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Nana Asmaʾu

نانا أسماء بنت عثمان بن فودي

Notable figure 1207–1280 AH / 1793–1864 CE · Source: Jean Boyd and Beverly Mack (eds.), Collected Works of Nana Asma'u, Daughter of Usman 'dan Fodiyo (1793–1864), Michigan State University Press, 1997 – publisher's description and contents. · Second source: Faatimah Knight, “A Plea to Saintly Women: The Life and Legacy of Nana Asma'u”, Yaqeen Institute (research paper citing Boyd & Mack and Hunwick).

Affiliation

Poet and prose writer in Arabic

Biography

She was born into a Fulani clan in Hausaland (northern Nigeria today), a daughter of Usman dan Fodio. She wrote verse and prose in Arabic as well as in Fulfulde and Hausa, her poetry following the conventions of the Arabic qasida; her Arabic pieces include a poem welcoming the Mauritanian scholar al-Hajj Ahmad al-Shinqiti on his way to the pilgrimage, a short prose manual on the ways of the pious, and a Qasida fi munaja composed in Arabic and two other languages.