Caravan trade Islam
From the VIIIth century onwards, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa via trade networks. From this set of exchanges and circulations, three distinct geographical areas emerged: firstly, the Horn of Africa and the upper Nile Valley, then the Swahili area, and finally West Africa. [i]
The presence of Islam in certain regions of Black Africa, precisely in the Sudano-Sahelian zone, is ancient. Since at least the XIth century, with the Almoravid dynasty (1050–1147), Islam has gained more and more followers south of the Sahara and it is still spreading progressively today. However, it must be emphasized that this is not a popular Islam, but rather, a court Islam, with converted rulers who surrounded themselves with Muslim scholars, as in the Mali empire for example. Throughout the period from the XIth to the XVIIth century, it was through trade and the presence of marabouts in the courts of the rulers that the Muslim religion was established in western Sudan.
On the spread of Islam in Africa Cartwright writes (2019): [ii]
‘’Once the religion had reached the savannah region which spreads across Africa below the Sahara Desert, it was adopted by ruling African elites, although very often indigenous beliefs and rituals continued to be practised or were even blended with the new religion. As Muslim traders penetrated deeper into Africa so the religion spread from one empire to another, taking hold first at Gao in 985 CE and then within the Ghana Empire (6th-13th century CE) from the late 10th century CE. From there, the religion spread eastwards to the Mali Empire (1240-1645 CE) and the Songhai Empire (c. 1460 – c. 1591 CE). With the adoption of Islam by the rulers of the Kingdom of Kanem (c. 900 – c. 1390 CE) between the 11th and 13th century CE and Hausaland from the late 14th century CE, the religion’s encirclement of Africa below the Sahara Desert was complete.’’
The Islamization of sub-Saharan Africa was essentially peaceful by trade (Ravane, 1982). The spread of the religion was relayed by the Sub-Saharan Africans themselves (Hausa, Fulani, Dioula) as part of their commercial activities. [iii] At the time the Arabs conquered North Africa in 680, the largest and most powerful political entity south of the Sahara was the empire of Ghana, [iv] whose wealth was based on the gold and salt trade. The influence of Islam was quickly felt: traders converted and became predominantly Muslim. [v]
The Senegal River area, where the kingdom of Tekrur [vi] dominated, was partly Islamized as early as the VIth century and was more massively Islamized in the IXth century. The kingdom of Kanem, [vii] which became the kingdom of Kanem-Bornou in the eleventh century, established since the VIIthcentury in the north of present-day Chad, was Islamized as early as the IXth century. Its leaders were among the first in sub-Saharan Africa to embrace Islam). [viii]
The Songhai, mixed with Berbers who fled the Arab advance, settled along the banks of the Niger in the early VIth century; they founded a small kingdom, Islamized in the IXth century, which became the powerful Songhai empire whose apogee was in the XVth and XVIth centuries. [ix] This empire played an important role in the XVIth century in the spread of Islam. [x]
The first contacts date back to the VIIIth century: Islam spread slowly and peacefully through Arab-Berber traders who crisscrossed the Sudano-Sahelian zone. At the turn of the tenth century, the time of the first Muslim empires, such as that of Ghana, Islam organized political life. It was the religion of dynasties, of merchants in the cities, but not yet that of the population. Timbuktu, from the XVth century, [xi] became the main focus of Islamic knowledge in the southern Sahara. In the XVIIth century, a more warlike Islam appeared, first in Mauritania, Senegal, and Guinea, then more massively in northern Nigeria, where the movement culminated in the founding of the Sokoto caliphate [xii] in 1804. [xiii]
Islam is mainly present from the Sahelian zone to the rainforest, in a band stretching from Senegal to Somalia. It is found in the north of Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. While Central Africa has only small Muslim minorities, East Africa has a stronger and long-standing presence in some areas. Central and East Africa have only small Muslim minorities. [xiv] The Muslim population of sub-Sahara is estimated today at 330 million. [xv]
For Africans, Islam was an all-encompassing way of life as stated by the UNESCO General History of Africa (Vol III, 1988: 20): [xvi]
‘’Islam is not only a religion: it is a comprehensive way of life, catering for all the fields of human existence. Islam provides guidance for all aspects of life – individual and social, material and moral, economic and political, legal and cultural, national and international.’’
This is essentially Sunni Islam. In West Africa, Islam is marked by the influence of various brotherhoods – associations of disciples following a spiritual path under the teaching of a master, the shaykh -, stemming from Sufism.
There are a multitude of Muslim brotherhoods in Africa, but three major ones can be distinguished. The Qâdiriyyah is the oldest: founded in Iraq by Shaykh cAbdu al-Qâdir al-Jilânî (1077-1166), it is mainly present in Mauritania and Senegal.
The Tîjâniyyah is a Sufi brotherhood founded by Shaykh Ahmad at-Tîjânî (1737-1815), whose lodge is in Fez. It is present from Senegal to Sudan. Its most famous disciple is the Toucouleur conqueror al-HâjcOmar Tall (1794-1864). In Senegal, the Tîjânîs represent more than half of the Muslims. They consider themselves more intellectual and cultured. [xvii]
Finally, the Murîd brotherhood was founded by a former follower of the Qâdiriyyah, Ahmadou Bamba M’Backé (died in 1927). This Senegalese brotherhood is essentially for Wolofs, the most important ethnic group in the country. Ahmadou Bamba, whose figure was heroized after long deportation by the French, had made manual labor a pious activity as well as prayer. The center of the brotherhood is the city of Touba where every year an important pilgrimage takes place.
The diverse practices of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa are inscribed in architectural buildings that correspond to local traditions, far from the constructions known in the rest of the Arab-Muslim world. Madrasahs, zawiyyahs, and mausoleums, the places of worship are as numerous as the uses. They are often the work of Sufi brotherhoods that organized religious life within societies. If the rituals are different, they very often borrow from pre-Islamic traditions.
The four pillars of a shared spirituality of Morocco with Africa
This common spirituality is based on four pillars: The Commandership of the Faithful Imârat al-Mu’minîn(Toufiq, 2022), the Malikî rite, the Ashcarî doctrine, and Sufism. These religious constants expressed both through beliefs and the habits and customs of the populations, are shared by Morocco and several African countries – and this, through their common history, despite different political evolutions and an attachment to their own sovereignty.
1-The Imârat al-Mu’minîn
The definition of the first, the Imârat al-Mu’minîn, i.e., the Commandership of the Faithful, (Waterbury, 1970) refers to the institution of the king of Morocco and is based on a very ancient jurisprudence, and its legitimacy is enshrined in the current Moroccan Constitution (Morocco’s Constitution, 2011). [xviii] The monarch is the only African head of state to have solid spiritual authority on the African continent. Therefore, this pillar is precisely the true declaration of recognition of a spiritual guide in the person of the King of Morocco, not only for Moroccans but for all West Africans. This is a historical reminder of the Imârat of Moulay Idris I (743-791), founder of Fez in the VIIIth century, who had fled the persecution of the caliphate of the East. He is the first to be called “Amîr al-Mu’minîn” in the Islamic West where he had built an Islamic state independent of the Muslim East.
A map indicating the general direction and timings of the spread of Islam in Africa from the 7th to 18th century CE (Ancient History)
Ahmed Toufiq (2022: 176), [xix] in presenting the old institution of Imârat al-Mu’minînargues:
‘’The system of the “Commandership of the Faithful” in Morocco is not a mere reinvention of a traditional concept, the purpose of which being to restitute (somehow) the “dream of the caliphate.” It is rather both a historical and current reality motivated by a number of significant elements. Its history took place consistently amid a great paradox represented, on the one hand, by the Moroccans’ strong attachment to the spiritual and religious ties to the sources of Islam as they developed in the Mashriq; and, on the other hand, by a constant yearning for the preservation of political independence of this part of the Islamic West.’’
2-The Mâlikî rite
Secondly, it is about the adoption of the Mâlikî rite, [xx] which is one of the four legal schools of Sunni Islam, alongside Hanbalîsm, Shaficîsm and Hanafîsm. [xxi]Mâlikî Sunnism is based on the teachings of Imam MâlikIbn Anas (VIIIth century) and emphasizes the jurisprudence of the Prophet’sﷺ companions as well as a customary religious practice based on the general interest. It is distinguished in a broader way from the Hanbalî dogma, and particularly from its radicalization materialized in the creation of the Wahhabi movement (currently applied in Saudi Arabia) at the end of the XVIIIth century. [xxii] The qualities of progress, renewal, flexibility, and pragmatism, stand in sharp contrast to the extremist ideology, but also to that of the Gulf countries, which have a growing influence on the populations of North and West Africa.
3-The Ashcarî dogma
The third constant identified is the Ashcarî dogma, [xxiii] a school that was imposed late, under the influence of the theologian Abu Hassan al-Ashcarî, against the Muctazilî school, [xxiv] which had prevailed for several decades, especially in Baghdad under the influence of the caliph al-Ma’mûn (IXth century). Having become the majority school within Sunni Islam, Ashcarism refuted the idea that Man has total free will in the interpretation of sacred texts and in his life choices. Thus, Ashcarism is the best defender [xxv] of the “Islam of the Middle Way” al-wasatiyyah. [xxvi] Implicitly, the muctazilism which was sometimes very intolerant because of its imposed liberalism was able to lead to drifts in spite of its audacious concepts of free will and of the opening to the scientific knowledge of Antiquity and the extreme East: the literal interpretation of the texts without depriving them of their meaning by means of a shifted reading and analysis. [xxvii]
4-Sufism
The fourth pillar is Sufism, [xxviii] a more mystical and esoteric school that is declined in different practices, from the Middle East to West Africa, and whose goal is the search for a transcendent state allowing access to a part of the divine knowledge. [xxix] It is indeed very present in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Senegal where the brotherhoods have a notable weight and influence on the whole society. In Morocco, although more discreet, it is very present, in Fez for example – and the links between Moroccan and West African Sufism have been underlined as factors of deep unity thanks to this common spirituality. In particular, it has played a key role in the spread of sub-Saharan Islam through the powerful influence of Sufi networks called turuq, which are very active and scattered throughout the continent. [xxx]
Sîdî Ahmad at-Tîjânî (1737-1815)
Sîdî Abu cAbbâs Ahmed at-Tîjânî (سيدي أحمد التيجاني) is the founder of the tarîqahTîjâniyyah, one of the largest Sufi orders in the world that emphasizes good intentions and actions rather than elaborate or extreme rituals. Its followers are primarily based in North and West Africa, with a presence also in Kerala, India. [xxxi]
Studies of eighteenth-century Islamic intellectual history tend to emphasize the Wahhabi or “fundamentalist” movements. Few studies offer insight into less understood, but no less influential, scholarly currents. One such book is Zachary Valentine Wright’s (2020) Realizing Islam: The Tijaniyya in North Africa and the Eighteenth-Century Muslim World. [xxxii] Focusing on the knowledge production of the modern Tîjânî Sufi order one of the largest Sufi orders in Africa today-and the lively intellectual life of its founder. Realizing Islam undermines previously held assumptions about theories of Islam’s so-called intellectual “decline” between the fifteenth and approximately nineteenth centuries.
Wright, a specialist in the intellectual history of North and West Africa, is also a specialist in Sufism and one of the most prolific writers on Tîjânî Sufism today. Realizing Islam weaves a compelling and original account of the intellectual vibrancy of the eighteenth century and traces its dynamic scholarly network through the prism of the life and ideas of Shaykh Aḥmad at-Tîjânî, the founder of the Tîjâniyyah order.
Sidi Ahmed at-Tîjânî was born in south-western Algeria, in the oasis town of Ain Madi, in 1737 (12 Safar 1150 AH). He was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through Fatima Zahra’s first son, Hasan I, and then through Moulay Idris, the famous founder of Morocco. His father was Sîdî Muhammad ibn al-Mukhtar ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salâm, an eminent scholar whose family came from the Moroccan Abda tribe and whose grandfather had immigrated to Ain Madi out of fear of a Portuguese invasion, less than a century before the birth of Shaykh at-Tîjânî. [xxxiii]
By the age of 16, he was married but had lost both parents to the plague. He studied the Qur’ân, Malîkî Fiqh, and tasawwuf in his hometown before emigrating to Fez in 1757. In Fez, he was initiated into three orders, namely the Qâdiriyyah, the Nâsiriyyah, and the order of Ahmed al-Habib ibn Muhammad. He returned to Algeria to teach in a village called al-Abiad where he spent 5 years.
The first visit of Sîdi Ahmed at-Tîjânî to Fes is described by Ruggero Vimercati Sanseverino (2014) in the following terms: [xxxiv]
‘’While Aḥmad al-Ṣaqallī was still alive, another illustrious saint visited Ouezzane and Fez; he was Aḥmad al-Tijānī (d. 1230/1815), the founder of the Tijāniyya. Of Saharan origin, he first visited the city of Mawlāy Idrīs in 1171/1757-1758 to study hadith and find spiritual masters. He met the great figures of northern Morocco, such as al-Ṭayyib al-Wazzānī, who blessed him and passed on to him the litanies of the Wazzāniyya, Aḥmad al-Ṣaqallī, and the master of the zāwiya Ma’an, al-‘Arabī Ma’an (d. 1188/1775). He was also initiated into the Qādiriyya and, after a time, into the Nāṣiriyya, and then into the path of Aḥmad al-Ḥabīb al-Sijilmāsī al-Ghummārī al-Ṣiddīqī (d. 1165/1751). He also connected with the malāmatī current through a certain Aḥmad al-Ṭawwāsh (d. 1204/1790) and, in Algeria, with the Raḥmaniyya of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Azhārī (d. 1208/1794), who transmitted to him the litanies of the Khalwatiyya.’’
In 1772, he began his journey to Mecca to perform the Hajj. During his journey, he was initiated into the Khalwâtî order and taught for a year in Tunis. He then went to Egypt where he spent time with Mahmud al-Kurdî of the Khalwâtî order in Cairo. He finally reached Mecca at the end of 1773 and performed the Hajj. During his journey, he met Shaykh Muhammad ibn cAbd al-Karîm as-Sammân, a native of Medina and founder of the Sammniyyah branch of the Khalwâtî order. The Shaykh as-Sammân told him that he would become a dominant qutb (pole) in the region. After leaving Medina, Shaykh at-Tijânî returned to Cairo where he taught the methodologies of the Khalwâtî order with the ijâzah of Shaykh Mahmud al-Kurdî. He then returned to Algeria and settled in Tlemcen for two years.
Later, he settled in the oasis town of Boussemghoun. It was there that Shaykh at-Tîjânî received a vision from Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who ordered him to initiate a new tarîqah. In 1782, the Shaykh established the Tîjâniyyah order and a zâwiyyah in the city. He spent about 15 years in Boussemghoun, attracting many people to the Tîjâniyyah order, before returning to Fez in 1796.
Shaykh at-Tîjânî was well received by the Sultan of Morocco, Moulay Slimane. [xxxv] He had a house of his own, despite his apparent aversion to certain tarîqahs. The shaykh was given a house and placed in the council of the sultan. After first worshipping in the mosque of Moulay Idris and in his own house, he established a Tîjânîzâwiyyah in Fez. He sent several disciples to different parts of North and West Africa to make the Tîjâniyyah known. The order quickly became one of the most important and influential tarîqahs in the Muslim world. [xxxvi]
Shaykh at-Tîjânî died in Fez in 1815 and was buried in his zâwiyyah where a mausoleum was erected. He is credited with the popular prayer over the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Salât al-Fâtih (the prayer of the usher) which was apparently given to him by the Prophet ﷺ himself.
The Tîjâniyyah is the most important Sufi order in West Africa, particularly Senegal, and in Fez one will see followers in colorful finery in the surrounding streets, making their way to the mosque to pay their respects to his grave. As is customary, non-Muslims are not allowed in.
Fez, the capital of the illumination of Islamic knowledge
The obvious destination for any seeker of Islamic knowledge in the Maghreb context was Fez, the long-established political, intellectual, cultural, and religious capital of the region. The young Shaykh at-Tiîjânî spent his time in Fez studying Hadith and generally seeking out people of piety and religion. Among his teachers in Fez, there were many who were famous for their knowledge and holiness. Their names are given here below to show the contact of Shaykh Ahmad at-Tîjânî with some of the most important luminaries of Moroccan Sufism of the XVIIIth century:
– At-Tayyib b. Muhammad ash-Sharîf of Ouezzane (d. 1180/1767), who was at the time the head of the Wazzâniyyah Sufi order and the pupil of the famous Shaykh Tuhâmi, a descendant of Sheikh Jazûlî Ahmad as-Sarsârî, gave at-Tîjânî permission to give spiritual instruction, but the young scholar refused in order to work more on himself before becoming a spiritual guide;
– SîdîAbdullâh b. al-cArabî al-Madacu (d. 1188) was also impressed with his student, telling him that God guided him by the hand, and before at-Tîjânî left him, the old scholar washed his student with his own hands;
– Another scholar to predict to at-Tîjânî an exalted spiritual achievement was Sîdî Ahmed at-Tawâsh (d. 1204);
– From Sîdî Ahmed al-Yamanî, Shaykh at-Tijânî took the Sufi order of al-Qâdariyyah;
– And from Abu AbdullâhSîdî Muhammad at-Tizânî he took the Nâsiriyyah order, and;
– He also followed the order of cAbucAbbâs Ahmed al-Habib as-Sijilmsî (d. 1165), who came to him in a dream, put his mouth on his, and taught him a secret name.
Although at-Tîjânî received spiritual permission (idhn) from these great masters of Sufism, his association with them should not be seen as the essential element of his spiritual development.
In reality, the imprint of his early affiliation with these orders was not completely lost with the later development of the Tîjâniyyah, and their emphasis on an elite “orthodox” Sufism, firmly rooted within the confines of the Qur’ân. and the Sunnah, was an essential component of the new order of Shaykh at-Tîjânî.
From the first visit of Sheikh at-Tîjânî to Fez, the upward motivation of the young scholar seemed to be the obtaining of a spiritual opening (fath). So when another of his teachers, Sîdî Muhammad al-Wanjîlî (d. 1185), a man known for his holiness, predicted a maqâm (spiritual station) of qutbâniyyah (polarity) similar to that of Abu Hasan ash-Shâdhilî, Tijânî hastened his departure from Fez. He spent some time in the desert zâwiyyah of the famous Qutb SîdîcAbd al-Qâder b. Muhammad al-Abyad (known as Sîdî ash-Sheikh) before returning to Ain Madi, only to leave his house again to return to al-Abiad before going to Tlemcen. His activities during this period consisted of teaching Qur’anic exegesis (tafsîr) and Hadith in the city where he was staying, while continuing an apparently rigorous practice of asceticism, including frequent fasting and supererogatory worship. During his stay in Tlemcen, he received by divine inspiration a greater assurance of his coming great enlightenment.
It was thus from the southwest of Algeria that Shaykh Ahmed at-Tîjânî left in 1186/1773 to perform the Islamic pilgrimage (Hajj). Shaykh at-Tîjânî’s first important stop on his way to Mecca was Algiers, where he met Sîdî Muhammad b. cAbd al-Rahmân al-Azhârî (d. 1793), a prominent muqaddam (spiritual guide) of the Khalwâtiyya Sufi order who had been initiated by Shaykh al-Azhar Muhammad al-Hifnî. The Khalwâtiyya originated in Anatolia in the XIVth century and by the XVIIIth century, [xxxvii] under the leadership of Mustafâ al-Bakrî, had become one of the most important orders in Egypt and a place of Islamic and Sufi revival. [xxxviii]
Shaykh at-Tîjânî’s affiliation with this order was perhaps the most significant influence on his thinking prior to his enlightened encounters with the Prophet ﷺ, and he did not leave Algiers until he was initiated at the hands of al-Azharî. No doubt such an encounter would have given him an added impetus to meet, as he later did, some of the most renowned Khalwâtî scholars of the time, such as Mahmud al-Kurdî and Muhammad as-Sammân, during his time in Egypt and the Hijaz.
Ziyyârah of the mausoleum of Shaykh Sîdî Ahmed at-Tijânî in Fez
In the XIXth century, the Tîjâniyyah, a Sufi order whose main bases are in Algeria and Morocco, spread to sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, Tîjâniyyah Muslims in West Africa have made the pilgrimage to Morocco continuously since then, establishing another important African pilgrimage tradition in addition to the Hajj). [xxxix]
Until the mid-twentieth century, the pilgrimage had two purposes. The first was to make a pious visit to the mausoleums of Sheikh Ahmed at-Tîjânî, founder of the Tîjâniyyah in North Africa. [xl] The second objective was intellectual advancement. Pilgrims were also students; they stayed for a period of time in learning centers along the way and at the pilgrimage sites themselves to study and receive intellectual qualifications as scholars and religious leaders. [xli]
In the late twentieth century, two developments affected the pilgrimage tradition. One is the emergence of large Tîjânî pilgrimage sites in West Africa, where Tîjânî Muslims, especially those from other parts of Africa, travel year-round. The second is the settlement of a large West African Muslim diaspora in the West. West African Muslim immigrants have invested abundant material resources in maintaining links between their countries of origin, the pilgrimage centers of the Muslim holy lands in North Africa, and their host societies. They not only created a new pilgrimage route but also helped to radically transform the pilgrimage experience. [xlii]
Speaking of the importance of the Ziyyârahof the mausoleum of Shaykh Sîdî Ahmed at-Tîjânî in Fez, Johara Berriane (2014) writes: [xliii]
‘’Since the dissemination of the teachings of this brotherhood in sub-Saharan countries, the pilgrimages of the spiritual masters to Fez have served to strengthen and maintain relations between the West African Tijan communities and the Fez Zaouia (Kane, 1994, p. 2). Despite the vigilance of the colonial authorities who tried to limit contacts between Muslims from AOF8 and North Africa, relations between Fez and the West African Tijanes (especially Senegalese) continued during the colonial period. After the Second World War, the ziyâra became institutionalized: the colonial administration organized it as a stopover for AOF nationals on their way to the pilgrimage to Mecca. In this context, stopovers were planned in Casablanca to allow followers to visit the tomb of the saint in Fez (El Adnani, 2005, p. 15). After the liberalization of this sector in the 1950s and the intervention of private companies in the offer of organized pilgrimage trips, this stage continued to be part of the circuit. It is especially in Senegal that the practice of ziyâra to Fez has developed the most. After independence, and despite the establishment of direct flights from Senegal to Jeddah, tourist operators took charge of organized trips combining ziyâra and pilgrimage to Mecca (Ibid.). Beginning in the 1990s, Senegalese agencies even developed tourist circuits exclusively for the ziyâra in Morocco. The monarchy’s valorization of Sufism and the Tijaniyya as an integral part of Moroccan Islam, and the tourism of the Sufi culture of Fez have also contributed to the development of this religious mobility. Projects to promote religious tourism – including ziyâra – by promoters in Fez, encourage the development of tourist infrastructure addressed to pilgrims (Berriane, 2012a, pp. 68-70).’’
Whereas most immigrants were religious scholars traveling for long periods in search of knowledge, the overwhelming majority of pilgrims today are lay people fulfilling their religious obligations and, for many, engaging in leisure tourism or commerce in major centers at the same time. The diaspora and the connection to global flows have changed both the participation in the pilgrimage and its nature in a short time. [xliv]
Moroccan Sufism in West Africa
Moroccan Sufism has had a decisive influence on the development and spread of Islam in West Africa. Although it has been the subject of a considerable amount of academic work, Sufism in West Africa remains understudied and often misunderstood. French and British colonial views of Islam have had a lasting impact on the perception of Sufism in Africa, leading to its depreciation as a kind of “popular” Islam of the ignorant masses. [xlv]
A closer look at prominent West African Sufi leaders and their movements, including the Qâdiriyyah, Tîjâniyyah, and Murîdiyyah, reveals that Sufism has expressed itself in a variety of ways over the past three centuries and continues to be a formidable spiritual, intellectual, and social force in many countries in the western part of the African continent. [xlvi]
Tîjânî Sufism is one of the most popular and important religious/intellectual traditions on the continent. Over the past two centuries, Tîjânî Sufism has become one of the most influential and popular religious movements in West Africa. [xlvii]
But before exploring the history of Tîjânî Sufism, one must first explain what it is. The term “Tîjânî Sufism” has two components, “Tîjânî” and “Sufism,” the former qualifying the latter. Sufism is a term that roughly translates the Arabic word taṣawwufتصوف. Taṣawwuf has received thousands of definitions from its proponents, including “a formless reality,” “the science of reality,” “the science of hearts,” “acting on knowledge,” “good manners,” “character,” “excellence,” “taste,” “sincerity,” “love,” “certainty,” and “seeing things as they really are.”
For the purpose of this work, we will take taṣawwufas the name of the most popular and influential tradition of Islamic esotericism, mysticism, and spirituality. Here again, we are faced with a dichotomy: “Islamic” and “esotericism, mysticism, and spirituality.” Sufism is Islamic because it derives and is based on Islamic revelation, namely the Qurʾân and the Sunnah (the example of the Prophet Muḥammadﷺ). Sufism is esoteric in that it emphasizes the inner aspects (bâṭinباطن ) of the Qurʾân and the Sunnah. It is mystical in that it emphasizes an existential knowledge of the Divine or a direct perception that transcends discursive description. It is spiritual in that its focus is the Divine and it privileges the sense or spirit (macnمعنى) over the external form (ṣūrah صورة )(Seesemann, 2005).
You can follow Professor Mohamed Chtatou on Twitter: @Ayurinu
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End notes:
[i] Charnay, J. ‘’Expansion de l’islam en Afrique occidentale’’,
Arabica, Volume 27 #2, 1980, pp. 140-153. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4056513
[ii] Cartwright, Mark. “The Spread of Islam in Africa.” World History Encyclopedia, May 09, 2019. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/10601/the-spread-of-islam-in-africa/
[iii]El Fasi, Mohammed (directeur) &Hrbek, Ivan (correcteur)/ Comité scientifique international pour la rédaction d’une Histoire générale de l’Afrique. Histoire générale de l’Afrique, III: L’Afrique du VIIe au XIe siècle. Paris: Editions UNESCO, 1990, p. 96.
[iv]Ehret, Christopher. The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2016.
The Empire of Ghana, which existed from about 750 to 1240, was one of the great known empires of black Africa, stretching from the middle of Senegal to the region of present-day Timbuktu. Referred to by its inhabitants as the Wagadou Empire, it became known in Europe and Arabia as the Empire of Ghana. The kingdom of Ghana was formed in the VIIIthcentury with the export of gold and salt, important for food preservation. The term Wagadou means “city of the herds”; the word dou is a term from the Mande language that means “city” and is found in many places in West Africa (such as the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou); the word waga means roughly “herd”.
[v]Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. Petite histoire de l’Afrique. Paris : La Découverte, coll. « Cahiers libres », 2011.
[vi]Naqar-al, U.‘’Takrûr the history of a name’’, The Journal of African History, X(3), 1969, pp. 365-374.
Tekrur (also known as Tekrour, Tekrur, or Takrur) was an ancient West African state that competed with the empire of Ghana, attracting the gold trade via the route along the Atlantic Ocean. Located in the middle valley of the Senegal River, it traded in gold (mined in the Bambouk region), Awlil salt and Sahelian grain, as well as the slave trade. The kingdom converted to Islam in the XIth century.
[vii]The kingdom of Kanem, which became the kingdom of Kanem-Bornou in the eleventh century, established since the seventh century in the north of present-day Chad, was Islamized in the ninth century. Its leaders were among the first in sub-Saharan Africa to embrace Islam. It was predominantly Muslim from the reign of the Mai (“king”) Oumé (1085) onwards, and reached its peak with DounamaDibalami (1220-1259), who extended it to Fezzan and the Nile and established relations with the Berber kingdoms, in particular with the Almohads. After the death of Dounama, the kingdom was rapidly divided. In the XIVth century, it was threatened by the Saos and the Boulala from the east. To escape these external attacks, the Kanem rulers had to take refuge on the western shore of Lake Chad where they founded the Kingdom of Bornou in 1395.
[viii]Hiribarren, Vincent.Un manguier au Nigeria. Paris : Plon, 2019.
[ix]African empire that at its peak (XVIth century) extended from Senegal to the loop of the Niger. The first capital was Koukya (south of present-day Gao), formed by settlements of Sorko fishermen and Gow hunters who recognized the authority of Faran Maka Boté. Around the VIIIth century, the Dia dynasty appeared, which moved the capital to Gao just before the year 1000, the outlet of trans-Saharan routes coming from the Maghreb (via Touat) and Egypt (via the Hoggar). The Sonni dynasty appeared around 1275, following the expansion of Mali in the XIIIth century and the conquest of Songhai. Prince Ali Kolon, taken into slavery, escaped and created the new dynasty based in Koukya. Mali’s hold ceased at the beginning of the XVth century and the reign of Sonni Ali Ber marked the creation of the Songhai Empire. He was replaced by his nephew Askia Mohammed (Askia dynasty), who became the propagator of Islam. The empire gradually lost its cohesion, despite the efforts of Askia Daoud (1549-1582); internal rivalries led the Sultan of Morocco to attack Issihak II, who was defeated in 1591 at Tondibi.
[x] Hunwick, John. “Songhay, Borno, and Hausaland in the sixteenth century,” in The History of West Africa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, pp. 264–301.
[xi] Hunwick, John O. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire : Al-Sa’Di’s Ta’Rikh Al-Sudan Down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents. Leiden, Boston : BRILL, 2003.
[xii]The Sokoto Empire or Sokoto Caliphate was founded by a jihad led between 1804 and 1810 by the Fulani Usman dan Fodio in northern Nigeria. It extended mainly between present-day northern Nigeria and northern Cameroon, and its capital was the city of Sokoto. The economy of this Fulani empire was based on trade and slavery. It was the largest state in Africa (behind the Ottoman Empire) since the collapse of the Songhai Empire (around 1592), and the second largest Muslim state in the world until the European conquest of 1897-1903.
[xiii]Lovejoy, Paul E. Les empires djihadistes de l’Ouest africain aux XVIIIe-XIXe siècles. Cahiers d’histoire. Revue d’histoire critique, 128, 2015, pp. 87-103. https://journals.openedition.org/chrhc/4592
[xiv]Ismael, T. Y. ‘’Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa’’, Current History, 56(331), 1969, pp. 146–174.
