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Since 1999, the reintroduction of Sharia in the twelve states of northern Nigeria has produced a new factor in policing and law enforcement, for which Hisbah was established to enforce a distinctive Islamic government in Kano.
The reintroduction of Sharia in the twelve states of northern Nigeria between 1999 and 2000 underscores the salience of Islam in the politics and governmentalities of the region. Popular pressure led to the reintroduction of Sharia in Kano, but its trajectory signified usage for administrative convenience and legitimacy prompted by the challenges of democratic change. The reintroduction of Sharia was a convergence of state Islam and popular Islam. Hisbah was established to enforce a distinctive Islamic government. It tackles the problems of community security in a different way, dedicated to the abolition of the business and consumption of beer, the restriction of sex work, the segregation of the sexes in public spaces, and the policing of a moral order based on Sharia.
Introduction
Throughout African history, religion and politics have been closely interwoven. Among the Hausa and Fulani Muslims of northern Nigeria, the convergence between religion and politics has continued to gather momentum. The precolonial Hausa city-states attempted to enforce Sharia Islamic law (Mazrui 1985:819). Islam took root in northern Nigeria during the eleventh century, and by the fifteenth century, Islamic judges (kadis) were being appointed for Kano and Katsina in the northwest and Borno in the northeast. The legitimization of political authority in the form of Islamic concepts dates from the time of Muhammadu Rumfa, the first acknowledged Kano Muslim emir (1463-1499). The use of religious concepts of political legitimization became reinforced during the Sokoto Jihad of the early nineteenth century (Callaway 1987:379).
The 1804 Sokoto Jihad, led by Shehu Uthman Dan Fodiyo, contributed to the spread of Islam in Hausaland and beyond. In the emirate system that was established, emirs were made religious and political leaders. Following this jihad, Islamic judicial, legal, administrative, and educational structures were established over a much wider area (Clarke 1988:3). The emirate system was consolidated under British colonial rule to achieve law and order for the purposes of control and exploitation (Elaigwu and Galadima 2003:6). Nigeria's Muslims easily constitute the largest Muslim community in black Africa (Clarke 1988:2). Nowhere else outside...