Bayajidda, the forefather of the Hausa, was a man from Baghdad who fled the city with an entourage of loyal soldiers after it fell to invaders. Arriving in Kanem, he married one of the daughters of the Mai of Bornu, a powerful ruler whose realm was west and south of Lake Chad. According to some accounts, Bayajidda plotted to overthrow the Mai, while in others he was welcomed into the realm and became so popular that the Mai plotted against him. To weaken him, the Mai conquered several towns and convinced him to leave his own soldiers there to garrison them. As night fell, Bayajidda had no one left to guard him except his wife and one slave, and, realizing his vulnerability, he and his wife fled Bornu.
The exiles traveled to the Hausa city of Daura, where a snake named Sarki (interestingly, the Hausa word for "ruler" or "king") terrorized the locals by only allowing them to draw water from its well on one day of the week. After Bayajidda's hostess, an old woman, told him about Sarki, he killed the snake and beheaded it. The queen of Daura, Magajiya, married him as a reward.
Bayajidda had three sons: Biram by his first wife, Bawo by Queen Magajiya, and Karbagari by a concubine Bagwariya. Bawo went on to have six sons, who along with Biram were said to have founded the seven Hausa kingdoms of Daura, Kano, Katsina, Zazzau, Gobir, Rano, and Biram. Karbagari also had seven sons, who supposedly founded the seven kingdoms of Zamfara, Kebbi, Yauri, Gwari, Kwararafa, Nupe, and Ilorin, which surrounded the first seven to the west and south.
The Hausa Bakwai or "true Hausa" cities: a relatively small region of Africa, especially compared to the famous empires surrounding them.The Hausa kingdoms formed a loose alliance, allowing each to specialize: Kano and Rano in the making and dyeing of cloth, Zazzau in raiding for slaves, Katsina and Daura in trade with the Saharan caravans, Gobir in the arts of war, and Biram in governing. Even so, the kingdoms were fractured and divided for three centuries after Bayajidda's day, until the legendary Naguji Habe, founder of a dynasty that would rule for almost six centuries, rose to become Sarki of Kano, Rano, and Katsina. He ruled for almost fifty years of peace and prosperity, but as he neared the end of his life, he was filled with one last ambition....
Africa in 1241. No one at the time would have expected a powerful state to rise from the most disunited region of Africa, especially one bordering both mighty Mali and powerful Kanem.
This is my first foray into AAR writing! I wanted to work with a shorter time period than the usual 1066 or 769 start date (though I may convert into EU4 if I still want to continue in 1453), and thought the similarity between the name of the 1241 date "Rise of the Hansa" and the Kingdom of Hausaland in West Africa was as interesting a starting point as any. My overall goal will be to build a strong Kingdom or even Empire of Hausaland, thriving on control of the trans-Saharan trade, though I'll mostly focus on individual characters. Finally, I'll try to keep an update schedule of two or three short chapters each week. Sit back and enjoy the Rise of the Hausa!
The exiles traveled to the Hausa city of Daura, where a snake named Sarki (interestingly, the Hausa word for "ruler" or "king") terrorized the locals by only allowing them to draw water from its well on one day of the week. After Bayajidda's hostess, an old woman, told him about Sarki, he killed the snake and beheaded it. The queen of Daura, Magajiya, married him as a reward.
Bayajidda had three sons: Biram by his first wife, Bawo by Queen Magajiya, and Karbagari by a concubine Bagwariya. Bawo went on to have six sons, who along with Biram were said to have founded the seven Hausa kingdoms of Daura, Kano, Katsina, Zazzau, Gobir, Rano, and Biram. Karbagari also had seven sons, who supposedly founded the seven kingdoms of Zamfara, Kebbi, Yauri, Gwari, Kwararafa, Nupe, and Ilorin, which surrounded the first seven to the west and south.
The Hausa Bakwai or "true Hausa" cities: a relatively small region of Africa, especially compared to the famous empires surrounding them.
Africa in 1241. No one at the time would have expected a powerful state to rise from the most disunited region of Africa, especially one bordering both mighty Mali and powerful Kanem.
This is my first foray into AAR writing! I wanted to work with a shorter time period than the usual 1066 or 769 start date (though I may convert into EU4 if I still want to continue in 1453), and thought the similarity between the name of the 1241 date "Rise of the Hansa" and the Kingdom of Hausaland in West Africa was as interesting a starting point as any. My overall goal will be to build a strong Kingdom or even Empire of Hausaland, thriving on control of the trans-Saharan trade, though I'll mostly focus on individual characters. Finally, I'll try to keep an update schedule of two or three short chapters each week. Sit back and enjoy the Rise of the Hausa!