The city of Kano appears on the map of the Arab geographer, Idrisi, A.D. 1145, and the hill of Dala is mentioned in the earliest records as the original site of Kano. Barth, however, concluded that the present town does not date earlier than the second half of the 16th century, and that before the rise of the Fula power (c. 1800) scarcely any great Arab merchant ever visited Kano. The present town may be the successor of an older town occupying a position of similar pre-eminence. Kano submitted to the Fula without much resistance, and under them in the first half of the 19th century flourished greatly. It was visited by Hugh Clapperton, an English officer, in 1824, and in it Barth lived some time in 1851 and again in 1854. Barth's descriptions of the wealth and importance of the city attracted great attention in Europe, and Kano was subsequently visited by several travellers, missionaries, and students of Hausa, but none was permitted to live permanently in the city. In the closing years of the century, Kano became the centre of resistance to British influence, and the emir, Alieu, was the most inveterate of Fula slave raiders. In February 1903 the city was captured by a British force under Colonel T. L. N. Morland, and a new emir, Abbas, a brother of Alieu, installed. After the occupation by the British in 1903 the province was organized for administration on the same system as that adopted throughout northern Nigeria. The emir on his installation takes an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, and accepts the position of a chief of the first class under British rule. A resident is placed at his court, and assistant residents have their headquarters in the administrative districts of the province. British courts of justice are established side by side with the native courts throughout the province. Taxation is assessed under British supervision and paid into the native treasury. A fixed portion is paid by the emir to the British government. The emir is not allowed to maintain a standing army, and the city of Kano is the headquarters of the British garrison. The conditions of appointment of the emirs are fully laid down in the terms accepted at Sokoto on the close of the Sokoto-Kano campaign of 1903. Since the introduction of British rule there has been no serious trouble in the province. The emir Abbas worked loyally with the British and proved himself a ruler of remarkable ability and intelligence. He was indefatigable in dispensing justice, and himself presided over a native court in which he disposed of from fifty to a hundred cases a month. He also took an active interest in the reform and reorganization of the system of taxation, and in the opening of the country to trade. He further showed himself helpful in arranging difficulties which at times arose in connexion with the lesser chiefs of his province.