Kingdoms & Monarchies

Founded 1808 by Abdullahi dan Fodio (Usman's brother), who governed the western flank of the Sokoto Caliphate. Co-equal in jihad-era prestige with Sokoto itself. Reigning: HRH Major-General Muhammadu Iliyasu Bashar (since 2005).

Pre-jihad kingdom on the Niger; the Yauri Sarki resisted both Sokoto and Bornu. Site of the Kainji Dam (1968) which drowned old Bussa and old Yauri — see Kainji Dam.

Non-Muslim highland community.

Sub-emirates of Gwandu and Argungu.

• Augi & Lawal, *Studies in the History of Pre-colonial Kebbi* (1990).
• Adeleye, *Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria 1804–1906* (1971).

• [Principal historic polity — TBC] → [1900 Native Authority — TBC] → [1976 LGA — TBC] → [today's Federal Constituency — TBC]
• [Secondary polity / sub-emirate / clan — TBC] → [1900 NA — TBC] → [1976 LGA — TBC] → [today's Federal Constituency — TBC]
• [Minority / highland / clan throne — TBC] → [1900 NA — TBC] → [1976 LGA — TBC] → [today's Federal Constituency — TBC]

*Each row is a unit of continuous administrative life — the same population, in the same district, under successive labels. Read across to see what the British Native Authority captured, what Murtala's 1976 LGA reform redrew, and what today's Federal Constituency makes electorally visible. TBC = to be confirmed from the state's chieftaincy gazette, NA Ordinance files (NAK / NAI), and the INEC delimitation map.*

In the Sokoto-tradition emirates the Emir's household is ordered by title, not by publicity. The senior wife is the Uwar Soro ("mother of the chamber"), who runs the interior of the palace and the female household staff; the Magajiya is a titled woman of the court, in many emirates a princess rather than a wife, with jurisdiction over women's affairs, and in the pre-jihad Hausa states the *Magajiya* was in several cities a reigning queen in her own right (Daura's Magajiya line, Zazzau's Amina). Other palace female titles include Mai Babban Daki (the queen-mother's title, notably in Kano, held by the Emir's mother rather than his wife) and Yar Daji. The names of a serving Emir's wives are, by settled custom in most of these palaces, not published; they appear in the emirate's own *takarda* household register and in genealogies, not in the gazette. We record the offices and leave the names to the palace.

Kebbi's senior thrones — the Emir of Gwandu (the western half of the Sokoto Caliphate, seat of Abdullahi dan Fodio's line and therefore co-equal in origin with Sokoto itself), the Emir of Argungu (the Kebbi Kanta line, which fought Sokoto to a standstill and retained its own dynasty), the Emir of Yauri and the Emir of Zuru — each maintain the *Uwar Soro* office. Argungu additionally keeps the pre-jihad Kanta court titles, including female offices abolished elsewhere by the jihad.