successor title coronation article_title name reign
'' eastern areas -lrb- sokoto -rrb- '' : sultan al khalifa al amirulmuminin of sokoto , amir al-muminin , imama , gudu , june 1803 usman dan fodio
 usman dan fodio 1803 & ndash ; 1815
usman dan fodio

shaihu usman dan fodio , born usuman ɓii foduye , -lrb- also referred to as shaikh usman ibn fodio , shehu uthman dan fuduye , shehu usman dan fodio or shaikh uthman ibn fodio -rrb- -lrb- born 1754 in gobir -- died 1817 in sokoto -rrb- was a religious teacher , writer and islamic promoter , and the founder of the sokoto caliphate .
dan fodio was one of a class of urbanized ethnic fulani living in the hausa states in what is today northern nigeria .
he was a leader who followed the sunni maliki school of jurisprudence and the qadiri branch of sufism .
a teacher of the maliki school of law , he lived in the city-state of gobir until 1802 when , motivated by his reformist ideas and suffering increasing repression by local authorities , he led his followers into exile .
this exile began a political and social revolution which spread from gobir throughout modern nigeria and cameroon , and was echoed in a jihad movement led by the fula ethnic group across west africa .
dan fodio declined much of the pomp of rulership , and while developing contacts with religious reformists and jihad leaders across africa , he soon passed actual leadership of the sokoto state to his son , muhammed bello .
dan fodio wrote more than a hundred books concerning religion , government , culture , and society .
he developed a critique of existing african muslim elites for what he saw as their greed , paganism , violation of the standards of sharia law , and use of heavy taxation .
he encouraged literacy and scholarship , for women as well as men , and several of his daughters emerged as scholars and writers .
his writings and sayings continue to be much quoted today , and are often affectionately referred to as shehu in nigeria .
some followers consider dan fodio to have been a mujaddid , a divinely inspired `` reformer of islam '' .
dan fodio 's uprising was a major episode of a movement described as the fulani hegemonies in the seventeenth , eighteenth , and nineteenth centuries .
it followed the jihads successfully waged in futa bundu , futa tooro , and fouta djallon between 1650 and 1750 , which led to the creation of those three islamic states .
in his turn , shehu inspired a number of later west african jihads , including those of seku amadu , founder of the masina empire , el hadj umar tall , founder of the toucouleur empire -lrb- who married one of dan fodio 's granddaughters -rrb- , and modibo adama , founder of the adamawa emirate .
