Impact of Da'wah Activities of Shaykh Uthman Bn Foduwe, the Fall Of
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IAR Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies ISSN Print : 2709-3328 | ISSN Online : 2709-3336 Frequency : Bi-Monthly Language : English Origin : Kenya Website : https://www.iarconsortium.org/journal-info/iarjhcs Research Article Impact of Da’wah Activities of Shaykh Uthman Bn Foduwe, the fall of Birnin Kebbi and the Emergence Gwandu Emirate Article History Abstract: The paper examines how the Da’wah activities of Shaikh Uthman bn Fodiyo leads to the conquest of Birnin Kebbi, the capital city of Kebbi Kingdom, Received: 22.05.2021 in April 1805. The event had unique position in the history of the 1804 Jihad and Revision: 01.06.2021 the subsequent emergence of Gwandu Emirate. The territory served as a military Accepted: 10.06.2021 base from where the Jihad activities were carried out between 1805 and 1809. The Published: 20.06.2021 historic event further gave birth to new Islamic system of governance in the territory of Kebbi Kingdom and the establishment of Sokoto Caliphate. Author Details Dr Aminu Alhaji Bala*1 and Buhari Keywords: Da‟wah, Kebbi Kingdom, 1804 Jihad, Gwandu Emirate and Bello2 Northern Nigeria. Authors Affiliations 1Department of Islamic Studies, Faculty of INTRODUCTION Arts and Islamic Studies Usmanu Danfodiyo The main focus of this paper is to discuss and trace the historical University, Sokoto, Nigeria 2Kebbi State Arabic &Islamic Education background of the area that gave birth to Gwandu Emirate out of Kebbi Board Kingdom, and the religious practices and condition of people in the area, Corresponding Author* which necessitated the Da’awa activities of Shaykh Uthman bn Fodiyo Dr Aminu Alhaji Bala before the fall of Birnin Kebbi. The paper will also portray the structure of administration that existed in the Kingdom before the period of How to Cite the Article: nineteenth century, and how Shaykh‟s Da’awa facilitated in reforming Aminu Alhaji Bala & Buhari Bello. (2021); Impact of Da’wah Activities of Shaykh Uthman Bn the Kebbi people and provide Islamic polity known as Gwandu Emirate Foduwe, the fall of Birnin Kebbi and the Emergence to govern larger part of Kebbi kingdom. Gwandu Emirate. IAR J Human Cul. Stud. 2(3) 7-17 Copyright @ 2021: This is an open-access article An over view of Gwandu Emirate Carve out of Kebbi Kingdom distributed under the terms of the Creative Towards the end of eighteenth century the people of Kebbi kingdom, Commons Attribution license which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction whose political structure existed for almost three centuries, was in in any medium for non commercial use condition of decay and the situation had necessitated for reform which (NonCommercial, or CC-BY-NC) provided the leads to the Da‟awa activity of Shaykh Uthman bn Fodiyo not only in original author and source are credited. Kebbi Kingdom but in the whole of hausa land, leading to the emergence of a new polity after the fall of Birnin Kebbi in 1805 at Gwandu. The word Gwandu is interchangeably used as an appellation to both entire western part of Sokoto caliphate in the nineteenth century and the town of Gwandu, but according to Abubakar Aliyu Gwandu “the word Gwandu is a derivation from a Hausa word gandu, meaning royal farmlands.” He described the farmland area to be originally Kotal Kanta‟s farmland. Therefore, the head farmer, Sarkin noma of Kanta‟s farm established this village, and it grew as a big settlement called Gwandu.1 But, according to another source it‟s a derivation from a Fulfulde word “QANDU meaning a valley”2 it also appeared in Tazyin al warqat of Shaykh Abd Allah Foduye as QANDU.3 Today Birnin Kebbi is the Emirate Headquarters of Gwandu and the capital of Kebbi state Nigeria. Gwandu territory before nineteenth century was under the powerful Kingdom of Kebbi which appeared as early as sixteenth century.4 This powerful kingdom had been a province in the Songhai Empire until its ruler Kotal Kanta rebelled against Askia, after he has built his own local power on the Kebbi River at Surame, his capital. Under the Kanta, Kebbi was powerful enough to withstand and counter-attack an empire as powerful as Bornu.5 Therefore, Kanta‟s powers control the region during the reign of Mai Ali of Bornu6. At the peak of its power, Kebbi stretched from Aghades in the 1 Gwandu A.A, “Abdullahi B. Fodio As A Muslim Jurist” PhD. Thesis , School of Oriental studies Elvet Hill, Durham, 1977, P.56. 2 Gwandu Emirate, Gwadu The Domain Of Abdullahi,( ed.) S.A Birnin Kebbi and H.S Kende, Birnin Kebbi, Almudathir Innovative concept, 2007, p.1. 3 Abdullahi B. Muhammad Foduye, Tazyin Al-Warqat, (ed.) And Trans., M.Hisket, Ibadan, University press,1963, P.80. 4 Last M., The Sokoto Caliphate, London, Longman Group limited, 1977, p.lxiv. 5 Ibid, p.lxv. 6 Ibid, p.lxv. 7 Aminu Alhaji Bala & Buhari Bello; IAR J Human Cul Stud; Vol-2, Iss- 3 (May-Jun, 2021): 7-17 north to areas of Oyo and Ibadan in the South; and from Zazzau in the east to Gurma, and the eastern Songhai to Tera in the west.7 Surame, the capital of Kebbi kingdom, was destroyed in the early eighteenth century by a Tuareg leader Aqabba of Ahir, who launched an attack that led to the death of Sarkin Kebbi Hammadu (Ahmadu).8 The inhabitants of the capital moved about sixty miles downstream west to Birnin Kebbi.9 Religious Condition of the People of Kebbi before Nineteenth Century. Religion as a universal need is very central and influential in all facets of lives of the people. According to Dennis, while defining religion, he states that: Religion and religious ideas are related to the universal human need to make sense of the world we live in. These ideas are therefore central to our understanding of our society and how it works. It follows that religious ideas will play a crucial role in determining how people explain and react to change in their society, influencing the direction in which their society will continue to change.10 Religion and religious ideas of the Hausa people is paganism and they continued to retain their traditional pagan religious belief before the introduction and spread of Islam in Hausaland. Bugaje maintained that Paganism, otherwise called, traditional religion provided the Hausa people a belief system and interpretation of the mysteries of life. This traditional religious system revolved around a belief in a high distant god (Ubangiji), who is not actively connected with everyday life of men, and is supplemented by a chain of supernatural forces (Iskoki) directly in touch with men and controlling their destiny in everyday life. The natural resources such as agricultural land, forest, rivers, iron ore and salt deposits are believed to be in the custody of these Iskoki.11 Kebbi communities like other people of Hausaland are not an exception in terms of religious activity before the arrival of Islamic religion in the region. The religious practice of Hausaland after the arrival of Islam was also corrupted as classified by Shaykh Uthman bn Fodiyo in his book Nurul Al-bab12 in which he highlighted that the people could be grouped into three classes; the pure Muslims who practice the religion in accordance with Islamic injunctions and with them, there was no act of disbelief which was contrary to the practice of Islam or from their utterances what contradict the Islamic Faith. The second groups are those who mix Islam with syncretism and were also found among the Muslim group, they mix-up Islamic practice with un-Islamic customs or were found in their utterances something which clearly shows some kind of contradictions in their Islamic belief and they are described as unbelievers according to this classification. While the third group, according to the Dan Fodiyo’s classifications are the Pagans who practice traditional religion, who were born unbelievers and they did not claim to be Muslims.13 Shaykh Muhammad Bello also in his book Infaq al-maysur outline the various groups in Hausaland, he states: It is hardly to find in these towns (Hausaland) one whose faith and mode of worship is authentic, except very few and it is hardly to find in their majority, one who knows Tauhid (Islamic monotheism): Among them were unbelievers who worshiped trees and Jinns, they proclaim on themselves unbelief, they neither pray nor fast or give poor due, they insult god and state what is not suitable to Him. These are the majority people of Sudanese known as maguzawa (idolators) 14 Therefore, pagan practice has predated Islamic religion in the area under review and it was observed in the following condition. 7 Gwandu A.A, Op. cit, p. 6. 8 Alkali M.B, ” A Hausa Community in Crisis: Kebbi in the Nineteenth Century” M.A Dissertation, A.B.U Zaria, 1969, p.80. 9 Last M, Op. cit, p.lxv. 10 C. Dennis, “The Role of Religion in Social Change”, in S. Afonja, and O. Pearce (ed), Social Change in Nigeria, Longman Press, Ibadan, 1986, p. 139. 11 F. Fuglestad “A Reconsideration Of Hausa History before the Jihad”, J. A.H. 19, 3 (1978), p. 322. 12 Uthman b. Foduye, Nural Albab, Sokoto,Dan Ige Tsamiyar yaro printing,nd. 13 Ibid. 14 Muhammad Ballo, Infaq al-Maysur fi Tarikh Bilad al-Takrur, (ed.) Whittings C.E.J., Luzac and Company, London, 1951, p. 28. (Translation mine.) 8 Aminu Alhaji Bala & Buhari Bello; IAR J Human Cul Stud; Vol-2, Iss- 3 (May-Jun, 2021): 7-17 Traditional Religion The Pagan practice or traditional beliefs are present in Hausaland from time immemorial and the main characteristic of these Pagans who practice traditional religions or beliefs as the paying or showing some kind of reverence for a number of spirits localized particularly in Trees, Stones, Wells and Rivers.15 In the era of traditional religion, prior to the coming of Islam, the Kebbi people were known to have two major religions as highlighted by Hanafi: Spiritual religion and Ancestral religion.16 The Kebbi people who practices spiritual religion long before the coming of Islamic religion in the area observed an intensive devotional activities and sacrifices to various object of worship.