[2][3] He was presented the doctorate degree by Nnamdi Azikiwe, the then President of Nigeria during the First Nigerian Republic.
He first went to Sokoto in 1961 to study the ancient manuscripts in the libraries in headquarters of the defunct Caliphate founded by Sheikh Usman Danfodio.
He was mentored and taught by the tenth Grand Vizier of Sokoto, Waziri Junaidu, who was a great scholar and poet.
Under the Waziri, Murray Last became the first white man to gain full access to the long scholarly heritage of that intriguing era.
The decision to re-label the state was made by Nigerian historians, scholars and other intellectuals of the time as they felt it needed "a properly Islamic term for a properly Islamic state".