Katsina Emirate

Hausa tradition counts Katsina among the seven Hausa states, and its kingship is traditionally dated well before 1500, with the dating drawn from king lists rather than dated records. Islam was established at the court by the fifteenth century, and the city was walled, with a large market and a substantial resident scholarly community.

In the early nineteenth century Katsina came under the control of the movement led by Usman dan Fodio, and the Hausa ruling house was displaced by an emirate whose emirs owed allegiance to Sokoto. Members of the former dynasty withdrew north into what is now Niger, where a rival Katsina lineage continued.

Katsina's position on the routes running north across the Sahara to Agadez and Tripoli, and east and west across the savannah, made it a leading centre of trade in cloth, leather, salt and kola. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was widely described as the largest of the Hausa commercial cities, before Kano's growth in the nineteenth century.

It was also a centre of Islamic learning: scholars taught and wrote there, and it drew students from across the region. The city's walls, its ward organisation and its market structures were on a scale comparable to the other major Hausa cities. Under the caliphate, the emirate administered its territory through titled officials and Islamic courts and sent tribute to Sokoto.

British forces occupied Katsina in 1903 in the campaign that ended the caliphate's sovereignty. The emirate structure was retained under indirect rule, the emir was confirmed in office and Islamic courts continued in civil and personal matters, with a British resident supervising administration and taxation.

Katsina became an administrative centre of the Northern Region, and one of the first teacher training colleges in northern Nigeria was established there in the 1920s, producing many of the region's early political figures. The emirate's title system, festivals such as the Durbar held at Muslim festivals, and its scholarly tradition continue.

The Emir of Katsina presides over the palace in Katsina city and holds customary and religious authority in chieftaincy and cultural matters within Katsina State. The office is ceremonial in constitutional terms and holds no political power.