The Faculty of Arts of the University of Ilorin is set to thrill the academic community and the larger public as it stages a commemorative international conference on the life and works of Shaykh Adam Abdullahi Al-Ilory (1917 -1992). The conference holds between 24 and 28 August, 2012 at the University Auditorium.

The conference will avail many members of the academic community the opportunity of meeting the Sultan of Sokoto and co-Chairman of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC), Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, who will chair the opening ceremony.

With about 100 abstracts already submitted from Nigeria, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany, and Sudan, among others, the conference promises to be a watershed in the annals of the University of Ilorin with the quality and quantity of personalities it will draw to the University.

The Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, will be royal host at the opening of the conference that will be graced by the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatahi Ahmed, as the Special Guest of Honour.

As the Main Organising Committee of the Conference under the Chairmanship of the Dean of Arts, Prof. Charles Bodunde, keeps working on making the conference a huge success, a high-powered Sub-Committee chaired by Prof. R. D. Abubakre is also working on the submitted papers, assessing, reviewing, editing and preparing them for publication outside the country.

Shaykh Adam Abdul-Baqi Habibubullah Abdullah Al-Ilori was born in 1917 by an Ilorin preacher father married to a Beninoise princess in 1917 in Wasa, Dendi Local Government of the old Dahomey (now Republic of Benin). He started his early education under the tutelage of his father and the quest for more knowledge made him to embark on several years of learning under the leading scholars of the day in Ibadan, Lagos and Kano after which he proceeded to Cairo in 1946.

The authorities of Al-Azhar University were impressed by the depth of his knowledge of Arabic language, literature and linguistics as well as his inimitable mastery of Islamic arts and sciences that they awarded him a certificate in Arabic and Islamic Studies.

He subsequently travelled to several Arab nations, meeting and interacting with eminent scholars.

Shaykh Al-Ilory founded his famous Arabic Training Centre (Markaz ut Ta'limil 'Arabi 'al-Islami) in 1952 in Abeokuta, Ogun State, which he relocated to Agege, Lagos in 1957. The school attracted students from across Nigeria and the West African sub-region, many of whom have today become Vice-Chancellors, professors, judges, doctors, lawyers, administrators, etc. He wrote over 100 publications including about 50 books and participated in several international conferences.