Abstract
The Sokoto Jihad which led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate is a product of intellectual quest spinning for centuries across states in the Sudan. The founders of the caliphate „the triumvirate‟ were themselves, the heirs to the long tradition of learning lasting a millennium, have distinguished themselves by the intellectual sagacity and wisdom that wielded the entire western and central Sudan into a single religious-political block. The caliphate distinguished itself by the astonishing amount of written documents and the literary tradition it occasioned. Through its literary influence, the jihad created the largest empire in Africa since the fall of Songhai in 1591. In addition, it also provided the inspiration for a series of related holy wars in other parts of the Savanna and Sahel far beyond Nigeria's borders that led to the foundation of Islamic states in indifferent parts of the region. The availability of a rich body of jihad literature has endowed us with numerous studies on various aspects of inter-state relations in the region and particularly between the caliphate and its subordinate emirates. However, issues surrounding relations between the Caliphate and other states in the Sudan has not been adequately treated. In fact, less has been written on the caliphate‟s relations with some other states such as Morroco, Agadez, Masina, Liptako and the state of Kurani in spite of substantial evidence in the Jihad literature on the exchanges of envoys and dispatches between Sokoto and some of these states. The main focus of this paper therefore is to reappraise the diplomatic relations between the caliphate and some of her neighboring states in the region and the lessons that could be drawn from such legacy for the contemporary international system.
Key Words: Sokoto Jihad, Sokoto Caliphate, Diplomacy, Scholarship, Inter-state relation
DOI: 10.36349/sokotojh.2021.v10i01.006
