Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio and the Revival
of Islam in Hausaland - 2

[ Preamble]   [ The Milieu ]   [Birth, Studies & Career ]    [The Phase of Teaching and Public Da'awah ]   [Phase of Organising and Planning ]   [Phase of Hijra and Jihad ]   [Phase of Victory and Establishment of Caliphate ]   [Shaykh Uthman's Contribution & Ideas ]  [Impact of the Shaykh Beyond the Sokoto Caliphate ]  [Concluding Remarks ]  The Milieu Hausaland, where Shaykh Uthman was destined to live and thrive, was located in the middle of what early Muslim historians called the Bilad al-Sudan, which is the vast Savannah grassland stretching from Sene-Gambia in West Africa to the Red Sea in the east. Islam had spread in to this region since the eighth century. Prior to the spread of Islam, the region had been linked with North Africa by the trans-Saharan trade routes that brought manufactured goods from the Mediterranean region and the world beyond in exchange for Gold which appeared to have been in abundance. With the spread of Islam in the region the trans-Saharan trade routes increased and as trade grew, intra-regional routes developed, spreading Islam further into the region. As Islam spread, literacy developed, communication and security improved, increasing traffic and boosting commerce, paving the way for social integration and the development of complex urban societies. Thus the ancient kingdom of Ghana emerged in the 11th century and lasted until the 13th, when it gave way the bigger empire of Mali. By the 15th century the Songhay empire had emerged to replace Mali and lasted until the 17th when it disintegrated into smaller chiefdoms, having been invaded in 1596 by a Moroccan regime desperate for Gold. To the east of Songhay and in the middle of this vast region was the Hausaland, a loose confederation of small but independent states. To the east of the Hausa states, as they are often called, was the Kanem-Borno empire, as old as Ghana, but unlike Ghana, survived until the 19th century. These Kingdoms and empires were essentially Muslim states fashioned very much along the Muslim states of North Africa. Their leaders were in the habit of making pilgrimage, usually through Egypt, and bringing back books and artisans. Their students attended the famous educational institutions around the Muslim world, like al-Azhar were many of these states had hostels for their students and made annual grants to maintain them. The region itself developed centres of learning and received scholars of international repute like the Algerian Shaykh al-Maghili. Borno was famous for the study of the Qur’an and its capital attracted many scholars and became a seat of learning. Timbuktu in Songhay was famous as a city of scholars and its Sankore mosque became a great centre of learning for the region very much like Azhar in North Africa. Similarly, in Hausaland, cities like Katsina and Zaria had reputations that went beyond the region and attracted scholars. The Moroccan invasion of Songhay and the rustication of Timbuktu, the principal centre of learning, threw the region into confusion from which it never recovered until after the Jihad led by Shaykh Uthman b. Fodio at the beginning of the 19th century. The destruction of Sankore and the absence of the restraining force of the state of Songhay brought down the tempo of learning and threw the neighbouring Hausa states into inter state internecine warfare, with predictable effects on security and commerce. This insecurity, poor revenue and decline in learning, combined to frustrate the compliance with the Sharia as increasingly desperate kings used all means available to win battles and remain in power. This also gave a receding paganism chance to stage a come back as ignorance took its toll. It was in this chaos and confusion, decadence and oppression and increasing anxiety of a beleaguered citizenry that Shaykh Uthman was born.