One Woman's Jihad, Nana Asma'u, Scholar And Scribe
Beverly Blow Mack; Jean Boyd
Indiana University Press (2000)
In Collection
#4890
0*
Poet
Woman
Softcover 9780253337078
USA  English
The Fulani War of 1804-1810, also known as the Fulani Jihad or Jihad of Usman dan Fodio, was a military conquest in present day Nigeria and Cameroon. Expelled from Gobir by his former student Yunfa in 1802, Islamic reformer Usman dan Fodio assembled a Fulani army to lead in jihad against the Hausa kingdoms of the north. Realizing the threat that Usman's forces posed, Yunfa assembled the other Hausa rulers to oppose him.

The Hausa rulers dealt the jihadists a number of initial setbacks, most notably at the Battle of Tsuntua (December 1804), in which Usman lost more than 2,000 men, 200 of whom are said to have known the Koran by heart. The following year, however, Usman's forces seized Kebbi and established a permanent base at Gwandu. Building on popular discontent caused in part by famine and by Hausa taxation, the jihadists continued to advance, taking the Gobir's capital Alkalawa in 1808 and killing Yunfa.

Usman united the conquered lands under his Fulani Empire. The success of the jihad inspired a number of later West African jihadists, including Massina Empire founder Seku Amadu, Toucouleur Empire founder Umar Tall, Wassoulou Empire founder Samori Ture, and Adamawa Emirate founder Modibo Adama.
Product Details
LoC Classification PL8234.A85 .Z77 2000
LoC Control Number 99053817
Dewey 297.8/1/092
Nationality Arabic
No. of Pages 230
Height x Width 9.1 x 5.5  inch
User Defined
Conflict African Wars
Notes
Review The fascinating life and times of Nana Asma'u (1793 - 1864), a West African woman who was a Muslim scholar and poet. As the daughter of the spiritual and political leader of the Sokoto community, Asma'u was a role model and teacher for other Muslim women as well as a scholar of Islam and a key advisor to her father as he waged a jihad to bring Islam to the population of what is now northwestern Nigeria.
"During warfare she was eye witness to battles which she reported in her written works"

Nana Asma'u was the daughter of Shehu Usman 'dan Fodio, a Fulbe scholar. After escaping an assassination attempt by the non-Muslim Hausa chief of Gobir, the Shehu launched a jihad in which the Muslim women were full participants. In 1808 the chief of Gobir and his Tuareg allies were defeated, and the Shehu founded the Sokoto caliphate,

"... a most welcome addition to the body of scholarship on the Sokoto Jihad and Caliphate." -- Religious Studies