Sokoto

Sokoto stands near the meeting of the Sokoto and Rima rivers in the western Hausa country. The town became the political centre of a vast Islamic state, linking scholars and rulers across the savanna. Its court, mosques and markets grew around a movement of religious reform that transformed the political landscape of West Africa.

In 1804 the scholar Usman dan Fodio and his followers began a jihad against the rulers of Gobir. Their victories led to the establishment of a caliphate encompassing much of Hausaland and neighbouring regions. His son Muhammad Bello founded Sokoto in 1809, and after Usman’s death the city became the principal seat of the caliphate. Bello was himself a scholar and writer, and the new capital became a centre of Islamic learning as well as government.