Kano

Kano (Ajami: كانو) is the capital city of Kano State, which is the most populous Nigerian state located in the North West zone. The city has been a major human settlement for millennia. It is the second most populous city by population within city limits, with over four million citizens in 5,700 km2 (15,000/sq mi).

It is the traditional state of the two-centuries old Dabo dynasty who since the 19th century have remained the traditional rulers of the city-state until the Battle of Kano when the city was absorbed into the British Empire. Kano Emirate Council is the current traditional institution inside the city boundaries of Kano, and under the authority of the Government of Kano State.

The city located in the Sahel, south of the Sahara, is one of the medieval Hausa seven kingdoms and the principal inhabitants of the city are the Hausa people. Centuries before British colonization, Kano was strongly cosmopolitan with settled populations of Arab, Kanuri, Berber and Fula and remains so with the Hausa language spoken as a lingua-franca by over 70 million speakers in the region.

Islam arrived the city in the 11th century or earlier primarily through the trans-Saharan trade and as a result became wealthy and the commercial nerve centre of the region and Northern Nigeria, and is still associated as the “centre of commerce”.