Sultan Dasuki: 1923-2016 a legend established by history
In a fashion similar to that of Danmasani, Abdullahi Dan Fodio composed wonderful verses in which he described the battle of Tafkin Kwatto, fought on Thursday 12th Rabi ul-awwal 1219 A.H. (June 21st 1804), as an ideological war between the forces of Gobiran unIslamic government and the Mujahiddun who were defending the Islamic faith. The battle, according to Abdullahi, reminds him of the Battle of Badr. So, as the defeat of the Makkan forces under the command of the Prophet to Badr signaled the ultimate triumph of Islam, so was the defeat of the Gobiran forces under his (Abdullahi’s) command expounds the victory of Mujahiddun in establishing adl (justice) in a Caliphate in Kasar Hausa
Kasar Hausa in the early mordern ages
Existing side by side impressive intellectual development was the expansion of the economics of most Hausa states. Geography and states initiatives provide the stimulus for the expansion of economic activities and innovations. There were signs of general economic prosperity in the major Hausa States of Kano, Katsina and Zazzau in the late middle ages. The weather remained relatively consistent no serious shortage of rainfall or inconsistent agricultural production in the Hausa major states throughout the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries. There were also immense developments in inter-state commercial activities and changes in the pattern of the settlements of all the major Hausa States. By the middle of the 17th century, immense economic activities had began to generate rivalry between the Kingdoms of Katsina and Kano, Zamfara and Kebbi over the control of trade routes which often led to conflicts and established war of territorial expansion as key policy to most leaders of the Hausa major states.
For instance, Kasar Kano during the reign of the 38th Sarki Alhaji Kabe (c1743-1753 AD) launched a devastating attack on the country of Gobir the north most of the Hausa state, where Shehu Usman Dan Fodio was born, in Maretta a year after. The succession of Babari to the throne as the result of the violent deposition of Sarkin Gobir Dan Ashshah had, before the Kano invasion of Gobir, generated uncertainties unparalleled in the country’s political history. Babari added to the chaotic political environment in Gobir with the invasion of Birnin Zamfara in In the Sudanese sub-region of Africa, the culmination of decades long intellectual and military preparations into the jihad, which the grand-parents of Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki led, had in the first decade of the nineteenth century, resulted in the establishment of a Caliphate which, for the first time in their history, unified all the Hausa states under the leadership of an amir of the Ummah, Sheik Usman Dan Fodio. c. 1762 A.D, only some 12 years before Shehu Usman Dan Fodio starts his first jihad preaching tour to the country.
In another instance, Bawa Jangwarzo the king of Gobir attacked Katsina in c. 1789. At the time of this attack, Shehu Usman Dan Fodio second tour, which started a year before, was underway in Kasar Kebbi. Jangwarzo died the same year after the attack, and his successor, Yakubu, re-launched another attack a north-western town of Kasar Katsina, Ruma.
The situation in the America and Europe
During these social and political upheavals in Kasar Hausa, the Continental Congress in America declared the independence of the 13 American Colonies in 1776 A.D. During this year the Shehu was about to return from his first preaching tour, to Dagel in Kasar Gobir, form somewhere between Zamfara and Kebbi. The election and the re-election of the United State of America’s first President, George Washington in 1788 and 1792 were held when the Shehu was on his second preaching tour somewhere between Faru and Daura or in the scholastic settlements dispersed across the western boundaries of Kasar Katsina. The third United States general election which resulted in the election of Thomas Jefferson, a Republican, in 1801, was held at a time when the Shehu would have established Dagel as the ideological center of the Jihad in Kasar Hausa.
In Europe, the French Revolution of 1789 happened within the years of the Shehu’s extensive jihad tours and preaching. The unification of German States under German Empire by Prussian Prince, Otto Von Bismarck between 1871 and 1890 was attained more than half a century after the unification of the Hausa States in the Sokoto Caliphate by the Shehu, in 1810 A.D...
The Uli Al - Amr, The Generals, And The Philosophers
By the close of the eighteenth century, Kasar Hausa was indeed, progressing, responding and competing with developments elsewhere. The World, during the period, was ideologically polarized, intellectually busy and militarily charged. In Europe, for instance, Montesquieu c. 1689-1755 and Voltaire 1694-1778 were busy writing to influence the political sense of the France by undermining the Monarchy and the Nobility as expressed in The Spirit of the Law, published c. 1748. John Locke Treaties of Government, published c. 1690, and Rousseau’s Theories on Contract Social, published in 1762, did not only inform the French Revolution, but also the American, in 1776. The documents of American Revolution and the Constitution were based on the ideas preached by Thomas Paine, Locke and Rousseau. Nothing influenced the American public opinion, for self determination, more than the ideas preached by Thomas Paine in the Common Sense, published on the eve of the Declaration of Independence between 1775 and 1776. The ideas of Democracy, that men were born free and equal, and that government depends on the consent of the governed were values preached by Rousseau and Locke. Informed by the theories popularized by these philosophers, the British Parliament enacted the act abolishing slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade, just when the Shehu Usman Dan Fodio, his brother Abdullahi and their supporters were busy consolidating the administration of the Sokoto newly formed Caliphate in 1807.
Africa and indeed the World were militarily charged by the time Shehu Usman Dan Fodio was born in 1754, Dan Fodio started his preaching tour to Sokoto in c. 1794, his contemporary Napoleon Bonaparte, born in c. 1769, invaded Egypt in May 1798. After the occupation of Alexandria, Napoleon matched on to Cairo where, at the Battle of Pyramids, he subdued the Mamluks. By 1807 when the Jihad in Kasar Hausa was at concluding phase, Napoleon invaded and occupied Austria, Russia and Prussia, and went on to subdue much of Europe to France.
In the New World, war had begun even before the declaration of American independence, at Boston on July 4th 1776. Two years later, France recognized the American Independence and declared war on England, in February 1778. Spain, on the other hand, joined the War on the side of England in 1779.
In the Sudanese sub-region of Africa, the culmination of decades long intellectual and military preparations into the jihad, which the grand-parents of Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki led, had in the first decade of the nineteenth century, resulted in the establishment of a Caliphate which, for the first time in their history, unified all the Hausa states under the leadership of an amir of the Ummah, Sheik Usman Dan Fodio.