Muḥammad Bello

Savant

Muḥammad Bello was born in 1781 in the Hausa country, in the north of what is now Nigeria, and died in Wurno in 1837. He was the son of the scholar and reformer Ousmane dan Fodio. Training and commitment Trained under his father and his uncle ʿAbdullāh dan Fodio, he received a solid education in the Quran, Mālikite fiqh, hadith, Arabic language and Qādirī Sufism. He took an active part in the reform movement launched by his father at the beginning of the 19th century and founded the town of Sokoto in 1809. The sovereign When Ousmane dan Fodio died in 1817, he succeeded him as head of the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest states in West Africa. He focused on organizing the administration, founding towns and schools, and guaranteeing justice according to the Law. In 1824 and 1826, he hosted the British explorer Hugh Clapperton, who left a testimony about his culture and his library. A prolific author More than a hundred works are attributed to him: history, government, fiqh, medicine, Sufism and poetry. Infāq al-maysūr fī tārīkh bilād al-Takrūr is an essential source on the history of central Sudan and the Sokoto reform. Other treatises deal with the art of governing and the duties of leaders. Photo: seal of Muḥammad Bello.