Muhammad Marwa (died 1980), best known by his nickname Maitatsine, was a controversial Muslim preacher in Nigeria who founded the Yan Tatsine, a militant Quranist movement that first appeared around the early 1970s.
His preaching attracted largely a following of youths, unemployed migrants, and those who felt that mainstream Muslim teachers were not doing enough for their communities.
[citation needed] By December 1980, continued Yan Tatsine attacks on other religious figures and police forced the Nigerian army to become involved.
[8] According to a 2010 article published by the Sunday Trust magazine, the Nigerian military cremated Maitatsine's remains, which now rest in a bottle kept at a police laboratory in Kano.
[10] In this round of rioting, Musa Makaniki, a close disciple of Maitatsine, emerged as a leader and Marwa's successor.