Kano

Kano is a city of more than a four million residents¹ in Kano State, Nigeria. Prominent buildings include the Sani Abacha Stadium, used for soccer. In 1200 it had about 25 thousand residents and was the largest city in what is now Nigeria.² The old city state persisted and the past is today represented by an emir. The majority of residents have been and are Hausa speakers, and they have been Moslems since 1247.³

Before the 20th century, the city name was rendered in Ajami script, perhaps like this⁴: كن

photo of Kano city walls

Historical Maps

Footnotes

(1) rounded 2009 estimate from world.gazeteer.com, accessed 11/11/2009.
(2) From Chandler's table, Cities of Africa (Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed., 1987, The Edwin Mellen Press)
(3) Ibid., page 284.
(4) Possible errors. Normally Arabic syllables that are consonant-vowel end in a long vowel, and long vowels are represented orthographically, but 'O' isn't one of them; 'A' is, but it isn't clear from the English pronunciation of Kano, whether the Hausa pronunciation would have a long 'A'. And even if it didn't, it isn't clear how the Ajami script (adaption of Arabic script to non-Arabic) would handle the situation. Also the choice of kaf instead of qaf is speculative.

External references

Emirs Palace