Kano under Muhammad Rumfa (1463-1499): Hausa City Reforms

Muhammad Rumfa, ruler of Kano from 1463 to 1499, transformed this Hausa city-state in what is now northern Nigeria into a walled Islamic and commercial capital. According to the Kano Chronicle, he built a new royal palace, founded the Kurmi Market, extended the city walls and invited Muslim scholars, including the North African jurist al-Maghili, to help reform his government.

Background: Kano and the Hausa states

By the 15th century the Hausa-speaking region between the Niger river and Lake Chad was divided into several walled city-states, among them Kano, Katsina, Zaria and Gobir. Each was ruled by a sarki (king) and drew its wealth from farming, crafts such as weaving and dyeing, and long-distance trade.

Kano lay at a meeting point of routes linking the forest lands to the south, the Lake Chad basin to the east and the trans-Saharan caravan trade to the north. Islam had been introduced by merchants and scholars, especially the Wangara from the Mali region, during the 14th century, but at court it coexisted with older religious practices.

The Kano Chronicle

Most of what is known about Rumfa comes from the Kano Chronicle, an Arabic history of Kano’s rulers that was probably compiled in the late 19th century from older traditions. It was translated into English by H. R. Palmer in 1908. The chronicle gives Rumfa a reign of 37 years and calls him the twentieth ruler of Kano.

Historians value the chronicle but read it critically: its dates for early rulers are reconstructions, and some details reflect later ideas about what a good Muslim ruler should be.

Building a capital

Rumfa’s most visible achievements were in building. He extended Kano’s city walls to enclose a larger area, creating new gates. The earthen walls protected farmland as well as houses, allowing the city to withstand long sieges.

He also built a new palace, Gidan Rumfa, outside the old centre of the city. It became the residence of Kano’s rulers and is still the palace of the emirs of Kano today, though it has been rebuilt many times. Nearby he established the Kurmi Market, which grew into one of the great markets of West Africa and still operates in the old city.

Islamic reforms and al-Maghili

The Kano Chronicle presents Rumfa as a ruler who strengthened Islam. It credits him with introducing the public celebration of the Eid festival, appointing Muslim officials and adopting new court practices, including the seclusion of royal women and the use of eunuchs in the palace administration. It also links him to the creation of a council of state of nine leading officials, known as the Tara ta Kano.

In the 1490s the scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Maghili of Tlemcen visited Kano. At Rumfa’s request he wrote a treatise on the obligations of princes, setting out how a Muslim ruler should govern justly, collect taxes and choose advisers. Al-Maghili then travelled to Gao, where he advised Askia Muhammad of Songhai.

Al-Maghili’s ideas were strict. He argued that rulers must enforce Islamic law, remove un-Islamic customs and treat Muslims who mixed Islam with older practices severely. Historians debate how far Rumfa actually applied this advice, but the treatise became an important text for later reformers in the region, including the leaders of the 19th-century Sokoto jihad.

Islam in Kano at this time was still mainly the religion of the court, the merchants and the towns. Many farmers in the surrounding countryside continued to follow older beliefs connected with local spirits, and the chronicle’s own account of earlier rulers mentions sacred groves and shrines. Rumfa’s reforms strengthened the Muslim character of the state without converting the whole population.

Trade and the city economy

Kano’s growth under Rumfa was closely tied to commerce. The city attracted merchants from the Mali region, from Bornu and from North Africa, as well as Hausa traders who travelled to the forest lands of the south. Cotton cloth dyed with indigo in Kano’s dye pits became one of the region’s best-known products and was sold across the Sahel.

The Kurmi Market gave this trade a central, regulated place under royal supervision, and market officials collected dues for the ruler. Kano’s role as a commercial hub continued long after Rumfa’s death and reached a peak in the 19th century, when European travellers described it as one of the great trading cities of Africa.

War and diplomacy

Rumfa’s reign was not peaceful. The chronicle records a long war with the neighbouring Hausa state of Katsina, said to have lasted eleven years without a clear victory. Kano also had to manage relations with the powerful Bornu kingdom to the east, to which Hausa states at times paid tribute.

Timeline

• 14th century: Wangara Muslim scholars and merchants settle in Kano.
• 1463: Muhammad Rumfa becomes sarki of Kano.
• 1460s-1490s: The city walls are extended; Gidan Rumfa and the Kurmi Market are built.
• 1490s: Al-Maghili visits Kano and writes his treatise on government for Rumfa.
• 1499: Rumfa dies after a reign of 37 years.
• 1908: H. R. Palmer publishes an English translation of the Kano Chronicle.

Why it matters

Rumfa’s reign laid the physical and political foundations of Kano as one of West Africa’s great trading cities. His palace, market and walls shaped the old city for centuries, and the reforms associated with him and al-Maghili show how Islamic learning travelled between North Africa, the Hausa states and Songhai at the end of the Middle Ages.