Policy and Influence
Seku Amadu ruled through a system of provincial governors, mostly his relatives, and a central council of forty elders. In Seku Amadu's theocratic state the law was based on strict observance of the Maliki interpretation of Sharia law. Qadis administered the Sharia in each province, playing an important role in the state. The rigid conformance to the law led one authority to call Masina "as near the ideal nomocratic state as is likely to be achieved."
Seku Amadu followed a policy of settling the formerly nomadic herders. He made vigorous efforts to promote Islam. Under Seku Aḥmadu Lobbo and his heirs, the Niger bend region was stable and trade flourished. However, some tension was caused by the extremely puritan attitudes of the rulers, such as banning the use of tobacco and requiring full segregation of women from men, counter to Tuareg custom.
At the height of the Empire's power, a 10,000 man army was stationed in the city, and Seku Aḥmadu ordered the construction of six hundred madrasas to further the spread of Islam. He also ordered alcohol, tobacco, music and dancing banned in accordance with Islamic law, and constructed a social welfare system to provide for widows, orphans, and the poor.
One of the most enduring results of his rule was a pastoral code regulating access to and use of the inland Niger delta region by Fula cattle herders and diverse farming communities.
Read more about this topic: Seku Amadu
Famous quotes containing the words policy and/or influence:
“While I am in favor of the Government promptly enforcing the laws for the present, defending the forts and collecting the revenue, I am not in favor of a war policy with a view to the conquest of any of the slave States; except such as are needed to give us a good boundary. If Maryland attempts to go off, suppress her in order to save the Potomac and the District of Columbia. Cut a piece off of western Virginia and keep Missouri and all the Territories.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Somewhere along the line of development we discover who we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else’s life not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)