Historical Works of Al-Iluriy: An Evaluation

Abstract

At the eve of Nigeria‘s independence, its historiography got branded with 3Rs; Reconstruction, Rebranding and Re-presentation. This auspicious development was orchestrated by emergence of indigenous historians as authorities at the history departments of Nigerian universities. The magnanimous efforts of K.O. Dike, Saburi Biobaku, J. C. Anene, and Yusuf Bala Usman to mention a few, presented later generations of historians with an indispensable historiography tagged ‗Nationalist historiography‘. Nationalist historiography is that which is embedded with presentation of historical facts in the perspectives of nationals. Nationalist historiography freed African past from the shackles of Eurocentric views on African history, and it holds its acknowledgements to the works of Muslim-Arab historians, the chief of who were Al-Mas‘udi, Al-Bakri, and Ibn Batuta among others. Some indigenous Arab writers of history were however in existence before the founders of the Ibadan School of history and its contemporaries. Some of them are Usman Dan Fodio, Abdullah bn Fodio, and Abubakar Ahmad Ikokoro, who in 1912 wrote Ta‘lif Akhbarul Qurun min Umarai Ilurin (History of the Emirs of llorin). It was in continuity of the efforts of these writers that Al-Iluriy published his historical works. Adopting analytical approach, this paper aims at reviewing the background to Al-Iluriy‘s history writing scholarship, his adopted approaches in the reconstruction of past, extent of accuracy and objectivity in those his works and quantification of their contributions to Arab and nationalist historiographies. This study concludes that the historical works of AlIluriy did not only contribute to nationalist historiography, but also redirected attention of their audiences to the raw sources of African history i.e., the records of Muslim-Arab historians.