Usman dan Fodio

Page of the book by Osman dan Fodio in Timbuktu

Usman dan Fodio , name in Fula Usuman ɓii Foduye (in Haussa Shehu Uthman Dan Fuduye , Arabic عثمان بن فودي ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī , DMG ʿUṯmān ibn Fūdī , * 1754 in Maratta, Nigeria ; † 1817 in Sokoto ), was a military and religious leader of the Qādirīya - Tariqa from the Fulbe peopleand founder of the Caliphate of Sokoto . It is commonlyknownin West Africa as the Shehu , a titlederivedfrom the Arabic term sheikh .

Usman dan Fodio came from the Torodi clan of the Fulani and was a direct descendant of Mūsā Dschukulla, who had led the Torodi from the area of ​​the Futa Toro in Senegal eastward to the area of Birni-N'Konni in the 16th century . After studying with his uncle ʿUthmān Bindūrī for two years, he joined the Sudanese scholar Jibrīl ibn ʿUmar . In 1188 dH (1774/5 AD) he began "to call people to religion". Another visit followed in 1786 together with his brother Abdullahi dan Fodio, who was twelve years his junior, to Sheikh Jibrīl ibn ʿUmar in Kude.

In 1794 Usman had a vision in which the Prophet Mohammed and the saint ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī appeared to him and bestowed the "sword of truth" on him. At first he appeared as a religious reformer who wanted to erase popular beliefs from the Islamic faith of his people. In 1804 he declared a jihad , as its leader he defeated a Haussa army in the same year . In the following years Usman conquered most of the Haussa states and created a Fulani Empire in northern Nigeria, also known as the Sokoto Caliphate . He chose the city of Kano as his seat of power . As part of his jihad, in 1806 he commissioned his student Modibo Adama with conquests; Adama founded the emirate of Adamaua and remained loyal to Usman as the overlord. In 1808 and 1810 Usman suffered defeats against the kingdoms of Bornu and Kanem .

After Usman's death, his empire was split in two. Nominal ruler over both parts was his son Mohammed Bello . His daughter Nana Asma'u was an important poet and champion of women's education.

literature

• ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad : Tazyīn al-waraqāt . Edited with a translation and introductory study by M. Hiskett. Ibadan University Press, Hertford, 1963.
• FH El-Masri: "The Life of Shehu Usuman dan Fodio before the Jihād" in Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 2 (1963) 435-448. Here pp. 437–439.
• Leonhard Harding : Jihad and the beginning of a new era. Uthman dan Fodio and the turning point at the beginning of the 19th century. In: Sven Sellmer, Horst Brinkhaus (Ed.): Turning times. Historical breaks in Asian and African societies. EB-Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930826-64-X ( Asia and Africa. Volume 4), pp. 15-37.
• Mervyn Hiskett: The Sword of Truth. The Life and Times of the Shehu Usuman dan Fodio. Oxford University Press, New York a. a. 1973, ISBN 0-19501-647-5 .
• Omar Kane: Othman Dan Fodio. Fondateur de l'empire de Sokoto. ABC, Paris a. a. 1976, ISBN 2-85809-047-5 .
• DM Last Art. "ʿUthmān b. Fūdī" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. X, pp. 949b-951a.

Web links

Usman Muhammad Bugaje: A comparative study of the movements of Uthman dan Fodio in early nineteenth century Hausaland and Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi in late nineteenth century Sudan. University of Khartoum, December 1981 ( Memento of May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.79 MB) Usman Muhammad Bugaje: The contents, methods and impact of Shehu Usman dan Fodio's teachings (1774–1804). University of Khartoum, March 1979 ( Memento from April 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 414 kB)

supporting documents

1. ↑ Cf. Hiskett in his introduction to ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad: Tazyīn al-waraqāt . 1963. p. 5.
2. ↑ See El-Masri: "The Life of Shehu Usuman dan Fodio before the Jihād". 1963, p. 437.
3. ↑ Cf. ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad: Tazyīn al-waraqāt . 1963, p. 85.