The African Caliphate

The book under review, divided into fourteen (14) chapters with Foreword and Introduction, makes an interesting reading and captures well Shaykh Dan Fodio’s life, movement and legacy. .

Chapter One lays the foundation by discussing the presence of Islam before Dan Fodio’s activities in Hausaland. The region hosted outstanding ulema such as Muhammad Abba ibn [Abd al-Karm al-Maghili at-Tilimsani as far back as in the ninth Islamic century/fifteenth century A.D. Al-Maghili, who lived in Kano and Katsina among others, wrote treatises on government and establishment of laws. (p.21) The book should have attempted to trace the history of the two outstanding scholars, Muhammad Danmarna and Muhammad Danmasani, who lived in Katsina, a town which was considered at that time to be the centre of Islamic learning in Hausaland. The problem in Hausaland, therefore, was not the absence of Islam but the mixture of Islam and shirk, in the name of Islam. There were also injustices in governance by the Hausa rulers even though they claimed to be Muslims and often with a stamp of authority by official ulema. Thus Islam required a tajdid and that was what Dan Fodio proceeded to do.