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Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa PDF

295 Pages·2016·15.13 MB·English
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Beyond Timbuktu B e y o n d T i m B u k T u An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa Ousm a n e Ou m a r K a n e j Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2016 Copyright © 2016 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kane, Ousmane, author. Title: Beyond Timbuktu : an intellectual history of Muslim West Africa / Ousmane Oumar Kane. Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015050589 | ISBN 9780674050822 Subjects: LCSH: Islamic learning and scholarship—Africa, West— History. | Islamic learning and scholarship—Mali—Tombouctou—History. | Education—Africa, West—History. | Education—Political aspects—Africa, West—History. | Africa, West—Intellectual life. | Africa, West— Civilization—Islamic influences. Classification: LCC DT474.5 .K36 2016 | DDC 966.0088/297—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015050589 In loving memory of my grandfather, Shaykh al-Islam Al-Hajj Ibrahim Niasse Contents Note on Transliteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix Prologue ..................................................1 1. Timbuktu Studies: The Geopolitics of the Sources ................21 2. The Growth and Political Economy of Islamic Scholarship in the Bilad al-Sudan ............................................41 3. The Rise of Clerical Lineages in the Sahara and the Bilad al-Sudan ............................................60 4. Curriculum and Knowledge Transmission.......................75 5. Shaping an Islamic Space of Meaning: The Discursive Tradition .....96 6. Islamic Education and the Colonial Encounter ..................119 7. Modern Islamic Institutions of Higher Learning.................140 8. Islam in the Post-colonial Public Sphere .......................160 9. Arabophones Triumphant: Timbuktu under Islamic Rule..........178 Epilogue ................................................200 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .255 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .271 Note on Transliteration This book uses materials in several foreign languages, including Wolof, Pulaar, Hausa, and Arabic. I have opted for as simplified a transliteration of words and names as possible. I have omitted most diacritics as well as elongating Arabic vowels. The Arabic consonant ‘ayn has been transliterated as ‘ (as in Shari‘a). Exceptions to the rule include when it appears in a name without ‘ayn (as The College of Sharia and Islamic Studies Thika) and when mentioning West African Muslim names best known in their European form (for example, Uthman Dan Fodio, Umar Tall, Abdullahi Dan Fodio). I have transcribed these names with ‘ayn only when they so appear in a citation. I have used the ‘ayn, however, in transcribing Arab authors whose name are best known in Arabic form (for example, ‘Umar Rida Kahhala, ‘Ali Harazim, Ibn ‘Ata Allah). The initial and final hamza have been omitted and the median hamza is trans- literated as ’. For the plural of certain Arabic words, especially when it comes to ideologies, such as Wahhabis or Salafis, or Sufis, I have opted to use the English plural s, in keeping with general English usage. For other Arabic plurals, such as ulama, I have opted to use the Arabic plural because that is how they are most commonly used in English writing.

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Renowned for its madrassas and archives of rare Arabic manuscripts, Timbuktu is famous as a great center of Muslim learning from Islam’s Golden Age. Yet Timbuktu is not unique. It was one among many scholarly centers to exist in precolonial West Africa. Beyond Timbuktu charts the rise of Muslim le
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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.