Ilorin Emirate

Origins

Ilorin was a frontier town of the Oyo Empire. Around 1817 its commander Afonja, holding the military title Are Ona Kakanfo, rebelled against the Alaafin, relying on the Fulani cleric Shehu Alimi and Hausa and Yoruba Muslim fighters. After Alimi's death his son Abdulsalami turned on Afonja, killed him around 1823, and became the first emir under the Gwandu Emirate.

Rule and society

Ilorin's cavalry raided deep into Yorubaland and helped destroy the old Oyo capital in the 1830s, but Ibadan defeated it at Osogbo around 1840, halting the jihad's advance south. The emirate combined Fulani rulers, Yoruba, Hausa and Nupe residents, and became a centre of Islamic learning, crafts such as pottery and weaving, and trade between the savanna and the forest.

Decline and legacy

Ilorin fought in the long Yoruba wars against the Ekiti Parapo. In 1897 the Royal Niger Company defeated Emir Suleiman, and Ilorin passed to the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. Its emir still reigns in Kwara State.