Kano - History

It is the trade and shipping centre for an agricultural region where cotton, cattle, and about half of Nigeria's groundnuts are raised. Kano is the major industrial centre of N Nigeria; peanut flour and oil, cotton textiles, steel furniture, processed meat, concrete blocks, shoes, and soap are the chief manufactures. The city has long been known for its leatherwork; its tanned goatskins were sent (from about 15^th cent.) to N Africa and were known in Europe as Morocco leather. One of the seven Hausa city-states, Kano's written history dates back to A.D. 999, when the city was already several hundred years old. It was a cultural, handicraft, and commercial centre, with wide trade contacts in W and N Africa. 

In the early 16th century Kano accepted Islam. The city reached the height of its power in the 17^th and 18^th cent. In 1809 it was conquered by the Fulani, but it soon regained its leading commercial position. In 1903 a British force captured the city. In Kano are Abdullahi Bayero College (1960; part of Ahmadu Bello Univ., Zari); Gidan Makama Museum, with examples of local art; and the palace of the emir, the former ruler of the Kano city-state.