Sheikhu Ahmadu (Arabic: شيخ أحمد بن محمّد لبّو, romanized: Shaykh Aḥmadu bin Muḥammadu Lobbo; Fula: Seeku Aamadu; [a]) (c. 1776 – 20 April 1845) was the Fulbe founder of the Massina Empire (Diina of Hamdullahi) in the Inner Niger Delta, now the Mopti Region of Mali.
[2] In the Inner Niger Delta region, alliances of Fulbe traders ruled the towns like Djenné, but non-Moslem Bambara people controlled the river.
[3] Amadu's views brought him into conflict with his local, pagan Fulani chief, who called for help from his suzerain, the Bambara king of Segu.
[6] Among the Fulbe, Seku Amadu was supported by literate Muslims, formerly nomadic, who were influenced by the Sufi revival and were enthusiastic about Islamic reform.
[2] Seku Amadu's theocratic state controlled the Inner Niger Delta, and exerted some authority over the nearby Timbuktu, Ségou and Kaarta.
He issued a manifesto in which he declared that Seku Amadu was the spiritual heir of Askia Mohammad I, the sixteenth century ruler of the Songhai Empire.
He sent an emissary with a large body of troops to al-Qā'id 'Uthmān bin Bābakr, the temporal ruler, asking him to give up use of the drum and other forms of ceremony, to which 'Uthmān agreed.
[11] The period of stability lasted until the Jihad led by El Hadj Umar Tall in 1862 overthrew Aḥmadu's grandson, Amadu III, and threw the region into chaos.
However, some tension was caused by the extremely puritan attitudes of the rulers, such as banning the use of tobacco and requiring full segregation of women from men, counter to Tuareg custom.
[12] At the height of the Empire's power, a 10,000 man army was stationed in the city, and Seku Aḥmadu ordered the construction of six hundred madrasas to further the spread of Islam.
He also ordered alcohol, tobacco, music and dancing banned in accordance with Islamic law, and constructed a social welfare system to provide for widows, orphans, and the poor.
One of the most enduring results of his rule was a pastoral code regulating access to and use of the inland Niger delta region by Fula cattle herders and diverse farming communities.