who was not from the area, but apparently the Shehu did not think that there was any local Fulbe leader in Zaria with the credentials to confront the Hausa dynasty. There were several Fulbe lineages located in Zaria territory; near present-day Kaduna were the Bornawa, led by Yamusa and his brother Bapaiyo and the Suleibawa, under Malam Kilba and his son Audusallami. There were other Suleibawa at Kwassallo and Ricifa to the northeast of Zaria. Mūsā was successful in fashioning a coalition and defeated Makau in December 1808, forcing the Hausa government to retreat southward, where Makau established a new base at Abuja. Malam Mūsā ruled at Zaria until his death in 1821.
The Zaria jihād affected a wide region largely to the south of Birnin Zaria. Vassal towns were conquered or established at Keffi, Jema’a, Doma, and later Kwotto, southeast of Keffi. Lere was founded to the east of Zaria, while the non-Muslim Gwari of Kuriga were subdued. Other vassal states in the south included Kajura and Kauru; in the west were Gwari at Lapai and Kusheriki. Karigi had a similar status in the north of Zaria. Zaria forces raided as far as Wukari in Jukun country. Initially Zaria ruled Lapai and Lafia, but at local request to Sokoto, Lafia was transferred to Bauchi, and Lapai was later placed under Bida.
The death of Malam Mūsā created a succession crisis that was resolved through the intervention of Sokoto. Over the course of the rest of the century, four different Zaria factions came to power, effectively rotating the emirship. The four lineages were the different Fulbe lineages, the Bornawa, Suleibawa, Katsinawa, and Mūsā’s family, known as the Mallawa. Yamusa of the Bornawa, who ruled from 1821 to 1834, emerged as the strongest Fulbe leader under Mūsā, and by the end of Mūsā’s rule they were running the state almost jointly. Mūsā never assumed the title of emir, governing simply as malam, or cleric, and shunning the title of emir or sarki. Yamusa continued this tradition, which differed from those in all the other emirates. The chief opposition was Jaye of the Suleibawa, who became madaki, and the presumed successor, and when he died, his son Hamada became madaki and the chosen successor. On the death of Yamusa, the succession had to go either to the Mallawa or the Bornawa, but to avoid conflict, the decision on succession was referred to Sokoto, and Muhammad Bello selected ʿAbdulkarīm of the Katsinawa lineage as a compromise candidate.
By attacking the Hausa dependencies of Borno, the jihād leadership was on a collision course with Borno itself, which had been the imperial overlord of Katsina, Daura, Kano, and Zazzau. As previously noted, Borno was ineffective in providing support for any of the regimes in those states and also was far from successful in stemming the eastward drift of jihād into Borno territory or to its south into Mandara and the Benue River basin.16 A titled official, Galadima Dunama, located at Nguru, administered the western portions of Borno and the large district that would become portions of the emirates of Hadejia, Katagum, Jema’are, and Misau. There were three principal Fulbe leaders in the area: Bi Abdur, Lerlima, and Ibrāhīm Zaki. Bi Abdur was centered near Hadejia and was a functionary under Galadima Dunama, but he sent his brother to the Shehu to get a flag, probably in 1805. They attacked Hadejia and Auyo to the southwest of Hadejia and drove Dunama from Nguru in 1807. To the south, the Fulbe were centered at Deya under two learned men, al-Bukhārī, who died before hostilities began, and Goni Mukhtār, who then assumed the leadership of the southern Fulbe. Mai Aḥmad, the ruler of Borno, sent several expeditions under his official, the Kaigama, in an attempt to subjugate Goni Mukhtār, but the Borno forces were defeated each time. Mai Ahmad then issued a drastic decree ordering all Fulbe in Borno to be killed, which prompted a Fulbe exodus in great numbers toward the south and west. Other Fulbe from Borno joined Buba Yero, who had already been conquering larger areas of what became Bauchi and Gombe even before the jihād had begun. At this point, according to Louis Brenner, ʿUthmān dan Fodio was not fully aware that the Fulbe in western Borno had staged an uprising against Mai Ahmad.17 In Infāq al-Maysūr, Bello’s account of the jihād, Borno receives scant mention in this period.
Mai Ahmad sent repeated expeditions against those Fulbe under Bi Abdur and Lerlima and also against Goni Mukhtār. Lerlima was overcome, but Bi Abdur not only repulsed the Borno attacks but also succeeded in killing the Galadima. Thereupon the Fulbe forces made deep raids into Borno, spreading terror and destruction and creating countless refugees. When Bi Abdur died in early 1808, Ibrāhīm Zaki became the leader of the Fulbe forces and mounted a campaign to take the Borno capital at Birni Ngazargamu. Although the first assault was repulsed, he succeeded in taking the city late in 1808, ransacking the palace and sending an enormous amount of booty to Sokoto. According to Brenner, “All the territory west and south of Birni Gazargamu had been laid waste.”18 Mai Aḥmad was forced to flee and regroup. In doing so, he turned to Muhammad al-Amīn b. Muhammad al-Kānimī, who was a respected scholar residing at Ngala, southwest of Lake Chad. Mai Aḥmad was now old, and unwisely going against the custom that prevented succession until after the death of the mai, he passed the kingship to his son, Dunama (not to be confused with the deceased Galidima of Nguru). Aḥmad died a few months later, but the consequences of the unusual transfer of power would affect Borno politics subsequently because it could be considered an illegal measure. In approaching Muhammad al-Kānimī, Dunama effectively admitted that his government could not survive without additional leadership. Al-Kānimī had spent the first years of his life in Murzuk in the Sahara and had studied in Tripoli. In the 1790s he went on pilgrimage with his father, who died before they could return. Al-Kānimī remained in the East for about ten years and returned to Borno through Wadai and Darfur. His ascendancy in Borno rested on the recognition of his status as an al-ḥājj, having returned from pilgrimage to Mecca, and as a learned scholar and teacher.
When al-Kānimī became involved in Borno politics in 1809, the jihād had already spread to the region of Ngala and Mandara, Borno’s southern province. Muhammad Wabi was the Fulbe leader in the Ngala area and joined the jihād, but al-Kānimī defeated him in battle. Al-Kānimī was then asked to help liberate Birni Ngazargamu in early 1809, which was accomplished, and the Fulbe leader Goni Mukhtār was killed. Mai Dunama then had to pacify the countryside to the west of Birni Ngazargamu that had been destroyed. By then, Ibrāhīm Zaki’s capital was at Katagum, now one of the emirates under Sokoto. Ibrāhīm Zaki not only repulsed Mai Dunama’s army but also forced Borno’s retreat eastward, while Goni Mukhtār’s son and successor, Muhammad Manga, regrouped the Fulbe to the south. Nonetheless, by this time al-Kānimī had become the principal supporter of Mai Dunama and was given an extensive fief in the Ngurno area, with its largely Kanembu population, as a reward. Al-Kānimī also had wide appeal among Shuwa Arabs.
Because of Dunama’s failure to stem the jihād, his court organized a coup d’état, claiming that his succession had been illegal, and instead installed his uncle, Muhammad Ngileruma, who then built a capital at Birni Kafela, only a few kilometers from Ngurno, al-Kānimī’s stronghold. However, Ngileruma was on the throne for only three or four years before al-Kānimī deposed him and reappointed Dunama as mai. Al-Kānimī was then given even more land stretching from Ngala to Ngurno, which consolidated his position among a following that was largely non-Kanuri but included Kanembu, Shuwa, Tibu, Tuareg, and Bagirmi, the main subordinate populations in the Borno state. Under al-Kānimī’s leadership, Borno was able to remain independent of the Sokoto jihād, but at considerable cost. The Sayfawa dynasty in the end was eliminated, with al-Kānimī and then his son becoming supreme ruler with the title of Shehu, the honorific by which ʿUthmān dan Fodio was also known. Moreover, the capital of Borno was eventually moved from Birni Kafela to Kukawa, which al-Kānimī had founded in 1814.19
The removal of the Zaria dynasty to Abuja to the south near the confluence of the Niger and the Benue Rivers coincided with the outbreak of jihād in Nupe in 1810–12. ʿUthmān dan Fodio recognized the Nupe cleric ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nufawi also known as dan Tsatsa (d. 1829), as the leader by issuing him a flag. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān visited the Shehu and pledged his submission. In 1813 Muhammad Bello confirmed his support in Infāq al-Maysūr, noting after an early campaign that “there returned our people [to Sokoto] who had gone to Nupeland to help ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nufawi against the army of Nupe. And indeed they fulfilled their trust. We put forward our best endeavour and brought back what there was to bring [i.e., booty].”20
