Nigeria

Variant

Kano 

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IAF0030

The Emir's Palace at Kano, which today continues to define the axis of the city, was built in the fifteenth century by Sarkin Rumfa (also Rimfa). Rumfa transformed the fabric of Kano, and was said to be the author of twelve innovations in Kano, including the palace and the Kurmi market, according to the Kano Chronicle. However, before the erection of the Gidan, or Dakin, Rumfa (sic. House of Rumfa), there existed a palace, the south gate of which now serves as the passage from the Sarkin's private courtyard to the royal graveyard. The 33-acre palace continues to house about 1,000 people in some of the most desirable housing in Kano. The palace grounds occupy the highest space in Kano. The entire palace complex is embraced by a wall of 20 to 30 feet high from the outside the height of which never exceeds more than 15 feet from the inside. Visitors at the turn of the twentieth century commented on the wall's durability, which was said to have been 15 feet thick in some places. It is tapered inward and surmounted by rounded crenellations. The exterior wall, similar to the exteriors of the buildings inside the complex, is modestly decorated with shallow arched grooves traced in the mud plaster. The eleven mile wall was once surrounded by a moat with a parapeted bridge to the main south gate. The main entry gate of the complex, Kofar Kudu, is located in the southern façade of the wall. This gate that has bronze detailing, is recessed from the line of the wall. Within the walls of the recession are studded loopholes, as once a mantelet was hung in front of the gate. Legend has it that this southern gate was sealed by Muhammad Rumfa in the 1480s, soon after the completion of Gidan Rumfa, on the advice of the town's official Islamic scholar, or malam, who prophesized that as long as the southern gate was sealed, the Rumfa dynasty would remain in power. Not until just before 1806 was the mantelet ostensibly removed, and the Rumfa dynasty then fell from power. The palace compound used to contain grazing land for the royal cattle as well as the houses of the palace retainers, public reception rooms, and the apartments of the Sarkin himself. After entering through the confines of the outer wall of the palace complex, one is confronted on the same axis by the impressive and more recent Soron Gabjeje gateway. The graceful two-story height of the doorway of the gate is buttressed by two sturdy gatehouses. The thick tapered sides of the gatehouses visually hug the slender central passage. Though the defining feature of the passage is the central steeped arch interrupted by a thin-railed passage, the side buttresses complement the center through the replication of vertically elongated windows. These side gatehouses also mimic the central roofline crenellations and corner pinnacles, which in Hausa architecture define the intersection of interior and exterior walls. Numerous other gates set up a hierarchy of accessible space through a series of courtyards. One such gate, which leads into the Soron Giwa (or Hall of the Elephants), is said to demarcate the space for the pasturing of the royal elephants. Like the Soron Gabjeje, each gate is set in an impressive gatehouse called a zaure (plural, zauruka). Many of the gates, which originally were circular entrance vestibules, have taken on a rectangular shape, such as the Soron Gabjeje gateway. This early twentieth century transformation from round to rectangular rooms is a larger trend in Hausa architecture. The Soron Gabjeje is the first court of the palace complex. The north gate of the Soron Gabjeje, which leads to the reception rooms, is much more modest. Entering through it into the next courtyard, one enters a passage that is flanked on the east by the royal audience chamber. At the end of this passageway is yet another gateway, the Soron Giwa, which leads into a private royal courtyard. Crossing this passage leads one to the outer room of the Sarkin's private apartments. This processional access of the palace resembles an elongated version of a typical Kano house, where entry through a zaure (in this case the Soron Gabjeje) leads to the semi-private kofa gida courtyard which is bounded to the north and east by reception spaces. As in a traditional Kano house, one proceeds from this space into the private apartments which shelter the family's private cikin gida. In the case of the palace, the main reception rooms, the Soron Ingila to the northeast of the courtyard, and the Soron Giwa to the northwest of the courtyard, were built of clay with a door on each side, and were connected by narrow dark passages. The most elaborately decorated parts of the palace are these two royal audience chambers. The Soron Ingila interior reaches a height of between six and eight meters. The room is divided in two by high domed bays created by five arches each. These intersecting arches comprised of coupled corbels, are a unique element of Hausa architecture called bakan gizos. The main audience chamber is comprised of 20 such corbels forming ten bakan gizos. These structures are covered with azaras, heavy rigid timbers that are resistant to termites and decay, laid in two directions. These are then covered with layers of azaras set horizontally until they reach the height of the dome's apex. These azara's are usually plastered into the wall, which is made of tubali, or sun dried bricks. The plaster reveals the azara's coffering which defines rectilinear shapes on the wall surfaces. In the ceiling these beams are often left exposed to reveal their linear patterning. Inlaid enamel bowls stud the intersection of the arches. The massive doors to the room are comprised of planks bound together by iron bars fastened by nails and then ornamented with circular brass heads. Practically the entire ceiling and walls are decorated with grooved patterns and bold paint. The ceiling, the beams and the floor are stained a deep black by the varnish from a locust bean shell. The walls are plastered with a mixture that includes mica, giving the walls a silvery sheen. This plaster is burnished with a stone to give the raised sections of the grooves this soft gleam rather than a glittery effect. Mica is non-static and therefore does not attract dust as well as repelling spiders and hornets from building their webs and nests inside the dark buildings. The palace undergoes constant restoration and has been replastered multiple times throughout the centuries. More recently, yellow dye has been introduced to the micaceous clay giving the sheen more of a gold than silver tint. Also more recently, restoration craftsmen have gummed mica flakes onto the yellow base. The soffits of the arches and the ceiling panels in between are decorated with brightly painted sculpturally molded abstract designs. The abstract designs are coupled with more figural features, including a picture of an ablution jug, or santali, near the doorway. In another reception building, designated for the signing of the Sarkin's visitor book in the mid-twentieth century, one can find a representation of a sword painted onto the wall. These more bold designs are probably from the 1930s and 1940s and are more representative of an increasingly popular deeply incised style from southern Hausaland. Along with the attention to constant maintenance and repair, craftsmen have maintained stylistic license in applying new patterns and colors. The northernmost section of the palace opens onto a public space, through the Kofar Fatalwa, still very much in its fifteenth century form. The dendal, or public plaza, runs on an east-west axis and aligns the Friday Mosque, or Masallacin Jumma'a, with the north-south axis of the Emir's palace. Source: Bello, Sule. Cities of the Savannah: A history of some towns and cities of the Nigerian savannah, 30. Lagos: Nigeria Magazine, Cultural Division, Federal Ministry of Information, 1978. Carroll, Kevin. Architectures of Nigeria: architectures of the Hausa and Yourba peoples and of the many peoples between tradition and modernization, 59, 67, 82, 101, 106-107. London: published for the Society of African Missions by Ethnographica, Ltd. In association with Lester Crook Academic Publishing, 1992. Dmochowski, Z. R. An Introduction to Nigerian Traditional Architecture, Vol. 1. 4.5, 5.20-5.25. London: Ethnographica Ltd., 1990. Leary, A.H. The Development of Islamic Architecture in the Western Sudan, 44-45. MA in African Studies dissertation. University of Birmingham, 1966. Saad, Hamman Tukur. Between myth and reality: the aesthetics of traditional architecture in Hausaland, 233-235, 351. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1981.

Gidan Rumfa

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unknown

IAF0062

There is very little documentation of the Great Mosque of Kano&nbsp;<a href="http://archnet.org/media_contents/9363">prior to its destruction in the 1950s</a>, though it was said to have been the most impressive in West Africa. The mosque was probably predated by a low-profile rectangular mosque sanctuary built in the fourteenth century. The subsequent great mosque is attributed to a collaboration between Sarkin Muhammed Rumfa (c. 1463-1499) and the Egyptian 'Abd al-Rahman. It was the first mud mosque of the soro, or tower, type in Nigeria. By the late fifteenth century, there was a high frequency of commercial and religious contact between the Songhay in present-day Mali and the Hausa states of northern Nigeria and the Maghreb. According to the Kano Chronicle, 'Abd al-Rahman came to Kano from Egypt to confirm Islam's hegemony and build a Friday mosque with a minaret, in lieu of the sacred tree which rose above the modest pre-extant mosque. However, upon its construction, the minaret-like tower took on the functions of a mosque, and minarets did not establish a foothold in local design until the period of revived orthodoxy during the West African jihad. The tower, which borrowed terms from the Maghribi and Songhay words for minaret or tower, is described as a sawma' (from the Maghribi) or a sumiya (from the Songhay). What distinguished the Great Mosque of Kano from either of these regional types however is the singular monolithic tower, without external division such as the steps or ramps that mark the Songhay&nbsp;<a href="http://archnet.org/sites/1718">Tomb of Askia</a>, which is said to resemble a southern Algerian shrine. Instead, dum boards, used for re-enforcement, create an internal staircase. The tips of these boards do not project from the exterior as do the toron of Songhay architecture. The Great Mosque of Kano is said to have been shifted to a new site in 1582 by Muhammed Zaki (r. 1582-1617), and rebuilt yet again due to disrepair sometime between 1855 and 1883 by Sarkin Kano Abdullahi dan Dabo. This mosque, the one that was lauded and remarked as impressive, was perhaps not structurally different from the first mosque built by Sarkin Rumfa. Its 20 meter tall tower was surmounted with pinnacled buttresses and surrounded by a high wall. After its destruction in the 1950s, the British Government sponsored the building of a new mosque in gratitude of the Nigerian role in WWII. This new central mosque does not resemble its antecedents and has no precedent in any indigenous Nigerian architecture.&nbsp; Sources: Carroll, Kevin. Architectures of Nigeria: architectures of the Hausa and Yourba peoples and of the many peoples between tradition and modernization. London: published for the Society of African Missions by Ethnographica, Ltd. in association with Lester Crook Academic Publishing, 1992. Doi, Abdur Rahman. Islam in Nigeria, 189. Zaria: Gaskiya Corp, 1984. Leary, A.H. The Development of Islamic Architecture in the Western Sudan, 44-45. MA in African Studies dissertation. University of Birmingham, 1966. Saad, Hamman Tukur. Between myth and reality: the aesthetics of traditional architecture in Hausaland, 233. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1981.

Great Mosque (Kano) 

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IAF0063

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IAF0064

Oluibukunola F. Esuruoso

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IAF0031

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IAF0032

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IAF0033

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IAF0034

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IAF0036

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IAF0037

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Archnet is an Open Access resource, provided to the public to facilitate cultural understanding and excellence in both scholarship and practice. Content from Archnet.org may not be published, displayed, or appropriated for commercial use without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder. Unless otherwise noted, Archnet material is available for instructional, nonprofit use, and personal use on the terms of a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International</a> (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. Please contact Archnet to request permission to use the Archnet.org website and its contents beyond the scope outlined above. High-resolution images may be available by contacting us using <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>. The content available on Archnet, including but not limited to information, text, graphics, logos, and multimedia related to the the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/authorities/1903" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Trust for Culture’</a>s programmes, such as the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/54" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Historic Cities Programme</a>, the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/848" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Award for Architecture</a> and the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/132" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Music Programme</a>, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights and laws, whether owned by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, its affiliates, or third parties. Unauthorized use, reproduction, distribution, modification, or display of this content is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the respective copyright or trademark holder. Violation of this prohibition may result in legal penalties.

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<h2>ARCHNET FAQ</h2>1. Will ARCHNET work on my device?Archnet works well on the most recent version of any major browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge), either on a mobile device or computer. It may work on older or less common browsers as well. If Archnet fails to work properly on your machine, please let us know about your experience by clicking the blue feedback button at bottom right!2. Will my URLs from earlier versions of Archnet still work?Yes, if they are from the version launched in January 2013. As of October 12, 2021, all URLs from the old Archnet have been redirected to ARCHNET.&nbsp;&nbsp;3. How do I download a/n:&nbsp;<ul><li>image - Select the image you want to download from search results, a site or an authority. The image will open in your browser.&nbsp;Right click to download.&nbsp;For larger, high-resolution copies, see contact us using archnet@mit.edu.&nbsp;</li><li>publication - Open the page for the publication in your browser and click the download button. Reprinting Archnet publications is permissible only for personal use.&nbsp;Please contact us for any other requests.&nbsp;</li><li>site descriptions and metadata - Site descriptions and metadata can be used for any nonprofit or educational organization with appropriate attribution to the authors and Archnet.&nbsp;</li><li>video - Currently video downloads are not possible. If you'd like to use an Archnet video, please contact <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>See our <a href="https://www.archnet.org/pages/terms" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Terms of Use</a> for information on how you can use Archnnet material.4. Can I contribute material to Archnet?&nbsp;Yes!&nbsp;See our <a href="https://www.archnet.org/pages/contribute" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Contribute</a> page for more information.&nbsp;Calls for specific contributions are also also shared in our social media and on the <a href="https://libraries.mit.edu/akdc/category/contributors/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">web site of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;5. What happened to the Archnet Timeline?&nbsp;Timeline has migrated into the ARCHNET NEXT Collections page&nbsp;<a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/collection_type/3/1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">as a category</a>. These collections provide short introductions for each period, often offering lists of additional resources at the end of the entry. Only the timeline graphic listing the periods along a chronological axis has not migrated.6. My question isn't here.&nbsp;How can I get help?&nbsp;If your issue is with using Archnet, use the blue Feedback button to alert us to your issue. This will allow you to include a screenshot or recording. Please, also, feel free to contact us at <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>We are currently developing the help section of ARCHNET NEXT. In the meantime, please use the blue Feedback button in ARCHNET NEXT to send us feedback or other questions. Contact us at <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>.&nbsp;

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Welcome to ARCHNET, an open access, interdisciplinary, intellectual resource focused on the built environment of Muslim societies.Focused on the built environment of Islamic civilizations past and present, we seek to:<ul><li>Facilitate excellence in scholarship and professional work by&nbsp;providing reliable information and ready access&nbsp;to vetted, high-quality textual and multimedia resources&nbsp;focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design,&nbsp;heritage&nbsp;conservation, economic and environmental sustainability, community development and resilience in the face of rapid change, and related topics.</li><li>Enable teaching and learning in these domains by providing educators with reliable, effective pedagogical material and teaching aids.&nbsp;</li><li>Serve as a platform through which scholars, practitioners, and institutions can bring their work to new global audiences.&nbsp;</li><li>Promote intercultural understanding and dialogue through reliable, high-quality, peer-reviewed material on the diversity of and pluralism within Muslim societies and the interaction between Islamic and other religious, cultural, and philosophical traditions as it relates to architecture and urbanism.</li><li>Enable easy access to a wide variety of resources via a custom-built, web-based, mobile-friendly platform optimized to minimize financial, infrastructural, linguistic, and other barriers to access.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>Launched in 2002 after several years of development, ARCHNET is a pioneering digital resource that has proven a reliable authority on the built environment of Muslim societies, past and present.&nbsp;ARCHNET is a partnership between the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/1342" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries</a> (AKDC@MIT) and the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/authorities/1903" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Trust for Culture</a> (AKTC), with support from the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/50" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture</a> at Harvard and MIT.&nbsp;ARCHNET is developed and maintained by <a href="https://www.performantsoftware.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Performant Software Solutions</a>.

Kano
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Kano

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