dan Fodio, Osman (1754–1817)

Osman dan Fodio, also known as Shaykh Uthman (or Usuman) dan Fodio, is known for his roles as leader of the Fulani in their jihad (1804–1812), reformer of Islam in West Africa, a leader of the Sufi Qadiriyya order, and a major Muslim educator and writer (in both Arabic and Hausa). Dan Fodio was the descendant of a long line of prominent Fulani, the nomadic cattle herders of West Africa, who through the final decades of the 18th century gathered a large number of followers in his effort to reform the syncretistic Islam of the region of northern Nigeria. His opponents were the Hausa kings and elites, whose more relaxed interpretation of Islam had allowed a wide range of practices not sanctioned by the Shari'a ...