A Muslim, he began to amass a personal following in the mid-1850s, establishing a military base on the Upper Niger. By 1870 his authority was acknowledged throughout the Kanaka region of the River Milo, in what is now eastern Guinea. By 1880 he ruled a vast Dyula empire, from the Upper Volta in the east to the Fouta Djallon in the west, over which he attempted to create a single Islamic administrative system. His imperial ambitions clashed with those of the French and there were sporadic battles between 1882 and 1886. His attempts to impose Islam on all his people resulted in a revolt in 1888. A French invasion in 1891–92 forced him to move eastwards to the interior of the Ivory Coast, where he established himself in Bondoukon (1891–98). French forces, however, captured him and he was exiled to Gabon.