Pre-1500 — Ancient settlement#
Dala Hill (Kano City) is settled by Hausa ironworkers from at least the 7th century CE, possibly earlier — recent ABU Zaria excavations push the iron-smelting date back toward the 5th century. The Bayajidda legend places Bagauda (c. 999 CE) as the founder, one of the seven sons of the Daura union and one of the original Hausa Bakwai. The Kano Chronicle (anon., compiled 17th–19th c., one of the most important indigenous African historical documents) names 43 sarakuna of the Habe line from Bagauda to Muhammadu Alwali II (deposed 1807).
1500 — 1804 — Pre-colonial polities#
Kano flourishes as the central-Sudan trade entrepôt — the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan caravans from Tripoli and Ghadames, the northern terminus of the kola, slave and ivory routes from the forest belt. See Trans-Saharan Trade. Sarki Muhammadu Rumfa (r. 1463–99) is the pivotal modern founder: he institutes the *Tarayya* council of nine state officers, builds the Kurmi Market (still operating as one of West Africa's oldest continuously running markets), constructs the inner city walls (16 km perimeter, 15 m high, gates including Kofar Mata, Kofar Wambai, Kofar Nassarawa) and brings the Tlemcen-trained Islamic scholar Muhammad al-Maghili to Kano c. 1492. Al-Maghili's *Obligations of the Princes* becomes the constitutional template of West African Islamic kingship. The 1500s see the Kano indigo-dye industry (the *marina* pits at Kofar Mata, still operating) make Kano-dyed cloth the prestige textile from Timbuktu to Cairo.
1804 — 1903 — The long 19th century#
The Fulani scholar Suleiman dan Abahama receives a jihad flag from Usman dan Fodio in 1805 and conquers Kano in 1807, deposing the Habe Sarkin Alwali II (who flees to Burumburum and is killed). The Kano Emirate is consolidated under the Sullubawa dynasty from Sarki Ibrahim Dabo (1819–46) onwards. The 1893–94 Kano Civil War (*Basasa*) between Yusuf and Tukur weakens the throne; on 3 February 1903 Colonel T.L.N. Morland's West African Frontier Force takes Kano City after a brief artillery exchange at the walls; Emir Aliyu Babba flees northwards and is replaced by his half-brother Muhammad Abbass under British indirect rule.
1900 — 1960 — Colonial provinces#
Kano Province within Northern Nigeria. The 1912 completion of the Lagos–Kano railway turns Kano into the groundnut, hide and cotton capital of West Africa — by the 1950s 80% of Nigeria's groundnut exports passed through Kano railhead, see Groundnut Pyramids. The Sabon Gari ("stranger quarter") at Kano, established 1913, becomes the oldest organised southern-migrant settlement in Northern Nigeria — and the flashpoint of the Kano Riots of 1953, the anti-southern violence triggered by the AG's "self-government 1956" motion in Lagos.
1960 — present — State creation chain#
- 27 May 1967 — Kano State (capital Kano), one of the 12 states of Gowon's decree.
- 27 August 1991 — Babangida hives off Jigawa State from northern and eastern Kano.
- 5 March 2020 — Governor Ganduje splits the historic Kano Emirate into five (Kano, Bichi, Rano, Gaya, Karaye). 23 May 2024 — Governor Yusuf reverses the split. The dual-emir dispute remains unresolved; see Sanusi II deposition and reinstatement.