SUFISM IN ILORIN EMIRATE: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Sufism and Islam are the two sides of the same coin, one of which cannot be divorced from another. The two formed the cornerstone upon which the edifice of Ilorin emirate was built. This was so because, majority of the early scholars who settled at the ancient Okesuna which was the first Islamic centre from which Islam spread to other places in Yorubaland and who propagated Islam and Islamic education within and outside the emirate were Sufis. Suffice it to say that Shaykh Salih bin Junta popularly known as “Shaykh Alimi”, whose leadership turned the emirate to a local Makkah was also a Sufi master. In the light of the above, this paper historically examined the establisment of Ilorin emirate and the growth and development of Sufism in it