Doubt, Scholarship and Society in 17th-Century Central Sudanic Africa

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-90-04-31190-9
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Arabisch, Band 20, 318 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 612 g

Reihe: Islam in Africa

The seventeenth century was a period of major social change in central sudanic Africa. Islam spread from royal courts to rural communities, leading to new identities, new boundaries and new tasks for experts of the religion. Addressing these issues, the Bornu scholar Muhammad al-Wali acquired an exceptional reputation. Dorrit van Dalen’s study places him within his intellectual environment, and portrays him as responding to the concerns of ordinary Muslims. It shows that scholars on the geographical margins of the Muslim world participated in the debates in the centres of Muslim learning of the time, but on their own terms. Al-Wali’s work also sheds light on a century in the Islamic history of West Africa that has until now received little attention.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dalen, Dorrit van

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Geschichte des Islam Geschichte des Islam: Neuzeit
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
A note on transliteration
Map of western and northern Africa

1. Preface
1. One man in his environment
2. Coordinates
3. Intellectual history and philology
4. Peripheries
5. Sources and structure


2. Dramatis loci
1. A history of Bornu and Baghirmi as Islamic states
2. The spread of Islam
3. Ethnicity, religion, slavery
4. Islam and traditional religions
5. Conclusion

3. Muhammad al-Wali
1. Biography
2. Works
3. Reputation
4. Education
5. Conclusion

4. The scholar’s habitat
1. Scholarship
2. Religious leadership
3. Intellectual environment: genres
4. Intellectual environment: themes
5. Conclusion

5. Method and message
1. Al-Sanusi’s Sughra
2. The Kabbe
3. Between oral and scholarly text
4. Tradition with a twist
5. Conclusion

6. Demonising smokers
1. How tobacco conquered the Islamic lands
2. Al-Wali’s point of view
3. A folktale about the devil’s piss
4. From Abgar to al-Azhar
5. Conclusion

7. On writing
1. Author and authority
2. Why did al-Wali translate the Fulani commentary?
3. From orality to literacy
4. Knowing and the knower
5. Conclusion

8. Certainties in times of choice

Annex I. Al-adilla al-hisan fi bayan tahrim shurb al-dukhan.
An edition of the Arabic text.
Annex II. Valid proofs to proclaim smoking forbidden.
A translation.
Annex III. 'Awsikum ya ma'shar al-ikhwan.
An edition of al-Wali’s poem.

Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Dorrit van Dalen has published on West Africa as a journalist, before she obtained a Ph.D. from Leiden University in 2015.