Uthman Dan Fodio

Shehu Usman dan Fodio (; full name; 15 December 1754 – 20 April 1817). (Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Saalih ibn Haarun ibn Muhammad Ghurdu ibn Muhammad Jubba ibn Muhammad Sambo ibn Maysiran ibn Ayyub ibn Buba Baba ibn Musa Jokolli ibn Imam Dembube`) was a Fulani scholar, Islamic religious teacher, poet, revolutionary and a philosopher who founded the Sokoto Caliphate and ruled as its first caliph.

After the successful revolution, the "Jama'a" gave him the title Amir al-Mu'minin (commander of the faithful). He rejected the throne and continued calling to Islam.

Born in Gobir, Usman was a descendant of 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 territories that would later become parts of independent 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. This revolution influenced other rebellions across West Africa and beyond. 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 them. Under Usman's leadership, the caliphate expanded into present-day 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 dan Fodio's uprising was a major episode of a movement described as the jihad 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 and Omar Saidou Tall, founder of the Toucouleur Empire, who married one of ɗan Fodio's granddaughters.

Early life

Lineage and childhood

Usman Danfodio belongs to the generation of wandering scholars who started settling in Hausaland since the 1300-1400s, some 400–500 years before the Jihad Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 469. The Sheikh's ancestors were Toronkawa who migrated from Futa Tooro in the 1300s under the leadership of Musa Jokollo. Musa Jokollo is the 11th grandfather of the Shehu. There were 11 generations between Musa Jokollo and Shehu Danfodio.

Abdullahi dan Fodio stated that the Torankawa (Turubbi/Torobe) have Arab ancestry through one Uqba who married a Fulani woman called Bajjumangbu. Muhammed Bello was not sure if it was Uqba ibn Nafi, Uqba ibn Yasir or Uqba ibn Amir. Usman dan Fodio's mother Hauwa is believed to be a direct descendant of Muhammad as she was descended from Maulay Idris I, the first Emir of Morocco, who was the great-grandchild of Hasan, grandson of Muhammad. Ahmadu Bello, the first Premier of Northern Nigeria and great-grandson of Muhammed Bello, also said this in his autobiography, tracing his family's connection to Muhammad through Hauwa and Muhammad Fodio.

The Toronkawa first settled in a village called Konni on the borders of Bornu Empire