Muhammad Bello’s Curriculum of Study, as Detailed in Ḥāshiya ʿalā muqaddimat Īdāʿ al-nusūkh and Shifāʾ al-asqām: the Books and Teachers of Sokoto’s Second Ruler

Abstract

In Muslim West Africa it is common practice for scholars to make a note of their teachers and the books they studied with them. Such bibliographical records both certify academic credentials and, in the nineteenth century, were a vital part of political legitimacy as a series of scholar-warriors took power across the Sahel region. Muhammad Bello, who ruled Sokoto between 1817 and his death in 1837, is one such example. However, a precise record of Bello’s education is not widely known. This article features the first English translation and critical edition of Bello’s own bibliography, Ḥāshiya ʿalā muqaddimat Īdāʿ al-nusūkh (A Commentary to the Preface of the Repository of Texts), as well a second, later account he gave in a text entitled Shifāʾ al-asqām. These documents add to our understanding of educational practices in nineteenth century West Africa, while shedding light on several important events in Sokoto’s early history.