Description
Book SynopsisLiving Knowledge in West African Islam examines the actualization of religious identity in the community of Ibrāhīm Niasse (d.1975, Senegal). With millions of followers throughout Africa and the world, the community arguably represents one of the twentieth century’s most successful Islamic revivals. Niasse’s followers, members of the Tijāniyya Sufi order, gave particular attention to the widespread transmission of the experiential knowledge (maʿrifa) of God. They also worked to articulate a global Islamic identity in the crucible of African decolonization. The central argument of this book is that West African Sufism is legible only with an appreciation of centuries of Islamic knowledge specialization in the region. Sufi masters and disciples reenacted and deepened preexisting teacher-student relationships surrounding the learning of core Islamic disciplines, such as the Qurʾān and jurisprudence. Learning Islam meant the transformative inscription of sacred knowledge in the student’s very being, a disposition acquired in the master’s exemplary physical presence. Sufism did not undermine traditional Islamic orthodoxy: the continued transmission of Sufi knowledge has in fact preserved and revived traditional Islamic learning in West Africa.
Trade Review'Wright’s close reading of those sources is a particular strength. As an excellent arabist, he offers a fascinating and deep analysis of the doctrines and views of Ibrahim Niasse by looking at his collections of poems, theological treaties, and letters to disciples. Especially Niasse’s poetry is a useful source for the study of this Tijani community as acknowledged by many, however nobody before Wright has undertaken such a deep and systematic reading of Niasse’s poetry'. Ousmane Kane, Harvard University, in Islamic Africa8 (2017), pp. 229-231
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Preface List of Illustrations Glossary Note on Orthography Introduction Theoretical Considerations Macrohistory Habitus Embodiment and Subjectivity Literature Review Narrative Structure of the Book Chapter 1: Clerical Communities in West African History Enduring Learning Practices Islamic Jurisprudence of the Mālikī School Qurʾān Learning Esoteric Sciences Sufism Muslim Scholars in West African Social History The Jihad of Ma Ba Diakhou The Social Appeal of the New Marabout Communities Chapter 2: A New Senegambian Clerical Community The Niasse: Social and Intellectual Background Ibrāhīm Niasse and the ‟Community of the Flood” Chapter 3: Honored Disciples: The Cissé of the Saloum ʿAbdallāh Niasse and the Cissé of Diossong ʿAlī Cissé and Paradigmatic Discipleship Chapter 4: Knowing God On Spiritual Training Being Filled with God The Prophet Muḥammad, Mirror of God Aḥmad al-Tijānī and Divine Cognizance Chapter 5: Understanding Sufi Discipleship Assuring the Aspirants Conduct of the Disciple Qualities of the Spiritual Guide Disciple Perspectives Chapter 6: The Adaptation of Traditional Learning Practices Maintaining the Sanad Tradition Adopting the Madrasa Maintaining the Learning Circles Strategies of Structural Adaptation Chapter 7: Cognizance and the Revival of the Islamic Sciences Qurʾān Learning and Knowing God Sufism and Mālikī Jurisprudence in Medina-Baye The Esoteric Sciences and Shaykh-Disciple Relations Divine Cognizance and the Sufi Orders in West Africa Chapter 8: Islam and African Decolonization: Community Solidarities and Distinctions Islam and African Liberation Islam and the Postcolonial Nation-State Pan-Africanism A Vision of Global Islamic Solidarity Conclusion Bibliography and Sources Index
