Living Knowledge in West African Islam

The Sufi Community of Ibrāhīm Niasse
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-90-04-28807-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 18, 334 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 658 g

Reihe: Islam in Africa

Living Knowledge in West African Islam examines the actualization of religious identity in the community of Ibrahim 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 Tijaniyya Sufi order, gave particular attention to the widespread transmission of the experiential knowledge (ma'rifa) 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 Qur'an 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wright, Zachary Valentine

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Geschichte des Islam Geschichte des Islam: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Spiritualität & Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islamische Gruppen: Sufis
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Zachary V. Wright, Ph.D. (2010), Northwestern University, is Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at Northwestern University in Qatar. His previous publications have been in the field of African Islam, Sufism, and Islamic education. He translated a number of West African Arabic texts, and was the leading translator for Ibrahim Niasse’s renowned work on Sufism, the Kashif al-ilbas or Removal of Confusion (Fons Vitae, 2010).