Karshi at a glance – Musa Muhammed-Mustapha

HISTORY OF KARSHI KINGDOM IN BRIEF:

Karshi is located in the Federal Capital Territory, a satellite town situated in Abuja Municipal Area Council in Nigeria. Its geographical coordinates are 8° 49′ 40″ North, 7° 33′ 0″ East and its original name (with diacritics) is Karshi. Karshi is about 38 km to Federal city and 41km from Karshi to Apo. The predominant tribes in this settlement are the Gwandaras who constitute about 85% of the total population. Other monitory tribes in Karshi are Gade, Gbagyi, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Idoma, Tiv and others. The predominant occupations of the major inhabitants are farming, hunting and blacksmithing. Islam is the major religion of the people in Karshi central area while few minority tribes dispatch around the area practice Christianity.


Karshi town believed to be one of the oldest settlement in the middle belt zone, it was founded by Mallam Danbaba when Islam was first introduced in Kano at about 14th century, the ruling family to which Danbaba belonged took exception to the new religion to settle in Karshi today.


This uncompromising stand of Danbaba on the new religion led to a series of misunderstanding which culminated in his disinheritance to the throne. Subsequently, Danbaba and his followers migrated from the present Dala Kano to safeguard their faith and gods. As a result they were nicknamed “GWANDARAWA DA SALLAH”. This means “preference to dance than conversion to Islam”. With time, the name shortened to “GWANDARA” When Danbaba and his followers left Kano, they wandered about the present day Zaria town and later proceeded to an area in Kaduna state and founded Fadan Karshi. They also move from there and founded what is the present day Karshi Town in the Federal Capital Territory. Their first place of settlement is called KUPAYI around 1366, which is about 5km west of the present day Karshi and 27km away from the Federal Capital City. It is located on the hills called KONGURU for security purpose.


… .. . edited by: Musa Muhammed-Mustapha | Posted by: Sani Musa Sarkin-pada (Karshi)