Muhammadu Attahiru II

Muhammadu Attahiru II (died 1915) was the thirteenth Sultan of the Sokoto Caliphate, reigning from 1903 to 1915. A great-grandson of Usman dan Fodio, the Caliphate's founder, and a son of the fourth Sultan, Ali Babba bin Bello, he was appointed Sultan by the British after their conquest of Sokoto, and so became the first Sultan of the colonial period. No source consulted records the year of his birth.¹²

On the death of the eleventh Sultan, Abdur Rahman Atiku, in 1902, Attahiru II was the primary challenger to the candidacy of Muhammadu Attahiru I, who was selected instead. After losing that selection, it is claimed that Attahiru II became largely uninterested in the affairs of the Caliphate. In 1903 British forces conquered Sokoto, and Attahiru I fled the city with many supporters. Commander Frederick Lugard appointed Muhammadu Attahiru II the new Sultan of Sokoto on 21 March 1903 — but at the same time stripped much of the political power from the office of Sultan.¹

His reign consisted of balancing his need to serve the people he ruled and to satisfy the British colonial authorities. In 1906 a Mahdist rebellion broke out outside Sokoto in the village of Satiru. Elements of the Royal West African Frontier Force were dispatched to suppress it; on hearing the news, Attahiru sent a mixed force of 300 Sokoto cavalry and infantry, led by Mallam Isa, to join them. The combined force suppressed the rebellion, which the article describes as the last instance of armed resistance to British rule in the region. He reigned until his death in 1915, at Sokoto according to the article's infobox and Wikidata, and was succeeded by Muhammadu Maiturare.¹²

The sources identify Attahiru II by his descent and his office: great-grandson of the founder, son of a Sultan, thirteenth Sultan himself. Neither the English article nor Wikidata names a school, madhhab or branch for him personally, and Wikidata carries no religion value for him. Descent from Usman dan Fodio and the Sultan's office are lineage and office, which never attest a school, so his faith is recorded as unknown in the data record.¹²

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.