Usman Dan Fodio

Usman Ɗan Fodio ( ar, عثمان بن فودي, translit=ʿUthmān ibn Fodio; 15 December 1754 – 20 April 1817) was a Fulani scholar, Sunni Islamic religious teacher, revolutionary, and philosopher who founded the Sokoto Caliphate and ruled as its first caliph.

Born in Gobir, Usman was a descendant the Torodbe clans of urbanized ethnic Fulani people living in the Hausa Kingdoms since the early 1400s. In early life, Usman became well-educated in Islamic studies and soon, he began to preach Sunni Islam throughout Nigeria and Cameroon. He wrote more than a hundred books concerning religion, government, culture, and society. He developed a critique of existing African Muslim elites for what he saw as their greed, paganism, violation of the standards of the Sharia.

Usman formed and began an Islamic religious and social revolution which spread from Gobir throughout modern Nigeria and Cameroon, and was echoed in a jihad movement led by the Fula people across West Africa. In 1803, he founded the Sokoto Caliphate and his followers pledged allegiance to him as the Commander of the Faithful (). Usman declared jihad against the Hausa Kings and defeated the kings. Under Usman's leadership, the caliphate conquered Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Southern Niger and most of Northern Nigeria. Ɗan Fodio declined much of the pomp of rulership, and while developing contacts with religious reformists and jihad leaders across Africa, he soon passed actual leadership of the Sokoto state to his son, Muhammed Bello.

He encouraged literacy and scholarship, for women as well as men, and several of his daughters emerged as scholars and writers. His writings and sayings continue to be much quoted today, and are often affectionately referred to as Shehu in Nigeria. Some followers consider ɗan Fodio to have been a mujaddid, a divinely sent "reformer of Islam".John O. Hunwick. "African And Islamic Revival" in ''Sudanic Africa: A Journal of Historical Sources'' : #6 (1995)

Shehu ɗan Fodio's uprising was a major episode of a movement described as the Fula jihads in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. It followed the jihads successfully waged in Futa Bundu, Futa Tooro, and Fouta Djallon between 1650 and 1750, which led to the creation of those three Islamic states. In his turn, the Shehu inspired a number of later West African jihads, including those of Seku Amadu, founder of the Massina Empire, Omar Saidou Tall, founder of the Toucouleur Empire, who married one of ɗan Fodio's granddaughters, and Modibo Adama, founder of the Adamawa Emirate.

Early life

Usman was born in December 1754 and was a Fulani descendant of a Torodbe family that was well established in Hausaland.Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 469. His father Muhammad Fodio was an Islamic scholar. Usman's mother Hauwa is believed to be a direct descendent of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. While Usman was young, he and his family shifted Degel where he studied the Quran. At age 20, he set up his own school in Degel and preached for a stricter observance of Islam.

Soon after, he became well educated in classical Islamic science, philosophy, and theology and also became a revered religious thinker. His teacher, Jibril ibn Umar was a powerful intellectual and religious leader at the time, who was a staunch proponent of Jihad. In 1774, Usman began his itinerant preaching as a ''Mallam'' and continued preaching for twelve years in Gobir and Kebbi, followed by further five years in Zamfara. Among Usman's well-known students include his younger brother Abdullah, the Hausa King Yunfa and many others.

Usman criticized Hausa rulers with his writings, condemning them for enslavement, worshiping idols, sacrificial practices, taxation practices, arbitrary rule and greed. He also insisted on the observance of the Maliki fiqh in personal observances as well as in commercial and criminal law. Usman also denounced the mixing of men and women, pagan customs, dancing at bridal feasts, and inheritance practices contrary to Sharia. He was also influenced by the mushahada or mystical visions he was having. In 1789 a vision led him to believe he had the power to work miracles, and to teach his own mystical '' wird'', or litany. His litanies are still widely practiced and distributed in the Islamic world. In the 1790s, Usman later had visions of Abdul Qadir Gilani, (the founder of the Qadiri tariqah) and an ascension to heaven, where he was initiated into the Qadiriyya and the spiritual lineage of the Prophet. Usman later became head of his Qadiriyya brotherhood calling for the purification of Islamic practices. His theological writings dealt with concepts of the mujaddid (renewer) and the role of the Ulama in teaching history, and other works in Arabic and the Fula language. Usman broke from the royal court and used his influence to secure approval for creating a religious community in his hometown of Degel that would, he hoped, be a model town. He stayed there for 20 years, writing, teaching, and preaching. As in other Islamic societies, the autonomy of Muslim communities under ulama leadership made it possible to resist the state and the state version of Islam in the name of sharia and the ideal caliphate.

Caliphate

Origins and foundation

In 1780–1790s, Usman's reputation increased as he appealed to justice and morality and rallied the outcasts of Hausa society. The Hausa peasants, slaves and preachers supported Usman, as well as the Fulbe and Fulani pastoralists. These pastoralist communities were led by the clerics living in rural communities who were Fulfude speakers and closely connected to the pastoralists. Many of Usman's followers later hold the most important offices of the new states. Usman's jihad served to integrate a number of peoples into a single religious-political movement.Lapidus, pg 470

In 1797–98, King Nafata of Gobir forbade ''Shaykhs'' to preach, wear turbans and veils, prohibited conversions, and ordered converts to Islam to return to their old religion. This was highly resented by Usman who wrote in his book in his book ''Tanbih al-ikhwan 'ala ahwal al-Sudan'' (“''Concerning the Government of Our Country and Neighboring Countries in the Sudan''”) Usman wrote: "The government of a country is the government of its king without question. If the king is a Muslim, his land is Muslim; if he is an unbeliever, his land is a land of unbelievers. In these circumstances it is obligatory for anyone to leave it for another country".

In 1802, Nafata's successor Yunfa, a former student of Usman, turned against him, revoking Degel's autonomy and attempting to assassinate Usman. Yunfa then turned for aid to the other leaders of the Hausa states, warning them that Usman could trigger a widespread jihad. In February 1804, Usman and his followers, carried out a ''hijra'' (migration) to the western grasslands of Gudu, where they turned for help to the local Fulani nomads. Usman's followers entitled him the Commander of the Believers (), and elected him as the leader. They also gave the title ''Sarkin Muslim'' (Head of Muslims) to Usman. In the same year, Usman started the jihad and founded the Sokoto Caliphate. By this time, Usman had assembled a wide following among the Fulani, Hausa peasants and Toureg nomads. This made him a political as well as religious leader, giving him the authority to declare and pursue a jihad, raise an army and become its commander. There were widespread uprisings in Hausaland and its leadership was largely composed of the Fulani and widely supported by the Hausa peasantry, who felt over-taxed and oppressed by their rulers.

Expansion of Islam

After Usman's declaration of Jihad, he gathered an army of Hausa warriors to attack Yunfa's forces in Tsuntua. Yunfa's army, composed of Hausa warrios and Tuareg allies, defeated Usman's forces and killed about 2,000 soldiers, 200 of whom were '' hafiz'' (memorizers of the Quran). Yunfa's victory was short-lived as soon after, Usman captured Kebbi and Gwandu in the following year. At the time of the war, Fulani communications were carried along trade routes and rivers draining into the Niger

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