Emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate

The Sokoto Caliphate was a loose confederation of emirates that recognized the suzerainty of the Amir al-Mu'minin.{{Cite web |title=Usman dan Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate |url=https://countrystudies.us/404.htm |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=countrystudies.us}} The caliphate was established in 1809 and later became the largest pre-colonial African state.{{Cite web |title=The Sokoto Caliphate |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/39071/chapter-abstract/338399135 |access-date=2023-04-22 }} The boundaries of the caliphate are part of present-day Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.{{Cite journal |last=Lofkrantz |first=Jennifer |date=2012 |title=Intellectual Discourse in the Sokoto Caliphate: The Triumvirate's Opinions on the Issue of Ransoming, ca. 1810 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24393055 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=385–401 |jstor=24393055 |issn=0361-7882}}

According to historian Mahmud Modibbo Tukur, by the turn of the 20th-century, the Sokoto Caliphate covered an area of about 150,000 square miles (388,500 square kilometers), not including parts of Adamawa (Fombina), located in modern-day Cameroon, which is estimated to cover over 100,000 square kilometers.{{Cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Paul E. |url=https://archive.org/details/jihadinwestafric0000love/mode/2up?q=Adamawa&view=theater |title=Jihād in West Africa during the Age of Revolutions |date=2016 |publisher=Athens : Ohio University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8214-2240-3 |pages=259-260}}

At the end of the 19th-century, the Caliphate comprised 30 emirates, excluding its twin capitals of Gwandu and Sokoto. Some of these emirates had autonomous sub-emirates under them, with Adamawa having the most, numbering over 40.File:Sokoto Sultanate (cropped).png (1867-1873)]]

Emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate

References