Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2018-05-07DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00901003
Paul Naylor
{"title":"Abdullahi dan Fodio and Muhammad Bello’s Debate over the Torobbe-Fulani: Case Study for a New Methodology for Arabic Primary Source Material from West Africa","authors":"Paul Naylor","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00901003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00901003","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the conflict between Abdullahi dan Fodio and his nephew, Muhammad Bello, over the origin of their ethnic group, the Torobbe-Fulani. Initially open to his uncle’s theories of an Arabocentric migration narrative, Bello went on to change his views abruptly and undermine his uncle’s work. Through sketching the background to the conflict followed by a close reading of the documents themselves–Abdullahi’s īdāʿ al-nusūkh and Bello’s critical commentary to it, the ḥāshiya –I suggest these documents offer different models for political legitimacy. Prefaced by a critical analysis of the use of the Fodiawa’s Arabic writings in Sokoto historiography, I suggest that future approaches must take into account the political nature of these documents, the specific contexts in which they were produced and the personal relationships of their authors.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"39 1","pages":"34-54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78922456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2018-05-07DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00901001
Amir Syed, C. C. Stewart
{"title":"From Texts to Meanings: Close Reading of the Textual Cultures of Islamic Africa","authors":"Amir Syed, C. C. Stewart","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00901001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00901001","url":null,"abstract":"The previous volume of Islamic Africa (vol. 8, 2017), guest-edited by Fallou Ngom and Mustapha H. Kurfi, was devoted to seven essays addressing ʿajami texts in Africa. Like the four articles that follow, they were presented at the 2016 Symposium held in the memory of Professor John O. Hunwick (1936–2015) at Northwestern University, “Sacred Word: Changing Meanings in Textual Cultures of Islamic Africa.”1 The four essays here feature a close analysis of the internal meanings of texts from Islamic Africa.2 The symposium’s emphasis was on research that is now re-shaping our use of Arabic and Arabic-script manuscripts in Africa. Participants were asked to reflect on both Arabic and ʿajami writing (African languages written in the Arabic alphabet), as well as textual analyses. Within those foci, the symposium call-for-papers specified an interest in the meaning and the sanctity of the Word in the lives of African Muslim authors and their communities, and it asked how these may have changed across time. This set of papers highlights some of the most significant contributions that can be obtained from a close-reading","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"34 1","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78944119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2018-05-07DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00901011
Zachary Valentine Wright
{"title":"Ahmad al-Tijânî de Fès: une sanctuaire soufi aux connexions transnationales , written by Johara Berriane","authors":"Zachary Valentine Wright","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00901011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00901011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"7 1","pages":"130-132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79177070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2018-05-07DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00901007
Benedikt Pontzen
{"title":"Islamic Revivalism in Contemporary Ghana , written by Yunus Dumbe","authors":"Benedikt Pontzen","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00901007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00901007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"3 4 1","pages":"113-117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79409690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2018-05-07DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00901004
J. Dell
{"title":"Unbraiding the Qu’ran: Wolofal and the Tafsīr Tradition of Senegambia","authors":"J. Dell","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00901004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00901004","url":null,"abstract":"Thanks to the work of scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, the orthographic practice known as “ ʿajami ,” or the writing of non-Arabic languages in Arabic script, is better known today than ever before, expanding alongside scholarly efforts to understand it. This article contributes to this renewed interest by examining the first known commentary on the Qur’an written entirely in Wolofal, or Wolof in modified Arabic script. Contra the prevailing populist spirit of contemporary ʿajami scholarship, it argues that ʿajami texts were not always intended for an audience of non-Arabophones. In the case of Mawridu al-ẓamān fī tafsīr al-qurān , a Wolofal commentary written by the Murid scholar Muhammadu Dem (d. 1965), ʿajami techniques were employed to produce a text explicitly intended for a specialized audience already literate in Arabic. Dem’s commentary therefore qualifies the argument that ʿajami texts necessarily reached non-Arabophone audiences.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"80 1","pages":"55-76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80879970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2018-05-07DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00901002
Stephanie Zehnle
{"title":"“Where is My Region?” Geographical Representation and Textuality in Sokoto","authors":"Stephanie Zehnle","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00901002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00901002","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is devoted to geographical knowledge of the world and the definition of homeland and outland among the elite of the early Sokoto Caliphate (ca. 1800–1840). It argues that with the creation of a territorial jihadist state, geography became an important tool within religious and political discourses because in Sokoto warfare was predicated upon a precise mapping of the “Land of Islam” and the “Land of Unbelief”. The circulation of contradictory accounts about landscapes and rivers in the Sahel via medieval Arabic books, traders, pilgrims and soldiers, will receive special attention. The key argument is that written geographical accounts and cartography from Sokoto were not only restricted by the information available for this task, but also by the characteristics of the genres: texts can express uncertainties about concepts of space, in contrast, cartography requires geographical definition and spatial exactitude. This article is thus dedicated to the analysis of content and form of geographical discourses in the early Sokoto State by the comparison of texts and a map.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":"10-33"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82939977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2018-05-07DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00901008
Albrecht Hofheinz
{"title":"The Arabic Script in Africa: Studies in the Use of a Writing System , edited by Meikal Mumin and Kees Versteegh","authors":"Albrecht Hofheinz","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00901008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00901008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":"118-122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88584327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2017-10-17DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00801011
O. Kane
{"title":"Living Knowledge in West African Islam. The Sufi Community of Ibrahim Niasse, written by Zachary Valentine Wright","authors":"O. Kane","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00801011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00801011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"50 1","pages":"229-231"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79211570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic AfricaPub Date : 2017-10-17DOI: 10.1163/21540993-00801013
K. Vikør
{"title":"Arabic Literature of Africa: Volume 5. The Writings of Mauritania and the Western Sahara, written by Charles C. Stewart, with Sidi Ahmed Wuld Ahmed Salim","authors":"K. Vikør","doi":"10.1163/21540993-00801013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-00801013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"29 1","pages":"232-236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85887886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}