Fulani Muslim leader in western Africa who established a theocratic state in the Macina region of what is now Mali.

Influenced by the teachings of the Islāmic reformer Usman dan Fodio, he began a holy war (jihad) in 1818 or possibly as early as 1810. He defeated the forces of the pagan Fulani and Bambara chiefs and established a capital at Hamdallahi. His rule extended to the cities of Timbuktu and Djénné, where he had the great mosque destroyed because it offended his fundamentalist Islāmic views. The rule of his family continued under his successors, Ahmadu II and Ahmadu III, until the latter was defeated by al-Ḥajj ʿUmar in 1862.