Mallawa — The Tribes of the Fulani · Pre-Order (Ships ASAP)

Plate VIII · KATSINA · The Tribes of the Fulani

In Katsina the jihad ended with a scholar on the throne. Umaru Dallaji, flag-bearer of the Shehu, took the city in 1806 and founded the Mallawa dynasty — the line of the mallams, scholar-warriors whose descendants have held the Katsina emirate from that day to this. Book in one hand, sword in the other, and the book named the house.

The plate is the open book itself: a double-page spread with lines of study radiating outward in gold — the text from which a dynasty was read.

Survey-plate artwork on heavyweight cotton. Front: the Mallawa plate. Back: PL. 0, the Fulɓe mark — the zebu ringed by sixteen clans.