This chapter follows the fluctuating relationship between the caliphates of Ḥamdallāhi and Sokoto, which moved from being amicable to tense, then regularized, and eventually tense again in the late 1840s-1840s. It shows that the Fodiawa leaders of Sokoto constantly questioned the role of Aḥmad Lobbo as both a religious and political authority, even claiming sovereignty over Ḥamdallāhi. This tension took the shape of dialectical disputes over Aḥmad Lobbo’s claims to rule a sovereign Islamic state independent from Sokoto. The Tārīkh al-fattāsh, a political project disguised as a historical work, took shape in the 1840s as response to these challenges.