Nigerian literature

This period had many authors who produced books that dealt with theology, history, biography, maths, language, writing, documentaries, geography, astronomy, diplomacy and poetry.

• Ibn Furtu was the Chronicler of Mai Idris Alooma. He produced two historical works (the Book of the Bornu Wars, and the Book of the Kanem Wars) which detail the wars that transformed Bornu from an independent Sultanate into an Empire. These works were produced in 1576 and 1578 respectively.

• Muhammad abd al-Razzaq al-Fallati was a 16th-century Fulbe scholar in Hausaland who wrote K.fi'l-tawhid

• Uthman Ibn Idris of Borno sent a letter to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in 1391-1392. The letter was one of a diplomatic nature, it also contained poetry and an erudite understanding of Islamic law. This letter contains the earliest extant indigenous written poem produced in Nigeria.[2]

• Muhammad al-Maghili wrote On The Obligations of Princes in Kano for Muhammad Rumfa in the 15th century citation needed. Al-Maghili was a berber from North Africa who was born in an area that is now Algeria.

• Muhammad ibn al-Sabbagh was a 17th-century scholar and author from Katsina, Northern Nigeria. He was celebrated during and well after his time he wrote praise poetry for the Sultan of Borno's conquest against the Jukun people. He also wrote a poem praising the Sultan of Katsina Muhammad Uban Yari.

• Muhammad ibn Masani was the student of Muhammad ibn al Sabbagh and also a celebrated scholar from Katsina. He also produced works in the Hausa language during the 17th century. He wrote many works, one of them was a documentary on the Yoruba people, this work was mentioned by Muhammad Bello who lived some 200 years later in his Infaq'l-Maysuur. Azhar al-ruba fi akhbar Yuruba was one of the earliest written accounts on the transatlantic slave trade by an indigenous African, which he also noted that free Muslim people were taken from all parts of Hausaland and sold to European Christians. He also wrote to a Jurist in Yorubaland explaining how to determine the time for the sunset prayer. His work in Hausa was a poem he had heard from a woman in Katsina, called Wakar Yakin Badara. So far it is known that he has Authored ten books.

• Abdullahi Suka was a 17th-century Kano scholar of Fulbe ancestry who is said to have written the oldest extant literature in Hausa with his work Riwayar Annabi Musa. He also authored Al-Atiya li'l muti(The gift of the donor) and many others.

• Salih ibn Isaq wrote an account of Birnin Garzargamu in 1658, describing the capital city of Borno during the reign of Mai Ali ibn Al Hajj Umar

• Sheikh Jibril ibn Umar was an 18th-century scholar and author, in his work Shifa al-Ghalil he attacked Muslims who mixed indigenous beliefs with Islam. Admixture of Animists practices and Islam was one of the main reasons given for the Jihad of Uthman dan Fodio during the 19th Century.