Sokoto Caliphate in the context of "Kaduna State"

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⭐ Core Definition: Sokoto Caliphate

The Sokoto Caliphate (Arabic: دولة الخلافة في بلاد السودان, literally: Caliphate in the Lands of Sudan), also known as the Sultanate of Sokoto, 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 extended to parts of present-day Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria. By 1837, the Caliphate had a population of 10-20 million people, becoming the most populous empire in West Africa. 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 (the latter during the Adamawa Wars) respectively.

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.

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👉 Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Kaduna State

Kaduna (Hausa: Jihar Kaduna, جىِهَر كَدُنا; مدينة كدونا; Fula: Leydi Kaduna, 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞤣𞤵𞤲𞤢; Tyap: Si̱tet Ka̱duna) is a state in the northwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The state capital is its namesake, the city of Kaduna, which was the 8th largest city in the country as of 2006. Created in 1967 as North-Central State, which also encompassed the modern Katsina State, Kaduna State achieved its current borders in 1987. Kaduna State is the fourth largest and third most populous state in the country, Kaduna State is nicknamed the Centre of Learning, owing to the presence of numerous educational institutions of importance within the state such as Ahmadu Bello University, Nigerian Defence Academy, Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna Polytechnic, etc.

Modern Kaduna State is home to the sites of some of Africa's oldest civilizations, including the Nok civilization that prospered from c.1500 BC to c.500 AD. In the 9th century, geographer and historian Ya'qubi documented the existence of the Hausa Kingdoms, which existed until the region was incorporated into the Sokoto Caliphate in the early 1800s. During the colonial era, the city of Kaduna was made the capital of Northern Nigeria Protectorate by British leadership.

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Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Nigeria

Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of 923,769 square kilometres (356,669 sq mi). With a population of more than 236 million, it is the most populous country in Africa, and the world's sixth-most populous country. Nigeria borders Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Nigeria is a federal republic comprising 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where its capital, Abuja, is located. The largest city in Nigeria by population is Lagos, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and the largest in Africa.

Nigeria has been home to several indigenous material cultures, pre-colonial states and kingdoms since the second millennium BC. The Nok culture, c. 1500 BC, marks one of the earliest known civilisations in the region. The Hausa Kingdoms inhabited the north, with the Edo Kingdom of Benin in the south, Igbo Kingdom of Nri in the southeast and in the southwest, the Oyo Empire. The present day territory of Nigeria was home to a vast array of city-states. In the early 19th century the Fula jihads culminated in the Sokoto Caliphate. The modern state originated with British colonialization in the 19th century, taking its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures and incorporated traditional monarchs as a form of indirect rule. Nigeria became a formally independent federation on 1 October 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970, followed by a succession of military dictatorships and democratically elected civilian governments until achieving a stable government in the 1999 Nigerian presidential election.

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Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Grand Vizier

Grand vizier (Persian: وزيرِ اعظم, romanizedvazîr-i aʾzam; Ottoman Turkish: صدر اعظم, romanizedsadr-ı aʾzam; Turkish: sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. It was first held by officials in the later Abbasid Caliphate. It was then held in the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Safavid Empire and Cherifian Empire of Morocco. In the Ottoman Empire, the grand vizier held the imperial seal and could convene all other viziers to attend to affairs of the state; the viziers in conference were called "Kubbealtı viziers" in reference to their meeting place, the Kubbealtı ('under the dome') in Topkapı Palace. His offices were located at the Sublime Porte. Today, the Prime Minister of Pakistan is referred to in Urdu as Wazir-e-azam, which translates literally to grand vizier.

Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin in the Ottoman Empire. However, after there were troubles between the Turkish grand vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger and Sultan Mehmed II (who had him executed), there was a rise of slave administrators (devshirme). These were much easier for the sultans to control, as compared to the free administrators of Turkish aristocratic origin.

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Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Islam in Nigeria

Islam is one of the major religions in Nigeria, with a history that spans over a millennium. While some scholars suggest that Islam was introduced to the region as early as the 9th century, it is more commonly accepted that the religion began to take root in what is now modern-day Nigeria around the 11th century. The spread of Islam was primarily facilitated by trade routes across the Sahara and the influence of Muslim merchants and scholars.

By the 19th century, the Sokoto Caliphate, founded through the Fulani Jihad led by Usman dan Fodio, established Islam as the predominant religion in northern Nigeria. The religion also spread to the southwest among the Yoruba through trade and cultural exchange.

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Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Fula jihads

The Fula (or Fulani) jihads (Arabic: جهاد الفولا), also called the Fulani revolution were a series of jihads that occurred across West Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries, led largely by the Muslim Fula people. The jihads and the jihad states came to an end with European colonization.

The earliest Fulbe polity was established in Bundu in 1690. The first armed uprising took place in Futa Jallon in 1725, when Fula pastoralists, assisted by Muslim traders, rose against the indigenous chiefdoms. By 1750, the Fula had established the Imamate of Futa Jallon and placed the region under sharia law. Their success inspired the Toucouleurs on the banks of the lower Senegal to establish their own state, the Imamate of Futa Toro, through a series of wars between 1769 and 1776. In the early 19th century, the jihad movement spread eastward to the Hausa states. The revolutionary Usman dan Fodio, through a series of jihads begun in 1804, created the Sokoto Caliphate, the largest state in West Africa at that time. An aggressively expansionist polity, it severely weakened the old Bornu Kingdom.

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Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Northern Nigeria Protectorate

Northern Nigeria (Hausa: Arewacin Najeriya) was a British protectorate which lasted from 1900 until 1914, and covered the northern part of what is now Nigeria.

The protectorate spanned 660,000 square kilometres (255,000 sq mi) and included the emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate and parts of the former Bornu Empire, conquered in 1902. The first High Commissioner of the protectorate was Frederick Lugard, who suppressed slavery and tribal raiding and created a system of administration built around native authorities.

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Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Kano Emirate Council

The Kano Emirate Council is a traditional state in Northern Nigeria with headquarters in the city of Kano, the capital of the modern Kano State. Preceded by the Emirate of Kano, the council was formed in 1903 after the British pacification of the Sokoto Caliphate. The borders of the Emirate are contiguous with Kano State.

Ado Bayero became the emir in 1963, reigning for 50 years until his death in 2014; he oversaw the transformation of the Emirate under Nigeria's federal constitution that subjects Northern Nigeria's Emirates to political leaders. The emir of Kano serves as the leader of the Tijaniyya sufi order in Nigeria, historically the second most important Muslim position in Nigeria after the Sultan of Sokoto who is the leader of the more populous Qadiriyya sufi order in Nigeria.

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Sokoto Caliphate in the context of Negroland

Negroland, Nigrita, or Nigritia, is an archaic term in European mapping, referring to Europeans' descriptions of West Africa as an area populated with negroes.

This area comprised at least the western part of the region called Sudan (not to be confused with the modern country). The term is probably a direct translation of the Arabic term Bilad as-Sudan (بلاد السودان), meaning "Land of the Blacks", corresponding to about the same area. There were various kinds of people in the area. The Persians called these areas Zangistān (زنگستان), meaning "Land of the Blacks" and the name Zang for black still remains in the name of Zanzibar (from Persian زنگبار (Zangibār) meaning "The Coast of Blacks". The name was given by Persian navigators when they visited the area in the middle ages. Some of the greatest states of those considered part of Negroland were the Bornu Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate.

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