West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina Jawāb al-Ifrῑqῑ - The Response of the African

225 Pages·2015·2.44 MB·English

by  Chanfi Ahmed

West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina
Islam in Africa
Editorial Board
Rüdiger Seesemann
Knut Vikør
Founding Editor
John Hunwick
VOLUME 17
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/isaf
West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism
in Mecca and Medina
Jawāb al-Ifrῑqῑ—The Response of the African
By
Chanfi Ahmed
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: The Dār al-ḥadīth in Medina, photo by Chanfi Ahmed.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ahmed, Chanfi.
 West African ‘ulama’ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina : jawab al-Ifriqi-the response of the African / by
Chanfi Ahmed.
  pages cm. — (Islam in africa ; v. 17)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-27031-2 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29194-2 (e-book : alk. paper)
1. Salafiyah—Saudi Arabia—Mecca. 2. Salafiyah—Saudi Arabia—Medina. 3. Ulema—Africa, West. I. Title.
 BP195.S18A384 2015
 297.8’3—dc23
2015001417
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more
information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1570-3754
isbn 978-90-04-27031-2 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29194-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei
Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv
provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center,
222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Illustrations xi
Introduction 1
1 Hijra on the Sudan Road (Ṭarīq al-Sūdān) 13
Hijra in Islam and West Africa: A Movement of People, Ideas, and
Hope 16
Hijra, Jihād, the Mahdī, and Ḥajj in Islam and in West African Islam 17
The Hijra Related to the Mahdī 17
The Reaction of the Colonizers to the Muhājirīn 21
2 The ʿUlamāʾ Forerunners of the Hijra and Teachers in the Mosque of the
Prophet in Medina 24
Shaykh Alfā Hāshim al-Fūtī (1866–1931): A Genius for Survival 24
Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Maḥmūd al-Madanī (Ag Maḥmūd Abdullahi):
The “Intransigent” Salafī Missionary 28
3 The ʿUlamāʾ of the Second Generation, Heirs of the Hijra and Teachers
in the First Islamic Institutes in Saudi Arabia 32
Ḥammād al-Anṣārī (1344–1418/1925–97) 32
“Riḥlat min Ifrīqyā ilā bilād al-ḥaramayn” [Traveling from Africa to the
two holy cities] 33
The Anṣār al-Sunna in Sudan 39
The Legacy of Shaykh Ḥammād al-Anṣārī in West Africa 44
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Yūsuf al-Ifrīqī 45
al-Anwār al-raḥmāniyya li-hidāyat al-firqa al-Tijāniyya [The divine lights
to save the Tijāniyya sect] 57
Jawāb al-Ifrīqī [Response of the African] 70
Tawḍīḥ al-ḥajj wa-l-ʿumra kamā jāʾa fī l-kitāb wa-l-sunna [Explanation of
ḥajj and ʿumra according to the Qurʾān and the Sunna] 79
4 The Dār al-Ḥadīth in Medina and the Ahl al-Ḥadīth 80
The Dār al-Ḥadīth in Mecca 86
The Establishment and Expansion of the Ahl al-Ḥadīth Movement in
the Eighteenth Century 89
Muḥammad Ḥayāt al-Sindī (d. 1163/1750) 90
vi Contents
Walī Allāh Dihlawī (1703–63) 91
Ṣāliḥ al-Fullānī (1752–3/1803) 92
Muḥammad b. ʿAlī l-Shawkānī (1173–1250/1760–1832) 96
Nadhīr Ḥusayn Dihlawī (1805–1902) 98
Ṣādiq Ḥasan Khān (1834–90) 99
Ṣanāʿullāh Amristari (1868–1948) 100
The Doctrine of Ahl al-Ḥadīth as Reflected by These ʿUlamāʾ 101
A Brief Political History of the Hijaz in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries 103
Educational Institutions Founded in the Hijaz by the Ottomans and
the Ashrāf 105
Nation-State or Umma-State: ʿUlamāʾ Support of the Saudi State 108
Maʿhad al-Riyāḍ al-ʿIlmi (Riyadh Institute of Islamic Religious
Sciences) 111
5 The ʿUlamāʾ of the Third Generation: Teachers and Administrators in the
First Islamic Universities of Saudi Arabia 115
Shaykh ʿUmar b. Muḥammad Fallāta (1345–1419/1926–98) 115
Writings, Lectures, and Teaching of ʿUmar Fallāta 119
Muḥammad al-Amīn al-Jakanī l-Shinqīṭī (Āb Wuld Ukhtūr)
(1325–93/1907–73) 123
The Writings of Shaykh Shinqīṭī 125
6 Africa in the Islamic University of Medina 132
History of the Foundation of the University 132
Africa in the Daʿwa Policy of the Islamic University of Medina and of
the Saudi State as Reflected in the Statutes and Other Texts of the
University 141
Daʿwa in Africa By and With the Africans 146
Shaykh Taqī l-Dīn al-Hilālī (d. 1407/1987) 158
7 Biography (Tarjama) in the Islamic Tradition according to the
ʿUlamāʾ 176
The Concept and Tradition of Tarjama (Biography) according to ʿUmar
Fallāta and ʿAṭiyya Sālim 176
ʿAṭiyya Muḥammad Sālim with al-Ifrīqī and al-Shinqīṭī 176
The Teaching Method of al-Ifrīqī (Manhaj al-Ifrīqī) 179
ʿAṭiyya Muḥammad Sālim with Shaykh al-Amīn al-Shinqīṭī (Āb Wuld
Ukhtūr) 182
Contents vii
The Tarjama according to Shaykh ʿUmar Fallāta in His Conference Paper
on Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ifrīqī 183
An Interpretation 186
Conclusion 189
Bibliography 197
Works and Primary Sources in Arabic 197
Works in Other Languages 200
Index 205

Acknowledgments
I must thank the Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (German
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research) for supporting the
research project that led to this book and the ZMO (Zentrum Moderner Orient-
Berlin) which hosted it.1 I particularly want to thank Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag,
Director of the ZMO. For visa of the research and the welcome in Saudi Arabia,
I thank the Faisal Foundation in Riyadh. I also thank the following people:
Dr. Yaḥyā Ibn Junaid, the Secretary General of the Faisal Foundation and his
colleague Dr. Awadh al-Badi. Dr. Muḥammad ʿUmar Fallāta (son of Shaykh
ʿUmar Fallāta) in Medina gave me written materials and gave me full access to
the library of Dār al-Ḥadīth in Medina. Dr. ʿAbd al-Bārī (son of Shaykh Ḥammād
al-Anṣārī) told me a great deal about his father and provided me with written
materials about him. Dr. Al-ʿUsaylān (a former member of the Consultative
Council of Saudi Arabia and former student of Shaykh ʿUmar Fallāta) through
his intervention I could have access to the ʿulamāʾ of Medina.
I thank the staff of the following libraries: Library of the Dār al-Ḥadīth in
Medina, especially Aḥmad ʿAbdallāh; the staff of the King ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Library
in Medina, that of the library of the Islamic University of Medina and that of
al-Madina Munawwara Research and Studies Center. I thank Dr. ʿUmar Ḥasan
Fallāta, the only ʿālim of West African origins who was still teaching in the
Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. In Mecca, my thanks go to the staff of al-Ḥaram
Library; the journalist Maḥmūd Traore and the writer ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad
Abkar. In Mali, my thanks go to my friend and colleague Dr. Isaie Dougnon
of the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences (FLASH) at the University of
Bamako; Dr. Harouna Almahadi Maiga of the Institute of Arab Studies
of FLASH at the University of Bamako; Dr. Mahmoud Zubeir (former advisor of
the President of Mali, Mali’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former direc-
tor of Ahmad Baba Institute in Timbuktu); Shaykh Mahmoud Dicko, Chairman
of the Conseil des Musulmans du Mali and former student of Shaykh ʿUmar
Fallāta in Medina; Dr. Muhammad Diakaté of the Ahmad Baba Institute in
Timbuktu and Moussa Maiga, an Arabic teacher in Timbuktu; the family of
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ifrīqī: Haji Moumini Mohamad Maiga (whose father
was the brother of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ifrīqī) in Bamako; Alfa Ibrahim
Nouhou Maiga (son of a nephew of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ifrīqī) Imām of
Fafa (the village-birthplace of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ifrīqī, close to Gao);
1  The project on which this publication is based was supported with funds from the Federal
Ministry for Education and Research (funding code 01UG0713), Germany.
x Acknowledgments
Abdoulaye Diara and his wife Halimatou Moumini (daughter of Haji Moumini)
in Gao; Shaykh Mūsā Shaddād in Gao and Shaykh Muḥammad Yaḥyā in
Menaka (both former students of Shaykh Ḥammād al-Anṣārī in Saudi Arabia).
In Niamey (Niger), I thank my friends and colleagues Dr. Moulay Hassan and
Dr. Seyni Moumouni, who are responsible for the Arabic and Ajami manu-
scripts of IRSH (Institute for Research and Social Sciences and History). In
Mauritania, I thank Prof. Dr. Mohamedou Mohameden Meyine (University of
Nouakchott); the staff of the manuscripts in the Mauritanian Center of
Scientific Research; the Shinqit families who have private manuscripts, includ-
ing manuscripts of the library of Ustādh Sayf. In Kiffa, I thank Babel Sarr and
N’Diaye Hashem. For language corrections and editing work, I thank Mich
Cohen (Berlin) and Valerie Joy Turner, respectively.
I thank Rüdiger Seesemann and Knut S. Vikør, the editorial board of the
Islam in Africa Brill series and the two very knowledgeable and sincere anony-
mous reviewers.