This history of the African kingdom that included the famous trans-Saharan trading city of Kano is the third in the late M. G. Smiths series of histories of the Hausa-Fulani kingdoms in West Africa. Combining the approaches of social anthropology and history, Smith provides a fascinating account of this kingdoms complex political and administrative organization from medieval times to the threshold of Nigerian independence. The book relies on written sources in Arabic, Hausa, and English, but it is supplemented by in-depth interviews with Fulani rulers and councilors who were intimately familiar with the organization of the Muslim emirate of Kano before the British arrived in 1903. In the final chapter, Smith continues his analytical inquiry, begun in his earlier books, into the processes of change in political units.

Many improvements have been made to the information. Latitude and longitude references have been added, much more information on capital cities and massive updating of industrial information and population figures. The previous edition was published in 1986.

First published between 1913 and 1994, this 6 volume set examines the history of Islam in a variety of regions across the world. Spanning continents from Africa, to Asia, North America and Europe, and ranging from 19th century ethnographical studies to modern day historical research, these titles not only demonstrate the diversity within this global religion, but also how the study of Islam has changed over time. The titles in this set will be of interest to those studying the history of Islam as well as those fascinated by the study of religion and international communities itself.