Athar Dawat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab fi Harakat Uthman ibn Fudi al-Islahiyya fi Gharb Ifriqiya (Matbu within Buhuth Nadwat Dawat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab)
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Athar Da‘wat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab fi Harakat ‘Uthman ibn Fudi al-Islahiyya fi Gharb Ifriqiya (The Impact of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's Call on Usman dan Fodio's Reform Movement in West Africa) is an academic historical treatise by Dr. Mostafa Massad, investigating the ideological parallels and historical connections between the 18th-century Arabian Salafi revival and the West African jihad and reform movement led by Usman dan Fodio .
Background and Publication
The study was authored by Dr. Mostafa Massad while serving as professor of Islamic history and chairman of the Department of History at the College of Social Sciences at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh . It was published as part of the collected proceedings of the scholarly symposium on the call of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (Buhuth Nadwat Da‘wat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab / Usbu‘ al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab) organized by the university .
Content and Historical Analysis
The study opens with an examination of the religious, political, and social decline in the Muslim world during the 12th century AH (18th century CE), describing the prevalence of religious innovations, polytheistic practices, and intellectual stagnation prior to the emergence of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1115–1206 AH) in Najd .
Massad provides historical context on the introduction of Islam into Hausaland, detailing successive waves of scholarship and trade from Mali, the Maghrib, Bornu, Egypt, Jenne, and Timbuktu, alongside the demographic settlement of the Fulani (Fulan) . Despite these early influences, religious compromise and syncretism persisted among local rulers until the rise of Usman dan Fodio (born 1169 AH in Gobir) .
The work traces Dan Fodio’s early education under his family and local scholars, emphasizing the intellectual influence of his teacher Jibril ibn Umar . Drawing on historical accounts, the author notes that Dan Fodio traveled to the Hijaz for the pilgrimage during the rise of the First Saudi State, where he interacted with Salafi scholars, absorbed their reformist ideas, and returned determined to purge pagan customs and deviations from his homeland .
The text outlines Dan Fodio's subsequent preaching, his conflict with Hausa rulers, and the military campaigns that unified the Hausa states by 1225 AH (1810 CE) and extended into Bornu . Massad details the administrative division of the newly established Sokoto Caliphate between Dan Fodio's son Muhammad Bello in Sokoto and his brother Abdullahi dan Fodio in Gwandu, leading up to Dan Fodio's death in 1233 AH (1817 CE) . The treatise addresses and refutes modern claims that reduced the movement to an ethnic or material rebellion of Fulani pastoralists against Hausa royalty, demonstrating that the movement drew substantial support across ethnic lines and was primarily driven by religious reform . It also records the scholarly debates between Dan Fodio and contemporary critics, most notably Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi of Bornu .
Comparative Framework and Conclusions
In the final section, Massad presents a comparative analysis between the Wahhabi movement in Najd and Dan Fodio’s movement in West Africa, identifying several key points of convergence:
- Temporal and contextual proximity: Both movements emerged in environments marked by religious corruption, political fragmentation, and moral decline, sharing an urgent imperative for revival .
- Enjoining good and forbidding wrong: Both prioritized the practical enforcement of Islamic law (sharia), establishing formal judicial appointments, public accountability (hisba), the Islamic treasury (bayt al-mal), and governance based on allegiance (bay‘a) .
- Intellectual awakening: Both catalyzed substantial scholarly output, overturning prevailing intellectual stagnation through polemical writings, treatises, and the education of widespread student networks who continued preaching in peripheral regions, such as Yoruba land and Ilorin .
Massad concludes that whether the impact was direct or indirect, the earlier success of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s call served as a pioneering precedent and motivational catalyst that emboldened Dan Fodio and contemporary reformers across the Muslim world to pursue similar methods of revival .
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