THE IMPACT OF THE 19th CENTURYJIHAD IN KANO

Abstract

This article discusses the general impact of Usman Dan Fodio Jihad of 19 century in Hausa land, the study in Kano emirate Islamic religion originated in Mecca at the year 610 A.D and by the year 622 A.D. an exile Islamic government was established in the neighboring city of Medina. By the year 630 A.D. Mecca was conquered by the Muslims after series of battles between the two forces and Islam was fully established in Mecca and Medina region. By the 7" century, the Islamic Jihad in North Africa under Uqbah Bin Nafiq was halted after recalling the borders of Kanem Borrnu. By the 10" century A.D. Islam had started to find its ways to West Africa through trade relations and by the 12th century A.D. Islam began to grow steadily in the western Sudaese society and expanded west wards. There wasn't Jihad in the introduction of Islam in West Africa because the great Sahara desert seamed to prevent that. In the Nigeria region, the first place to receive Islamic influence was Borno area as mentioned earlier through trade relation. Islam began to find its ways into Hausa land through the Sahara desert from NorthWestern part of Hausa land which was under some influence of Songhai Empire was the first area to get the direct Islam influence. Songhai Empire suddenly collapsed after Moccon invasion. The effect of the collapse of the Songhai empire on Hausa land, was that scholarship and economic activities of the area shipted to Hausa land and Borno. Islam first reach Kano since early 14th century and there is evidence to show that by 1500 A.D. some rulers of Gobir, Zazzau, Katsina and other areas were Muslims. By the 16" century, Ahmed Baba, a Tumbuktu base Hausa scholar confirmed that Kano, Katsina and Borno were Muslim states in the 16th century. As Islamic religion grew in Hausa society, it gradually undermined Hausa traditional political system, economic and social values.