Kano Chronicle

The Kano Chronicle (Arabic: تاريخ أرباب هذا البلاد المصممة كان; The history of the masters of this country it was designed) is an Arabic-language manuscript that lists the rulers of Kano.

The Kano Chronicle is a list of rulers of Kano stretching back to the 10th century AD. It tells of eleven clans of animists (such as salt extractors, brewers, or smiths) who were warned by their spiritual leader that a stranger would come and cut down their sacred tree and wrest their dominion from them: “If he comes not in your time, assuredly he will come in the time of your children, and will conquer all in this country” (Palmer 1928: III: 98). Indeed, a man named Bagauda arrived soon after, conquered, and became the first king of Kano according to the chronicle (Palmer 1928: III: 97–100).

The existing Kano Chronicle was probably written in the 1880s by Malam Barka, a Dan Rimi (high-ranking slave official) who worked for Muhammad Bello, the Sarkin Kano (ruler of Kano) who reigned as emir from 1882 to 1893.^[1]

The chronicle may represent the amalgamation of earlier works. The original copy is still with the descendants of Malam Idris al-Khilawiy in Kano.

The best-known translation is Sir Richmond Palmer's 1908 English translation,^[2] which was derived from a manuscript obtained at Sabon Gari near Katsina, northern Nigeria.^[1]

There is also a 1933 translation into Hausa by Rupert M. East, titled Labarun Hausawa da Makwabtansu: Littafi na biyu. Since this translation made use of a different source than Palmer's translation, East's text has some differences from Palmer's text.^[3]

Rulers of Kano listed in the Kano Chronicle and their years of reign:^[4]

There are a few 19-century Arabic-language manuscript king-lists from Kano similar to the full-length Kano Chronicle, which are:^[5]

• MS Falke 0704 (Umar Falke Collection in the Melville J. Herskovits Library of Africana, Northwestern University; ends with the reign of Muhammad Alwali, 1781–1807)
• MS Jos 47 (University of Ibadan, and from the collection of Sir Richmond Palmer; ends with the reign of Ibrahim Dabo, 1819–1846)
• MS Jos 53 (University of Ibadan, and from the collection of Sir Richmond Palmer; ends with the reign of Usman, 1846–1855)
• MS Paden 399 (Paden Collection of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of Africana, Northwestern University; ends with the reign of Muhammad Tukur, 1893–1895)

• Amina Sukhera
• List of rulers of Kano
• Kingdom of Kano
• Sultanate of Kano
• Song of Bagauda

• Hunwick, J.O. (1993), "Not Yet the Kano Chronicle: king-lists with and without narrative elaboration from nineteenth-century Kano" (PDF), Sudanic Africa, 4: 95–130, archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-11-30.
• Palmer, H.R. (ed. and tr.) (1928), Sudanese Memoirs: being mainly translations of a number of Arabic manuscripts relating to the western and central Sudan (3 Volumes), Lagos: Government Printer. Reprinted 1967 by London: Frank Cass.

• Palmer, Herbert Richmond, ed. (1908), "The Kano Chronicle", Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 38, pp. 58–98 – via Internet Archive

• Kano Archive