Muhammadu Junaidu (1906 – 9 January 1997) was a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and one of the foremost scholars on

Fulani The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...

history and the

Sokoto Caliphate The Sokoto Caliphate (), also known as the Fulani Empire or the Sultanate of Sokoto, was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the Ful ...

. He held the title of the Waziri of Sokoto.

Life

He was born into an aristocratic family, the Gidado family of Sokoto, which had produced a large number of viziers for the caliphate. As a youth, he was tutored by

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...

and was gradually introduced to his family's advisory tradition within the Sokoto

chieftaincy A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...

. However, Junaidu was not tamed by the Sokoto environment and education, and wanted to learn more about other Islamic countries in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. He traveled to

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and a few other countries to study their histories and legal codes. After returning to Nigeria, he took to reading and writing, and subsequently wrote over 30 books. Over time, he was appointed Head of the Kadi School in 1942, a member of the

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

's council from 1948, and a legal adviser to the Northern

House of Chiefs A House of Chiefs (or ''House of Traditional Leaders'') is a post-colonial assembly, either legislative or advisory, that is recognised by either a national or regional government as consisting of and providing a collective, public voice for an eth ...

after Nigeria's independence. He is remembered today as a respected guardian of materials on the Sokoto caliphate and for having one of the largest archives of pre-twentieth century

West African West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Ma ...

correspondence. He was both a reformer and a believer in culture. He tried to present a suitable bridge between change and tradition through both the critical analysis of past norms and values and the placing of beneficial values in concord with mainstream or reformist education.

Abdullahi dan Fodio Abdullahi dan Fodio ( ar, عبد الله بن فودي) (ca. 1766–1828), Amir of Gwandu (1819–1828), was a scholar and brother of Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817). Usman, being more of a scholar than politician, delegated the practical regency o ...

, brother of

Usman dan Fodio Usman Ɗan Fodio ( ar, عثمان بن فودي, translit=ʿUthmān ibn Fodio; 15 December 1754 – 20 April 1817) was a Fulani scholar, Sunni Islamic religious teacher, revolutionary, and philosopher who founded the Sokoto Caliphate and ruled ...

had claimed that the clan of Torankawa which Usman dan Fodio comes from are part Fulani, and part Arabs, he claimed the clan descent from the Arabs through

Uqba ibn Nafi ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī al-Qurashī ( ar, عقبة بن نافع بن عبد القيس الفهري القرشي, ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī), also simply known as Uqba ibn Nafi, was an Arab general ser ...

who was an Arab Muslim of the Umayyad branch of the Quraysh, and hence, a member of the family of the Prophet, Uqba ibn Nafi allegedly married a Fulani woman called Bajjumangbu through which the Torodbe family of Usman dan Fodio descended. Alhaji Muhammadu Junaidu, Wazirin Sokoto, restated the claim of Shaykh Abdullahi bin Fodio in respect of the Danfodio family been part Arabs and part Fulani, in one of his writings.

References

*M. G. Smith; Government in Kano, 1350-1950 *Nancy J. Jacobs; African History through Sources, Volume 1 (page 24)

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20130819023025/http://www.nnma.gov.ng/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Junaidu, Muhammadu 20th-century Nigerian historians 1906 births 1997 deaths