The history of northern Nigeria in the colonial era has been studied largely through the written documents of the British administration and through oral data. There exists, however, a large body of documents in Arabic, case registers of thealkālī(Arabic:qāḍī) or Muslim judge’s courts, and of the emir’s judicial councils. Scholars of the region with a command of Arabic have been drawn to the rich Arabic language literature of the Sokoto Caliphate (Usman 1979). In contrast to extensive colonial era scholarship on Islamic law in French North Africa (Christelow 1985: Bibliography), and the considerable anthropological work on customary...

There exists a long-standing debate as to whether land in Northern Nigeria at the onset of the colonial period was held individually, and could be freely transmitted through inheritance, sale, loan, pawning, and gift-giving, or whether it belonged to the rulers, to dispose of as they saw fit, either on their own or through their authorized agents. The Land and Native Rights Proclamation of 1910 was based on the second of these assumptions, placing all land under the control of the British governor, provided that he take into account native law and custom (Watts 1983: 158-166; Fika 1978: 209; Hill...

A large majority of the people of Kano Emirate were engaged in agriculture. But to envision it as a collection of isolated farming villages inhabited by people forever rooted to one place would be wrong. The broad, open savannah beckoned to travelers and traders. Export-oriented craft production, especially of dyed cloth, was interwoven with the rural economy (Shea 1975). Imports from the forests to the south, from the desert, and from the Mediterranean and Europe circulated widely in Kano Emirate. The quest for Islamic religious knowledge, and the desire to fulfill the religious duty of the pilgrimage to Mecca also...

Disputes over the ownership of land bulk large in the records of the judicial council. But these cases are sparse in the sort of detail which would illuminate the motives, strategies, and resentments which lay behind the disputes. Some cases involve simply a statement of conflicting claims to a piece of land, followed by a decision in favor of one litigant or the other, without any explanation (121 H). One reason why such apparently trivial cases came before the council is that the final disposition of land lay with the emir. The best way to establish a strong claim to...

House ownership within the walled city of Kano (Hausa:birnin Kano; Arabic:ḥaṣr Kano) was subject to stricter regulation and rather different rules than applied to land. Most strikingly, the sale of houses was subject to authorization. Emir ʿAbbās regularly invalidated (fasakha) unauthorized sales. In some cases, the authorization of the ward head (H.:maī ʿunguwa) was required (41 C, 61 D). But on another occasion it was the Sarkin Agalāwā ("Chief" of the Agalāwā, an ethnic group important in the kola trade), probably an important kola merchant, who refused to authorize a sale (150 E). In another case, Mādugū...

In earlier chapters we frequently encountered the problem of how to define the respective rights of royal power and individual property holders over land and houses. A particularly difficult problem arose when a property holder ceased to occupy a house or piece of land, but later he or his heirs reclaimed it. At what point, and under what circumstances did an owner relinquish his rights and his property pass to the control of the emir or his authorized agents, entering the holdings of thebait al–māl, or classified as vacant property? In addressing this sort of question, did Emir...

Disputes involving the sale, inheritance, and ownership of animals are relatively uncommon in the records compared to those involving their theft or loss. While the latter cases involved a question of public order -- one of the council’s domains -- the former were usually consigned to theqāḍī. Property rights over animals differed to some extent from those over land and houses in that neither the emir nor other government officials had a say in their allocation. The few cattle inheritance cases which came before the council all involved a woman owner or trustee (46 C, 67 C, 168 A)....

Livestock made up an important part of people’s wealth in Kano emirate. For the rich and powerful, the horse was a symbol of their status, one of the most expensive single items one could own (see Chapter 6). Though no longer used in warfare and raiding, the horse remained crucial for rapid transport and communication. And too, the man on horseback easily intimidated those of the pedestrian classes -- as one might judge from the frequency of accidental deaths and injuries caused by horses (see Chapter 12). Cattle, kept mainly by Fulani herdsmen, provided milk and meat, and their hides...

Slave raiding and slave labor played important roles in the Sokoto caliphate prior to the arrival of the British. The forces of the Muslim emirates raided for slaves in a number of pagan areas, including border areas between emirates, the hills to the south, and Ādamawa, in the north of present-day Cameroon. The Muslim subjects of the emirates were not themselves immune from slave raiding. People in Kano emirate fell victim to raiders from the Ningi hills to the southeast, and from Damagaram to the north. And, in the Bāsāsā of 1893-94, rival factions sometimes enslaved their enemies despite the...

Many slaves had little prospect of a legal escape from their condition through manumission or redemption, or by virtue of their date of birth. This chapter is concerned with some of the courses taken by these slaves, and the responses of the judicial council.

One option was to attempt escape. But escape to where? Some may have returned to the homes where they had once been enslaved. For many, however, this was not possible. Their homes were often far away, and just in trying to get there, they might be re-enslaved in worse conditions. Women in particular had to weigh...

Colonialism is a disruptive force, but the symptoms of disruption can vary from one case to another, and they can be concealed by a colonial administration wishing to promote the notion that all is quiet and in good order. In Kano Emirate in the early colonial period, the most striking symptom of disruption was a virtual epidemic of theft. Adamu Fika has made passing reference to this phenomenon (Fika 1978: 202).

We have little detailed evidence concerning the incidence of theft or methods of controlling it in the pre-colonial period, and so no benchmark from which to judge the evidence...

The Kano judicial council had often to deal with questions of violence -- incidents resulting in death or injury. While homicide was a far more serious question than injury, the two were closely entangled, for the usual weapons were sticks, cudgels, knives, and bows and arrows. Victims of assault who died often survived for days or even weeks after the event. Such cases raised the question of whether the assault had indeed been the cause of death. Thus homicide and injury need to be considered together.

Along with slavery, cases involving homicide ranked among the most sensitive legal questions in...