Lead Up To War
Usman dan Fodio, born in 1751, joined a growing number of traveling Islamic scholars through the Hausa kingdoms in the 1770s and became quite popular in the 1790s. Originally, dan Fodio's preaching received the support of the leadership of Gobir; however, as his influence increased and as he began to advocate for self-defense arming by his followers, his favor with the leadership decreased. Sarkin Gobir Nafata, the king of Gobir, placed a series of restrictions on dan Fodio's preaching. In 1801, Sarkin Gobir Yunfa, a former pupil of dan Fodio, replaced Nafata as king of Gobir. However, Yunfa increased the restrictions on dan Fodio and exiled him from Gobir for the village of Degel. A crisis developed later in 1803 when Yunfa attacked and captured many of the followers of a group associated with dan Fodio. Yunfa then marched the prisoners through Degel enraging many of the dan Fodio's followers who attacked the army and freed the prisoners. Yunfa gave dan Fodio the option of exile before destroying Degel which led to the large-scale hijra of dan Fodio's community to Gudu. So many people went with dan Fodio throughout the state that on Feb. 21, 1804, Yunfa declared war on dan Fodio and threatened punishment to anyone joining him. As a response, dan Fodio was declared the Amir al-Mu'minin, commander of the faithful, by his community denouncing their allegiance to Gobir.
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