Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio and the Revival
of Islam in Hausaland - 6

[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 ]  Phase of Hijra and Jihad Shaykh Uthman and the Jama’a at Degel left for Gudu on the 12th of dhul Qada 1218 / February 1804. No sooner did the Shaykh arrived Gudu, joined by trickles of his Jama’a, the jihad began. The strategy of the Hausa rulers, it seemed, was not to allow the Jama’a any time and to route them before they gather some formidable force which they seemed capable of harnessing. As they sensed the first attack, the Jama’a, in Gudu, quickly made bay’ah to Shaykh Uthman, as their imam and amir al-mu’minin. A detachment of Gobir army, which had been on their heels, attacked this meagre number of ill-equipped members of the Jama’a. The Jama’a fought back and routed the Gobir forces seizing booty, food and equipment which augmented their scanty provisions and thus the jihad started. For the next two years the Jama’a had to be on the move without a permanent base. It was not until April of 1806 they managed to take over the state of Kebbi and made a permanent base of the capital, Birnin Kebbi. As the jihad started rather earlier than expected and because of the perils on the routes many members couldn’t join the Jama’a at Gudu. But perhaps just as well, for delegations were made to the Shaykh by the Jama’a in different states seeking permission to carry out jihad in their area. These permissions were given along with a symbolic flag which the leaders take back to their states and fought the Jihad. This way the whole of Hausa states and parts of neighbouring Borno was turned in to a battle field. The jihad went on until about 1808 when, with the defeat of Gobir, the strongest military power, the jihad, in the main came to an end with Jama’a emerging victorious. Needless to say this victory was far from easy and it was not without heavy losses of men, some of the fine and precious men the Jama’a had nurtured over some three decades. Their loss left a scar on the psyche of the leaders of the Jama’a, some of them like Abdullahi never appeared to have recovered from the trauma of these losses. On the other hand, as the Jama’a began to get the upper hand of the jihad their ranks were suddenly swollen by the large number of fence sitters who were waiting to see which way the fortunes were turning before making up their minds. While this may have augmented their fighting force, it did dilute their discipline and this worried one of the most senior commander, Shaykh Abdullahi and at a stage it made him sick and for a while he contemplated deserting the army to go to some far place like Makka and Madina. One other thing that made their job more difficult was that having to go into confrontation apparently earlier than expected, the Jama’a had not really made provisions for taking over the administration of Hausaland, yet as the different states fell in to their hands, they had to immediately take over and begin an Islamic administration. Though in general terms they had an idea, they had never gotten to the nitty-gritty of it. Thus soon after the jihad had taken off and even as they had no permanent base, the leaders of the Jama’a had to, in between battles, write manuals to guide the various commanders on the correct conduct of the jihad, the division of booty and establishment and running of a state according to Islam. That was how the Shaykh’s Bayan Wujub al-Hijra ala al-Ibad, completed in Ramadan 1221/November 1806 in B/kebbi came to be written. Adullahi’s Tazyin al-Waraqat, which more than any of their writings captured, sometimes graphically, the running battles and the mood of the jihad was similarly written in between battles. Abdullahi had to chip in with his Diya’ Ul al-Amr wa-al-Mujahideen to guide field commanders who, having won the battles had to face the greatest challenge yet, translating the ideal they had fought for in to reality. They learnt the hard way that it was all too easy to be in the opposition.