Late Middle Ages · Africa · Politics

1401

Kano Chronicle Records Sarki Muhammad Rumfa

1401

The Hausa city-state of Kano in what is now northern Nigeria was emerging as a significant West African trade center under its increasingly powerful rulers. They consolidated Islamic governance, built fortified double walls of red laterite, and attracted scholars and merchants from across the Sahel. Kano's leather goods, dyed indigo cloth, and kola nut trade connected it to commercial networks stretching from Timbuktu to Cairo.