the time, the ruler of Kano was Sarkin Kano Alwali, who ineffectively tried to contain the movement but miscalculated the ability of Kano troops to isolate the various Fulbe communities and the clan leaders who controlled considerable resources, particularly horses.9 The jihād community very early gained control of Rano, Karaye, Bebeji, Tofa, Aujara, Jahun, Dambarta, and Sankara. Similarly, the Fulbe clans who were settled in western and southern Kano, notably the Jobawa at Utai near Wudil under Malam Bakatsine and his brother Malam Saʿīdu, joined the jihād. In the southwest the Fulbe joined the uprising. The Suleibawa clan, the strongest and most numerous Fulbe faction, was centered at Kiru under Malam Jamau, who was able to control the territory from Kiru to Recifa and Kwassallo in northeastern Zazzau. The Danejawa were centered around Zuwa under Yusufu, also known as Malam dan Zabuwa. Bebeji, due east of Kiru, was under Sarkin Fulani Bebeji. The Ba’awa, whose Yolawa segment was considered the most senior of all the Fulbe clans, were further north under Malam ʿAbdurraḥmān Goshi and Malam Jibir. Due north of Kano at Matsidau and Shiddar were the Dambazawa under Muhammadu Dabo Dambazau. The Yerimawa clan under Malam Mayaki dan Tunku was at Dambarta. Taken together, these clans were strategically located near all the main walled towns in the densely populated countryside of the region around Kano City. In Kano City itself several clerical lineages, including the Modibawa or Mundubawa under Suleimanu and the Gyenawa under Malam Dikoyi and Zarawa, were loyal to Shehu dan Fodio. Besides the strong Fulbe support for the jihād, there were also key Hausa supporters, including those under Malam Usuman. One of the leading Hausa judges (alkali), Yusufu, who was at Kura, the important dyeing center south of Kano, was another of the leading judges. Alkali Yusufu headed a Hausa faction known as Kunjiya.
The battle at Dan Yaya in early 1807 was a crippling defeat for Sarkin Kano Alwali’s forces. Alwali’s attempt to confront the Fulbe clans failed, although even then the jihād was far from victorious. Another battle at Burumburum in southern Kano also resulted in defeat for the Kano government. Alwali was forced to flee north toward Damagaram, where he joined the defeated rulers of Katsina and Daura, Sarkin Katsina dan Kasawa and Sarkin Daura Abdu. Even after Alwali’s flight, large areas of Kano still were not under the effective control of the jihād armies, including the towns of Rano, Dutse, and Birnin Kudu, the districts of Gezawa, Gabazawa, Girke, Babura, Dambarta, and Kumbotso, and the area around Kura. Finally, in April–May 1807, the jihād forces occupied Kano City, and in 1808 Sarkin Kano Alwali died at Burumburum. Sulaymān became the first emir of Kano, succeeded in 1819 by Ibrāhīm Dabo, both of whom were leading Fulbe clan leaders.
In Katsina the jihād movement erupted under Sarkin Katsina Bawa dan Gima, who had succeeded Sarkin Katsina Gozo (1795–1801) upon the latter’s assassination in 1801.10 Bawa was particularly hostile to the jihād movement. After the Shehu’s victory at Tabkin Kwatto in 1804, Sarkin Katsina Bawa openly rejected the Shehu’s appeal for reforms and aggressively sought out the Shehu’s supporters who had joined the movement. Bawa ordered attacks on the jihād supporters in Katsina, particularly targeting Malam Muhammadu na Alhaji, who had been with the Shehu at Kirari. Bawa’s death in 1805 brought Maremawa Muhammadu Tsagarana to the Katsina throne, who continued the active campaign to crush the jihād. In March 1805 Malam Muhammadu na Alhaji, who had been with the Shehu, moved back to Katsina territory to lead the jihād there. Malam ʿUmar Dallaji, who would become the first Fulbe emir of Katsina, joined the jama’a (the Muslim community) at Yantumaki in October 1805. Sarkin Katsina Maremawa Muhammadu and Sarkin Daura Abdu led expeditions into Kano in the dry season of 1805–6 to help confront the jihād there, but their forces were defeated by dan Tunku at Dawakin Girma near the Katsina border. As should be clear, the jihād was fought during the long dry season each year because of the difficulties of travel during the rainy season, when rivers were often swollen and extensive flooding occurred in many places.
In the dry season of 1806–7 the three Katsina leaders were Malam Muhammadu na Alhaji, who died in 1807, ʿUmaru Dumyawa, and ʿUmar Dallaji. Together they launched a campaign against Yandoto, located in southern Katsina between Kano and Zamfara and at the time the leading center of opposition among Muslims. Yandoto had long been a center of Islamic learning in the Hausa states, and the opposition of its ʿulamāʾ (Muslim scholars) had been a serious problem in expanding support for the jihād. Its fall set the stage for the next phase in Katsina, when jihād forces from Zamfara and Kano came to Katsina to assist in defeating the reigning Katsina dynasty in the battle of Dankama, where the Sarkin Katsina was killed. By February–March 1808 ‘Umar Dallaji had moved into Katsina as emir. Nonetheless, the jihād was far from over in Katsina territory; Maska and Gozaki in southern Katsina were subdued only in 1809–10.11
After the protracted siege of Katsina City in 1807, the defeated sarki, Magajin Halidu, fled to Tsirkau in Daura, where he is said to have committed suicide. The new ruler was dan Kasawa, son of a former sarki, who led the Katsinawa north to Damagaram, where they met the defeated ruler of Daura, Abdu. Dan Kasawa spent two years in Zinder but then moved to Gafai, near the boundary between Damagaram and Katsina, where he remained for the next eight to ten years. While dan Kasawa was at Gafai, many Katsina Hausa joined him, although there is no evidence of counterattacks against Katsina during this period. At this time Maradi was the northern province of Katsina, under a Fulani official. Its territory stretched from Tsibiri to Damagaram, north of Fulani-controlled Daura.12 About 1821 dan Kasawa staged a revolt in Maradi with considerable local support and took not only Maradi but also Garabi, Maraka, Ruma, and Zandam, thus freeing a large section of northwestern Katsina from jihād rule. Dan Kasawa received help from Gobir, Daura, and some Tuareg. When he died in 1831, the independence of Maradi had been secured. In 1835 Muhammad Bello inflicted a severe defeat on dan Kasawa’s successor, dan Mari (1835–43) and his Gobir allies, who had also settled at Maradi. The struggle centered on Ruma, which the jihād forces turned into a wilderness. Athough the Gobir forces were at Maradi, they agreed to move to a nearby location, Tsibiri, a few kilometers west of Maradi. Despite repeated attempts, Caliph ʿAliyu Babba (1842–59) of Sokoto failed to take Tsibiri and Maradi, and thereafter Maradi posed a continuing threat to the caliphate. Under the leadership of dan Baskore (1854–75), Maradi allegedly conducted eighty-three raids against caliphate territory.13 This vulnerability to sudden raiding continued for the rest of the century, necessitating the maintenance of walled towns throughout Katsina, Zamfara, Kano, and northern Zaria.
In Daura, Malam Ishi’aku became the jihād leader; he had taught the children of the reigning Daura monarch, Sarkin Gwari ʿAbdū, but when the jihād broke out, he went to Degel to be with the Shehu.14 He was given a flag with instructions to pursue the jihād in Daura. When Daura fell in the dry season of 1805–6, Sarkin Gwari and the Hausa leadership retreated to Damagaram and eventually established two independent enclaves, one at Zango and the other at Baure. ʿAbdū had been given the name Sarkin Gwari because he married a Gwari woman; it was a nickname of contempt. When the exiled Katsina sarki committed suicide at Tsirkau, a Daura vassal town, the Daura forces were forced to retreat to Damagaram with the exiles from Katsina. Sarkin Gwari had appealed to Borno for aid, but none came, allegedly because of famine in Borno. Thereafter, ʿAbdū’s whereabouts are a bit confusing; he spent nine years at Miriya before moving to Falke, Babban Ruwa, and finally Kalgo, where he remained for four years. The court continued to migrate, settling at Sallewa ta Kuykuyo for six years and six months. Then ʿAbdū moved to Yekuwa, about forty kilometers east of Daura City, where he marshaled sufficient support to reestablish control over much of Daura territory. He died there, probably in 1825–26, and was succeeded by his brother, Lukudi, who reigned from 1825 to 1854, initially jointly with Nūḥu, the son of Sarkin Gwari ʿAbdū, who succeeded fully in his own right in 1854. As is clear from this chronology, the exiled government of Daura preserved the state structure but had no firm capital and no firm territorial base.
In Zaria, ʿUthmān dan Fodio’s circular letter calling on the Hausa governments to reform reached Sarkin Zazzau Isiaku Jatau in July 1804.15 Isiaku accepted the Shehu’s appeal, but when he died in November 1806, his son and successor, Makau, repudiated the agreement. The Shehu then appointed Malam Mūsā to lead the jihād in Zaria with the support of troops from Zamfara and elsewhere. Malam Mūsā
