Bayajidda: From Baghdad Prince to Hausa Royalty
Bayajidda is a key figure in the history of the spread of royalty in Hausa. This man originally came from Baghdad, which is now known as Iraq. He is the brother of the king of Baghdad at that time. His full name is Abu Yazid.
Bayajidda, he left the land of Baghdad with some of his people, due to the differences between him and the rulers of the town.
He started camping in Barno after his long journey, which he passed through Egypt and Sudan before arriving in Barno where he started camping.
When Bayajidda arrived in the land of Barno, he arrived with a strong army which the king of Barno of the time saw as a threat to his kingdom. For this reason, the king began to think of how he could do it in a tactful way to control the people of Bayajidda from the back and send him out of the town. This thought of the king of Barno led to the marriage of his daughter named Magira to Bayajidda.
The occurrence of this marriage between Bayajidda and this daughter of the king of Barno led to a good relationship between them, which reached the point where Bayajidda used to combine his army with that of the king of Barno to go to war to protect the kingdom of Barno whenever the need arose. The closeness of this relationship also gave the Barno king the opportunity to control some of the people of Bayajidda, which caused a threat to the life of Bayajidda, which caused his death from the Barno dynasty.
He left the town of Barno with his wife and went to the West. He did not go anywhere but a town called Garun Gabas, which is now under the rule of the Hadeja emirate. In this town, some narrators said that he left his pregnant wife to give birth to a son, while others said that they were together and she gave birth to the son. Anyway, they all agree that she gave birth to a boy.
Even in this town, Bayajidda was not calm, because he thought that he could be followed from Barno, so he went further west where he camped again in the town of Gaya. After he settled in this town of Gaya, he decided to leave to add to the future. Abubakar (2007), said that they gave him a sword and a knife.
Bayajidda's Sword and Knife
With this sword and knife, he went north again until he reached the town of Daura. He entered this city of Daura through the East Gate. These swords and knives that were given to him, he used them to kill a snake that was bothering the people, it was preventing them from drawing water from the Kusugu well.
Seeing this kind of bravery that Bayajidda did, as it came in (Abubakar, 2007), then the Magajiya (queen) of this era put him in the kingdom and later she married him and gave him a concubine.
Bayajidda gave birth to two children, one the son of the queen and the other the son of a maidservant. The son of his concubine was called Karab-da-Gari (Karbë-Gari), and the son of the queen was called Bawo.
After the death of the Queen and Bayajidda, their son, Bawo, inherited the throne of Daura. This is what changed the Daura tradition of ruling a woman to a man.
These children of Bayajidda later gave birth, Bawo had children who became the Seven Hausa kings including, Gazauru who ruled the town of Daura, then Gunguma who ruled Zazzau, then Bagauda who ruled Kano, then Duma who ruled Gobir, then Kumayau who ruled Katsina, then Zauna-Kogi who ruled Rano. These cities mentioned, that is, Daura, Kano, Zazzau, Katsina, Gobir, Garun Gabas and Rano, are called Seven Hausa.
Then Karab-da-Gari also had his own sons, and they ruled the lands called Banza-Bakwai which include, Kebbi, Yawuri, Zamfara, Ilorin, Nupe, Gwari, and Kwararrafa.
This is Bayajidda who is called Abu Yazid.
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