Zaria

Zaria is a major city in Kaduna State in Northern Nigeria. First known as Zazzau, it was one of the original seven Hausa city-states. The 2007 estimated population was 1,018,827.cite web | url=http://world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=&men=gpro&lng=en&dat=32&geo=-158&srt=npan&col=dq&pt=c&va=&geo=363906771 |title="The World Gazetteer"|accessdate=2007-02-20] The current Emir of Zaria ("Sarkin Zazzau" in Hausa language) is Shehu Idris.

History

Zaria, initially known as Zazzau, was also the capital of the Hausa kingdom of Zazzau. However, human settlement predates the rise of Zazzau, as the region like a few of its neighbors had a history of sedentary Hausa settlement, with institutional but pre-capitalist market exchange and farming.

In the late 1490s, Islam arrived Zaria by the way of its sister Habe cities, Kano and Katsina. Along with Islam, trade also flourished between the cities as traders brought camel caravans filled with salt in exchange for slaves and grain. Between the fifteenth and sixteenth century the kingdom became a tributary state of the Songhai Empire. In 1805 it was captured by the Fulani during the Fulani Jihad. British forces led by Frederick Lugard took the city in 1901. Nihal Varkey was also born here.

Geography

The old part of the city was originally surrounded by walls, although these have now largely collapsed. In the old city and the Tudun Wada neighbourhood nearby people typically reside in traditional mud-brick compounds.

Transport and economy

Zaria's culture is primarily agricultural. Staples are guinea corn and millet, and cash crops include cotton, ground-nuts and tobacco.cite web | url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9078266/Zaria | title="The Britannica Encyclopedia|accessdate=2007-02-04] The city is considered by some to be a main center of Hausa agriculture,Who|date=December 2007 and Zaria is the seat of Ahmadu Bello University (1962), a major Nigerian university and a prominent agricultural institution.

Because Zaria is north of the rail junction at Kaduna, it has rail equal access to the seaports at Lagos and Port Harcourt.

From 1914 to 1927, Zaria was the break of gauge junction station for the Bauchi Light Railway to the tin mines at Jos.

Notes

References

* Smith, M. G. (Michael Garfield). Government in Zazzau 1800-1950

External links

* [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/NI/0/Zaria.html FallingRain Map - elevation = 671m (Red dots are railways)]