Overview

This history of the African kingdom that included the famous trans-Saharan trading city of Kano is the third in the late M. G. Smith's series of histories of the Hausa-Fulani kingdoms in West Africa.

Approach and Content

Combining the approaches of social anthropology and history, Smith provides a fascinating account of this kingdom's complex political and administrative organization from medieval times to the threshold of Nigerian independence.

Sources and Methodology

The book relies on written sources in Arabic, Hausa, and English, but it is supplemented by in-depth interviews with Fulani rulers and councilors who were intimately familiar with the organization of the Muslim emirate of Kano before the British arrived in 1903.

Final Analysis

In the final chapter, Smith continues his analytical inquiry, begun in his earlier books, into the processes of change in political units.