Beyond jihad : the pacifist tradition in West African Islam

377 Pages·2016·4.52 MB·English

by  Sanneh

i
Beyond Jihad
ii
iii
Beyond Jihad
The Pacifist Tradition in West African Islam
LAMIN SANNEH
1
iv
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress
ISBN 978–0 –1 9–9 35161–9
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
v
In tribute to the Jakhanke clerics who follow
the pathways of tolerance and commitment
with learning and humor
vi
vii
CONTENTS
Author’s Note ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Issues and Directions 1
PART ONE HISTORICAL GENESIS
1. Beyond North Africa: Synthesis and Transmission 21
2. Beyond the Veil: The Almoravids and Ghana 42
3. Beyond Desert Trails: Religion and Social Change 55
4. Beyond Routes and Kingdoms: New Frontiers,
Old Hinterlands 65
PART TWO CLERICAL EMERGENCE
5. Beyond Trade and Markets: Community and Vocation 75
6. Beyond Homeland: Religious Formation and Expansion 103
7. Beyond Tribe and Tongue in Futa Jallon: Religion
and Ethnicity 119
8. Beyond Consolidation: Rejuvenating the Heritage 131
9. Beyond Confrontation and Crisis: Colonial Denouement 167
vii
viii
viii Contents
10. Beyond Confinement: Mobile Cells and the Clerical Web 193
11. Beyond Consensus: A House Divided 201
PART THREE WIDER HORIZONS
12. Beyond Jihad: Champions and Opponents 217
13. Beyond Politics: Comparative Perspectives 238
14. End of Jihad? Tradition and Continuity 259
Timeline 271
Glossary 275
Notes 281
Bibliography 319
Index 339
ix
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Studies of Islam and of Africa form a divided picture. Studies of Islam tend to
view the religion as an intellectual, Arab civilization remote from Africa— a
view that oversimplifies the complex, layered nature of Arab religion. Studies
of Africa cast Islam as foreign and marginal, relegating it to its local function
(or dysfunction) on the grounds that Islam’s intellectual heritage has no place
in Africa’s unwritten past. A distinction, however, between Islamic Africa and
Black Africa is nowhere found in Islamic teaching, and there are some notable
exceptions to the prevalent dichotomous approach, such as Jamil Abun Nasr’s
Muslim Communities of Grace. Yet an academic gulf has been created between
the history of Islam and the history of Africa.
This book presents Islam as part of the history of Africa as well as a religious
heritage in its own right. I use the framework of religious discourse and teach-
ings to explore the historical impact of Islam on society in terms of its ortho-
dox creed as well as its local appropriation.
Despite the dominant focus on jihad, and the syncretism condemned by
that focus, many scholars have observed Islam’s peaceful development in so-
cieties throughout Africa. In answer to the current climate of political tension
and cultural stereotypes, this book offers an explicit examination of Islam’s
pacifist achievement in Africa in the larger framework of Islam’s centuries- long
intellectual tradition. Where they might be illuminating, I have introduced
historical and thematic comparisons with the Western tradition.
As everywhere else, Islam was introduced in Africa with demarcations that
properly distinguished it from other religions, but that still left a significant
margin of overlap and parallels with local religions. Indeed, the history of
Islam is at heart the process of negotiation and adjustment with other tradi-
tions and cultures, including the modern West. Islam was not insulated from
that historical process, however particular and distinct the African phase was.
ix