Sudanese Memoirs; being mainly Translations of a Number of Arabic Manuscripts relating to the Central and Western Sudan (Lagos, 1928), III, 104–5;Google Scholar for Katsina, ‘List of the Kings of Katsina’, in Ibid. 80.

¹¹ Cf.Niven, Cecil R., Nigeria; Outline of a Colony (London, 1945), p. 44.Google Scholar

¹² KC, 107–8.Google Scholar

¹³ Bovill, E. W., ‘The Niger and the Songhai Empire’, JAS (Journal of the African Society), xxv (1926), 141.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Gouilly, L'Islam, 60. For an excellent revisionist discussion of Sunni Ali's and Askia Muhammad's respective policies towards Islam,Google Scholar see Hunwick, J. O., ‘Religion and State in the Songhay Empire, 1464–1591’, paper presented to the Fifth International African Seminar, Zaria, Dec. 1963. (Proceedings to be published summer, 1965.)Google Scholar

¹⁵ For al-Magili's ideas and importance for the tradition of reform, see Hiskett, ‘An Islamic Tradition’, 583–6. For Maji's conversionGoogle Scholar see ‘List of the Kings of Katsina’, in Sudanese.Memoirs, iii, 81; for Rimfa's, KC, iii.Google Scholar

¹⁶ KC, iii.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Yver, G., ‘Hausas’, EI (Encyclopedia of Islam), II ¹, 292.Google Scholar

¹⁸ See Bivar and Hiskett, ‘The Arabic Literature’, for the names and works of some of them.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Meek, , Northern Tribes, i, 68.Google Scholar

²⁰ Shaw, Flora L. (Lady Lugard), A Tropical Dependency; An Outline of the Ancient History of the Western Sudan with an Account of the Modern Settlement of Northern Nigeria (London, 1906), 262.Google Scholar

²¹ For an example of politically disaffected scholars, see Barth, Heinrich, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa; Being a Journal of an Expedition Undertaken Under the Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government in the Years 1849–1855 (London, 1857–1858), II, 74–5;Google Scholar and Cherhonneau, Alfred, ‘Essai sur Ia littérature arabe au Soudan’, Annuaire de la société archéologique de Constantine, ii (1845–1946), 11–12.Google Scholar

²² According to Cherbonneau, Ibid. 16–17, such positions were very remunerative.

²³ KC, 113–14.Google Scholar

²⁴ For the tradition of the mallams, see Bivar and Hiskett, ‘The Arabic Literature’, 112–13;Google Scholarfor improvisations by various sarkuna, see KC, 221–2 (Bawa, 1660–70); 116–17Google Scholar (Zaki, 1582–1618); 122–3Google Scholar(Dadi, 1670–1703).Google Scholar

²⁵ dan Fodio, Abdullah, TW (Tazyin al-waraqāt) (ed. and tr. by Hiskeit, M.), (Ibadan, 1963), 85.Google Scholar

²⁶ See Hiskett, ‘Material Relating’, for the details of Usuman's education.Google Scholar

²⁷ For the details of this conflict, see Hiskett, ‘An Islamic Tradition’, 586–91.Google ScholarFor Jibril's movement, see Bivar and Hiskett, ‘The Arabic Literature’, 140.Google Scholar

²⁸ Bivar and Hiskett, Ibid. 141.

²⁹ Abdullah dan Fodio, IN (Idā al-nusükh), in Hiskett, ‘Material Relating’, 564. Elsewhere (TW, 90), Abdullah fails to mention this event, and mentions only the visit Usuman paid Jibril after the latter had returned from Mecca.Google Scholar

³⁰ Trimingham, J. Spencer, A History of Islam in West Africa (London, 1962), 198, states that Jibril had been ousted, but does not state the source of his information;Google Scholarcf. HC (‘Hausa Chronicle’), tr. by Mischlich, A., in Burdon, J. A., Northern Nigeria; Historical Notes on Certain Tribes and Emirates (London, 1909), 93–4.Google Scholar

³¹ This confusion exists partly because several secondary works [e.g. Urvoy, Yves, Histoire des populations du Soudan central (Paris, 1936), 274;Google ScholarDaniel, F. de F., ‘Shehu dan Fodio’, JAS, XXV (1926), 229], possibly following HC, 94, but without stating their sources, claim that Usuman was engaged as tutor on being called by Bawa or after his voluntary return from Agades. However, Abdullah dan Fodio does not mention his brother's appointment as tutor either in TW or in IN, at least not explicitly. Yet his remarks concerning Usuman's visit to Bawa in the year that seems to be about 1781 (TW, 86; the date 1781 is arrived at since a poem, pp. 86–7, which seems to have been written about five years later, is dated 1786–7), can easily be reconciled with the claim of the secondary works, although Usuman's position as tutor may have been less formal than the secondary works suggest.Google ScholarContrast el-Masri, F. H., ‘The Life of Shehu Usuman dan Fodio before the Jihād’, JHSN, ii, 4 (1963), 440n., who uses these same remarks by Abdullah to assert that the belief of many authors in a significant connexion between Usuman and the court is a result of folklore developed since the jihād. However, the evidence el-Masri takes from Kashf wal-bayāu to support this claim seems even more an invention after the fact.Google Scholar

³² TW, 88–9. The date 1787–8 is chosen because Abdullah says that this event took place one or two years after the writing of a poem he dates 1786–7. Cf. the more elaborate and seemingly anachronistic account of this incident in el-Masri, ‘The Life’, 441.Google Scholar

³³ Arnett, Gazeueer of Sokoto, 21.Google Scholar

³⁴ TW, 86.Google Scholar

³⁵ Palmer's king list, in Bornu Sahara and Sudan (London, 1936), 83–4, gives 1791 as the end of Bawa's reign. From Arnett's list, which seems less reasonable, Gazetteer of Sokoto, ii, we may infer 1796–7.Google Scholar For evidence of Bawa's cordiality to Usuman, see Arnett, Ibid. 21.

³⁶ Cf. an implication to this effect in HC, 94.Google ScholarTapiero, Norbert, ‘Le grand shaykh peul Uthmān ibn Fūdi (Othman dan Fodio, mort en 1232 H. — 1816–17 J.C.) et certaines sources de son Islam doctrinal’, Revue des études islamiques, xxxi (1963), 57, seems to overemphasize the extent and success of Usuman's written ‘propaganda’ during this period.Google Scholar

³⁷ Bello, Muhammad, IM (Infāq al-maysür), tr. by Arnett, in The Rise of the Sokoto Fulani; being a Paraphrase and in some Parts a Translation of the Infaku'l Maisur of Sultan Mohammed Bello (Lagos, 1923), 24.Google Scholar

³⁸ See Trimingham, A History, 198;Google Scholarcf. HG, 94;Google ScholarTW, 98–101.Google ScholarFor students who were with Usuman when the jihād broke out, see Gall, F. B. (comp.), Gazetteer of Bauchi Province (London, 1920), II, 14;Google Scholarfor a teacher of his who later fought for him in the war, see Hiskett, ‘Material Relating’, 567.Google Scholar

³⁹ Hiskett, Ibid. p. 575.

⁴⁰ Smith, M. G., Government in Zazzau, 1800–1950 (London, 1960), 40, 42, 53.Google ScholarFor other indirect evidence, see a letter from Sarkin Katsina in 1897 to the Sarkin Musulmi referring to an argument over land with the Sarkin Zamfara, in Blackwell, H. F. (ed), The Occupation of Hausaland, 1900–1904 (Lagos, 1927), 27.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Greenberg, Joseph H., ‘The Influence of Islam on a Sudanese Religion’, in Smith, Marian W. (ed.), Monographs of the American Ethnological Society (New York, 1946), no. X, 64.Google Scholar

⁴² See KC, 117, for an example from the previous century.Google Scholar

⁴³ TW, 98. Thus the mallams' affiliation to Usuman was not determined by ethnic affinity, as HC, 94, suggests.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Abdullah dan Fodio, quoted by Usuman dan Fodio, in TI (Tanbih al-ikhwān), in Palmer, , ‘An Early Fulani Conception of Islam’, JAS, xiv (1914), 191.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ TW, 89.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ See Bello on Usuman's criticisms of these ‘venal’ mallams in IM, 43–6.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Hogben, S. J., Muhammedan Emirates of Northern Nigeria (London, 1930), 94;Google ScholarStenning, D. J., Savannah Nomads; A Study of the Wodaabe Pastoral Fulani of Western Bornu Province, Northern Nigeria (London, 1959), 57;Google ScholarFremantle, J. M., ‘A History of the Region Comprising the Katagum Division of Kano Province’, JAS, x (1911), 307.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ For examples, see Gowers, W. P. (comp.), Gaetteer of Kana Province (London, 1921), 21.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Niven, Cecil R., A Short History of Nigeria (London, 1948), 76.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ de St-Croix, F. V., The Fulani of Northern Nigeria (Lagos, 1945), 6–8, and Stcnning, Savannah Nomads, 6, give excellent descriptions of this interaction.Google ScholarConcerning Usuman's contacts with the Bararoji, there is scattered evidence that other learned men had preached among them: see Sciortino, J. C., Notes on Nassarawa (London, 1920), 13,Google Scholar and Blackwell, Occupation of Hausaland, 7.Google Scholar

⁵¹ See Hiskett, Kitāb, 574.Google Scholar

⁵² For an example of a royal shepherd, see Gowers, Gazetteer of Kano, 25.Google Scholar See Stenning, Savannah Nomads, 6, for a description of the symbiotic relationship.Google Scholar

⁵³ Stenning, Idem; Gowers, Gazetteer of Kano, 25, records cattle raids by the ruler Adamu (1754–60) in which is now the Gumel region.Google ScholarCrowder, Story, 86, speaks of the need for semi-permanent settlements.Google ScholarYeld, E. R., ‘Islam and Social Stratification in Northern Nigeria’, British Journal of Sociology, xi (1960), 513, speaks of their grazing within the town walls, and serving in the armies of the sarkuna.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ KF, 568.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Crowder, Story, 82.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Greenberg, , ‘Islam and Clan Organization among the Hausa’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, iii (1947), 196.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ TW, 86.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ On his personality, see TW, 98.Google ScholarOn his linguistic ability, see Meek, , Northern Tribes, I, 98–9;Google ScholarClapperton, Hugh, Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo (London, 1829), 192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarOn the quality of his preaching, see Daniel, ‘Shehu dan Fodio’, 280.Google ScholarOn the techniques of his popular appeal, see Barth, , Travels, iv, 152.Google ScholarRobinson, Charles H. (tr. and ed.), Specimens of Hausa Literature (Cambridge, 1896), 60–4, 98, gives examples of Usuman's vivid poetry used to appeal to the people.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Abdullah dan Fodio, quoted in TI, 189–90;Google Scholar see also, Bello, Muhammad, IM, 47.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 25. However, Urvoy's statement, Histoire, 274, that Usuman continued on as tutor through the reigns of Yakubu, Nafata, and Yunfa, seems highly unlikely. HC, 94, may have originally been responsible for this misunderstanding, since it overstates the nature of Usuman's connexion with the court at the time of Yunfa's accession. Tapiero, ‘Le grand shaykh’, 55, makes the same error. However, it is also unlikely that, as Tapiero says, ibid. 56, Usuman was forcibly dismissed from this position.

⁶¹ Abdullah dan Fodio, quoted in TI, 190.Google Scholar

⁶² According to Palmer, Bornu Sahara, 84, Nafata reigned from 1795 to 1799. Contrast Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, ii, whose list would imply an approximate reign from 1801–2 to 1802–3.Google Scholar

⁶³ Muhammad Bello in a letter to ibn al-Kanemi, quoted in IM, 48, 105. HC, 94, omits Nafata altogether.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ TI, 59.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ For example, Bawa had granted Usuman's community the permission to wear turbans: see HC, 94. Perhaps this was done in 1788 in the incident already described (p. 339 Supra).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ TW, 98–104, contains a poem written by Abdullah for Usuman appealing to other rnallams to spread Usuman's preaching.Google ScholarHiskett in his introduction to TW, 9, says that this poem ‘… gave a first push to the events which led up to the jihād.’ It would be interesting to speculate that the poem (written 1795+) became known to or fell into the hands of Sarki Nafata, and that it had a direct role in the formulation of his proclamation. It mentions in particular the duty of women to veil themselves, which Nafata forbade (TW, 101).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ See Bello, Muhammad, IM, 47–8, for supporting evidence.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Ibid. 48. Bello confirms this by saying that the Sarkin Gobir had considered war against Usuman's community, but had decided that the proclamation would suffice when he saw how few in number were Usuman's followers.

⁶⁹ Seen in this light, Abdullah (TW, 105) must be confused in saying that the proclamation was provoked bemuse seeing ‘… the greatness of his community, and their desire to break away from the unbelievers, and commence Holy War, [Usuman] began to incite them to arms [c. 1797]…’ If any kind of call to arms did take place during Nafata's reign, it is more likely that it occurred after the proclamation, and then only for purposes of self-defence. Bello supports my assertion by placing a description of a call to arms similar to the one described by Abdullah after Nafata's proclamation and in fact because of it. [H. G. Harris, A History of the Rebellion of Abdusallaini, being a translation of the Sardu'l Kalami by Sultan Muhammad Bello (unpublished, n.d.), quoted by M. G. Smith in ‘The Jihad’.] Elsewhere Abdullah, like Muhammad Bello, implies that Usuman decided to resort to arms only when the destruction of his community was imminent, i.e., at the moment of his election as Sarkin Musulmi (Abdullah dan Fodio in TI, 190–1). Contrast el-Masri, ‘The Life’, who in accepting Abdullah's date without question is led to assert that Nafata did know about the putting away of weapons, but thought it less dangerous (sic) than the identities of religious custom and dress among the members of Usuman's community—thus the contents of his proclamation.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Arnett, Gaetteer of Sokoto, 21.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Palmer, Bornu Sahara, 84, gives 1799 as the date of Yunfa's accession.Google Scholar

⁷² TW, 107. But Abdullah may be slightly confused here again. Other sources give different versions of this episode (Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 22; HC, 94–5).Google ScholarBello, Muhammad, IM, 48, does not mention Abdu Salame's flight at all, but says merely that Yunf attacked Gimbana without warning.Google Scholar

⁷³ TW, 107–8. HC does not mention the murder attempt. Niven, Short History, 78, says only that it is likely that there was an attempt during this period. His uncertainty may come from Abdullah's unintentional implication (in TI, 190) that Usuman suspected treachery and did not go to Yunfa at all. Cf. Bello's remarks in IM, 117.Google Scholar Bello, Ibid. 48–9, does not describe the murder attempt. Hallam, W. K. R., ‘In the Footsteps of the Shehu’, NM, no. 78 (1963), 109, reports further apochryphal elaboration of the murder attempt story.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Lacroix, P.-F., ‘Matériaux pour servir à l'histoire des Peuls de l'Adamawa’, Etudes camerounalses, nos. 37–8 (1952), 14; however, Jibril himself, according to some oral tradition, may have been a Hausa.Google Scholar See Bivar and Hiskett, ‘The Arabic Liberature’, 195. Trimingham, A History, 195, says he was a Fulani.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ TW, 108.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 22. Neither Abdullah nor Bello reports this incident. Bello merely says that Yunfa decided to destroy Degel as he had decided to destroy Gimbana. HC, 95, says that Yunfa had made an agreement with Usuman concerning the Muslims and that Usuman was breaking it by failing to return with the men he freed to Yunfa.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Meek, , Northern Tribes, i, 98–9. The incident which Delafosse reports as having been the catalyst (‘Sokoto’, EI, 4¹, 475) has many unlikely aspects.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Cf. Trimingham, A History, 195.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Additional support for this hypothesis is offered by the fact that Usuman's writings on the necessity of jihād in Hausaland and/or calling for a jihād generally either bear dates after 1804 or seem to be post-jihād in nature. M. G. Smith supports this in ‘The Jihād’, and elaborates it in ‘Historical and Cultural Conditions’, 173.Google ScholarFor an exception, see Last, D. M., ‘Arabic Source Material and Historiography in Sokoto to 1864: an Outline’, Research Bulletin of the Centre of Arabic Documentation, i, 2 (Ibadan, 1965), 4.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ TI, 53.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Quoted by Bello, Muhammad, in a letter to ibn al-Kanerni, in IM, 105.Google Scholar

⁸² IM, 50.Google Scholar

⁸³ See Abdullah dan Fodio, in TI, 190–1; also, IM, 51.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Bivar, A. D. H., ‘The Wathiqat ahl al-sūddn: A Manifesto of the Fulani Jihād’, The Journal of African History, 11, 2 (1961), 242–3.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ibid. 239–41.

⁸⁶ Niven, Short History, 80;Google ScholarArnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 6, gives an example of the excesses of the jihād.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Cf. Crowder, Story, 80.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ For an example, see KF, 569; see also the advice of al-Maghili to the Sarkin Kano which Usuman included in his TI (1811), 185–6; and a Hausa poem written shortly after the Battle of Tabkin Kwotto to urge participation in his jihād, in Robinson, Specimens, 60–4.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Bivar, ‘The Wathiqat’, 240.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Abdullah, dan Fodio, ‘A War Song’, in Robinson, , Hausa Grammar (London, 1953), 149. Fulani had fought for the Hausa sarkuna before (see n.53 supra). In this battle they probably chose the side they thought likely to be most advantageous to them.Google ScholarCf.Stenning, Savannah Nomads, 6.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 20. HC, 95, does claim that a threat to exterminate all Fulani was made.Google Scholar

⁹² See Abdullah dan Fodio, in TI, 191; also Muhammad Bello, IM, 63–4, for more detail.Google Scholar

⁹³ TW, 111.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ IM, 65.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 21–3.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Contrast Niven, Short History, 81, and Hogben, Muhammedan Emirates, 111. The ideas of these two authors are very similar to those in HC, 94–5, which says that before the jihād Usuman had formed a league with the flagbearers, and with Bello, IM, 47–9, who exaggerates the strength and organization of the reform movements in other Hausa States before the jihād.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ See Bello, Muhammad in a letter to ibn al-Kanemi in IM, 105;Google Scholarfor an example, see Gowers, Gazetteer of Kano, 11.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ For examples of the high standards of piety and learning Usuman desired in his flagbearers, see Hogben, Muhammedan Emirates, 6;Google ScholarLacroix, ‘Matériaux’, 20.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Contrast Hogben, Ibid. 111. See, for examples, Kano, Daura, Gowers, Gazetteer of Kano, II, 29;Google ScholarAdamawa, Lacroix, ‘Matériaux’, 20;Google ScholarZaria, Arnett, Gazetreer of Sokoto, 10;Google ScholarHadeija, Stenning, Savannah Nomads, 57;Google ScholarKatsina, Fremantle, J. M., ‘A History’, 308.Google Scholar(Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 25, disagrees with Fremantle's view and says that Bello sent the flagbearer in Katsina, Dallaji, to help in Katsina and Kano in July 1805.)Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Gall, F. B. (comp.), Gazetteer of Bauchi Province (London, 1920), II, 13.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Blackwell, Occupation of Hausaland, 5;Google ScholarGowers, Gazetteer of Kano, 33.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, 59;Google ScholarLacroix, ‘Matériaux’, 20.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Arnett, Ibid. 16.

¹⁰⁴ Idem.