ISLAM IN THE NON-MUSLIM AREAS OF NORTHERN NIGERIA, c.1600-1960

The introduction and spread of Islam into the areas known in Nigeria today as the Middle Belt or Central Nigeria spanned over centuries. It began initially as a gradual process, but later accelerated with the Jihad and the imposition of British colonial rule in the region. In the early period, particularly from 1600 to 1804, centralized polities, trade and commerce, missionary activities, migration and settlement, and the utilization of Muslim clerics as court officials by non-Muslim rulers, were the main avenues and dominant features in the introduction of Islam. The major part of the 19th century saw jihad forays carried into the non-Muslim areas, although they did not witness the Jihad in the real sense of the term. Jihad raids partly for slaves uprooted some ethnic groups from their original homelands and relocated to non-Muslim areas where they continued to practice Islam. Alliances with one non-Muslim state against another were utilized by the Jihadists in their attempts to spread the religion of Islam. Up to 1900, the spread and acceptance of Islam were limited to the ordinary citizens, whilst most rulers remained animists . Colonial conquest and imposition, the imposition of Muslims as District and Village headmen, the establishment of Quranic and Islamiya schools, inter-marriages, and the effects of the world-wide economic depression of the 1930s and the Second World War were among the factors in the acceleration of the spread of Islam from 1900 to 1960. However, some of the paramount rulers in the areas did not convert to Islam until far into the 20th century.