ABSTRACT
Kano under Alwali was one of the greatest and most ancient states in the central Sudan. Possibly then the most populous and prosperous Sudanese city, it formed a natural terminus for the central Sudanic caravan trade that flowed through Ghat and Ghadames to and from Tripoli. By 1780 Kano had lost commercial leadership in the trans-Saharan traffic to its rival Katsina, which lay just under a hundred miles to the northwest. From 1565 until c. 1650 these neighbouring states had waged a long destructive war, probably in part to determine who should engross the lucrative Saharan trade. In outline, the present boundary between Hadeija and Kano emirates corresponds fairly well with the limits of eighteenth century Kano; but in Alwali’s day Hadeija was merely a village within the chiefdom of Auyo, and the present territory of Hadeija emirate was divided among several petty states, all mutually independent and subject to Bomu.
