The Past as Future: Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Sokoto Caliphate

by Usman Bugaje

"In this handy book, Dr. Usman Bugaje provides a meticulous exposition of the history, ideals and the intellectual history of the Sokoto Caliphate. He dwells on the careful planning and the strict adherence and life long devotion to certain ideals that all went into the prosecution of the Islamic Jihad and the formation of the Caliphate. The book not only discusses the nature and scope of the Caliphate itself, but also the widespread changes it generated in nearby communities such as Borno and Yorubaland to areas further a field in the Nile Valley, Masina and the Senegambia, and to far flung regions especially in the slave plantations of the Caribbean. The primary focus of the book however, remains on the centrality of certain core values in the successful construction of any political community. He, in particular, identified knowledge and learning, social justice and equity as the true building blocks of the Sokoto Caliphate. The distinctive and larger message the book conveys is on the continuing relevance of the Sokoto Caliphate to present day Nigeria. The author demonstrated, with an unimpeachable logic, that the same values that were responsible for the astonishing successes of the Sokoto Caliphate over two centuries ago are precisely what contemporary Nigeria requires in its continuing challenge at nation building."
-Back Cover

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2015