19 Facts About Seku Amadu

Seku Amadu ruled as Almami from 1818 until his death in 1845, taking the title sisse al-Masini.

Seku Amadu was a pupil of the Qadiriyya Sufi teacher Sidi Mukhtar al-Kunti.

Seku Amadu settled in a village under the authority of Djenne.

Seku Amadu's views brought him into conflict with his local, pagan Fulani chief, who called for help from his suzerain, the Bambara king of Segu.

Seku Amadu accused the local Fulbe rules of idolatry, and at first the jihad was directed at them.

Seku Amadu was supported by Tukolors and other Fulbe people in Massina, escaped slaves and others looking for freedom from their Bambara masters.

Seku Amadu was invited to take control of Massina after a Fulbe revolt in that town.

Seku Amadu founded a capital for his new Massina Empire called Hamdullahi, northeast of Djenne, just south of the present day city of Mopti.

Seku Amadu issued a manifesto in which he declared that Seku Amadu was the spiritual heir of Askia Mohammad I, the sixteenth century ruler of the Songhai Empire.

However, Seku Amadu gradually alienated the leaders of Timbuktu and of Sokoto by his extremely rigorous theology, and by his failure treat the senior Qadiriyya leaders with the respect that they felt was their due.

Seku Amadu assumed the title of Commander of the Faithful in the Sudan, which the Sokoto caliph considered to be his by right.

Seku Amadu adversely affected the trade of both Jenne and Timbuktu.

Seku Amadu asked for formal recognition of his sovereignty over the city.

Seku Amadu sent an emissary with a large body of troops to al-Qa'id 'Uthman bin Babakr, the temporal ruler, asking him to give up use of the drum and other forms of ceremony, to which 'Uthman agreed.

Seku Amadu Lobbo died on 20 April 1845, leaving control of the Massina Empire to his son, Amadu II.

Seku Amadu ruled through a system of provincial governors, mostly his relatives, and a central council of forty elders.

Seku Amadu followed a policy of settling the formerly nomadic herders.

At the height of the Empire's power, a 10,000 man army was stationed in the city, and Seku Amadu Ahmadu ordered the construction of six hundred madrasas to further the spread of Islam.

Seku Amadu ordered alcohol, tobacco, music and dancing banned in accordance with Islamic law, and constructed a social welfare system to provide for widows, orphans, and the poor.