Dori

Dori lies in Liptako, a dry Sahelian country west of the Niger bend. It became a market town and the seat of a Fulbe emirate, bringing together pastoral communities, farmers and merchants from the surrounding plains. Water and grazing are scarce in much of Liptako, and the movement of herds follows the rains. In the early nineteenth century a Fulbe religious movement established an emirate centred on Dori. Its founder is remembered as Ibrahim Sayfu, although accounts of the early history differ. The emirate formed part of a wider period of Islamic political change across the western Sudan. Dori remained an important trading centre as its rulers dealt with neighbouring peoples and powers.