A historical, spiritual, and literary portrait of a remarkable 19th-century African Muslim woman.

" . . . a most welcome addition to the body of scholarship on the Sokoto Jihad and Caliphate." —Religious Studies Review

The fascinating life and times of Nana Asma'u (1793 - 1864), a West African woman who was a Muslim scholar and poet. As the daughter of the spiritual and political leader of the Sokoto community, Asma'u was a role model and teacher for other Muslim women as well as a scholar of Islam and a key advisor to her father as he waged a jihad to bring Islam to the population of what is now northwestern Nigeria.