Muslim scholars in Africa
1. Introduction
The Library, Documentation and Information Department at the African Studies Centre in Leiden has compiled a web dossier on Muslim Scholarship in Africa to coincide with a workshop on the same topic co-organized by LUCIS and the African Studies Centre on 23 April 2015. This dossier provides titles on Muslim intellectuals and religious experts that are available in the ASC Library. The entries are listed with the most recent publications first. Each title links directly to the corresponding record in the library’s online catalogue, which provides further bibliographic details and abstracts, loan information and links to the full text (if available).
In recent years there has been considerable attention to the social and political aspects of Islam in Africa. Among the general public there is also heightened awareness about Islam and Muslim religious leaders in public life, not least with preoccupations with issues such as radicalism. However, most commentators usually ignore the rich intellectual production by African Muslims, which spans many centuries. In fact, many scholars of Islam and Muslim societies in Africa have little access to what is published in Arabic and African languages. In turn, most scholars who use Arabic sources usually focus on the presumed heartlands of Islam, the Middle East, almost entirely ignoring most of Africa. In contrast, over the past few decades various scholars who are growing in number have been studying Muslim scholars in Africa and their intellectual production. They rely upon sources, in Arabic as well as in some of the other major languages of communication for Muslims in Africa such as Hausa and Swahili. As much of this scholarship, which relies upon such sources, shows, the social and political aspects of Islam in contemporary Africa cannot be fully understood without an understanding of the role of Muslim intellectuals, both past and present. As elsewhere, such intellectuals both reflect and influence the social dynamics of their times. Their literary production, including books, sermons, poems, and public performances are of enormous importance to African Muslims in the ways they understand and practice Islam, how they organize their lives and their relations with others, and how they engage in political and social action.
Given the breadth of existing publications touching on this theme, we have decided to draw particular attention to some post 2005 work in this field. In addition to the core section containing works on Muslim scholarship in all its breadth, two smaller sections on topics touching on female authority and Qur’an tafsir are added. Finally a few relevant bibliographies, (primary) sources, some of which are available in translation, and links to some selected webresources are included.
2. Scholars
Living knowledge in West African Islam : the sufi community of Ibrahim Niasse / Zachary Valentine Wright. - Leiden : Brill, 2015. - (Islam in Africa, ISSN 1570-3754 ; volume 18)
There is no doubt : Muslim scholarship and society in 17th-century central sudanic Africa / Dorrit van Dalen. - [S.l. s.n.], 2015
West African 'ulama? and Salafism in Mecca and Medina : jawab al-Ifriqi-the response of the African / Chanfi Ahmed. - Boston : Brill, 2015. - (Islam in Africa, ISSN 1570-3754 ; v. 18)
Demand for the re-introduction of kadhi's courts on the Tanzanian mainland: a religious, social and political analysis / William Andrew Kopwe
In: Sharia in Africa today : reactions and responses / John Chesworth; Franz Kogelmann (ed.).- Leiden : Brill: (2014), p.215-240.
Islamic Sufi networks in the Western Indian Ocean (c. 1880-1940) : ripples of reform / Anne K. Bang. - Leiden : Brill, 2014. - (Islam in Africa, ISSN 1570-3754 ; volume 16)
Sharia in Africa today : reactions and responses / John Chesworth & Franz Kogelmann. - Leiden : Brill, 2014. - (Islam in Africa, ISSN 1570-3754 ; vol. 15)
The historiography of Islam in West Africa : an anthropologist's view / Benjamin Soares
In: Journal of African History: (2014), vol. 55, no. 1, p. 27-36.
Islam and decolonization in Africa : the political engagement of a West African Muslim community / Zachary Valentine Wright
In: International Journal of African Historical Studies: (2013), vol. 46, no. 2, p. 205-227.
The portrait of Shaykh 'Adam 'Abdullah 'al-'Iluri (1917-1992) in an Arabic threnody of Nigerian provenance / Mikail Adebisi Folorunsho
In: Journal of Oriental and African Studies: (2013), vol. 22, p. 97-110.
Un islam confrérique au Burkina Faso : actualité et mémoire d'une branche de la Tijâniyya / Felice Dassetto, Pierre Joseph Laurent & Tasséré Ouédragogo. - Paris : Karthala, 2013
Un Sahel musulman ordinaire .. / Jean Louis Triaud. - Paris : Indes savantes, 2013. - (Rivages des Xantons Islam & sociétés au sud du Sahara (Series) ; 3)
A diamond of Africa : the illustrious life of African Ahmadi Sheikh Amri Abedi / C. Naseer Ahmad & Bakri Abedi. - [San Bernadino, CA : Oakton Publications], 2012
Reform and Tajdîd in Islamic Africa / Abdulkader Tayob
In: Journal for Islamic studies, ISSN 0257-7062 ; vol. 32
Soliman Al Hrairi / Moncef Chebbi. - Tunis : Arabesques, 2012
This filthy plant: the inspiration of a central Sudanic scholar in the debate on tobacco / Dorrit van Dalen
In: Islamic Africa: (2012), vol.3, no.2, p.227-247.
https://doi.org/10.5192/215409930302227 (restricted access)
Zanzibar personalities and events (1828-1972) / Nasser bin Abdulla Al-Riyami, Ali bin Rashid Al-Abri & Cathy Szlamp. - Muscat- Oman : Beirut Bookshop, 2012
Al-Hajj Salim Suwari and the Suwarians : a search for sources / Ivor Wilks
In: Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana: (2011), n. s. , no. 13, p. 1-79.
Les sciences arabes en Afrique : mathématiques et astronomie, IXe-XIXe siècles. Suivi de la 'Nubdha fi 'ilm al-hisab' d'Ahmad Babir al-Arawani / Ahmed Djebbar & Marc Moyon. - Brinon-sur-Sauldre : Grandvaux, 2011. - (Manuscrits du désert, ISSN 2109-6899)
Sheikh al-Amin Mazrui (1891-1947) and the dilemma of Islamic law in the Kenyan legal system in the 21st century / Mohamed Suleiman Mraja
In: Journal for Islamic Studies: (2011), vol. 31, p. 60-74.
The book and the nature of knowledge in Muslim Northern Nigeria, 1457-2007 / Murray Last
In: The trans-Saharan book trade : manuscript culture, Arabic literacy and intellectual history in Muslim Africa / Graziano Krätli; Ghislaine Lydon (eds).Leiden ; Boston : Brill.: (2011), p.175-211.
The divine flood : Ibrahim Niasse and the roots of a twentieth-century Sufi revival / Rüdiger Seesemann. - New York [etc.] : Oxford University Press, 2011
The historic "core curriculum" and the book market in Islamic West Africa / Bruce S. Hall & Charles S. Stewart
In: The trans-Saharan book trade : manuscript culture, Arabic literacy and intellectual history in Muslim Africa / Graziano Krätli; Ghislaine Lydon (eds).Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2011.: (2011), p.109-174.
The trans-Saharan book trade : manuscript culture, Arabic literacy and intellectual history in Muslim Africa / Graziano Krätli & Ghislaine Lydon (ed.). - Leiden [etc.] : Brill, 2011. - (Library of the written word, ISSN 1874-4834 ; vol. 8. The manuscript word ; vol. 3)
Mon itinéraire vers cheikh Ibrahim Niass = My itinerary to Shaykh Ebriheem Niyas / Hassan Dème. - Dakar : Faydha Editions, 2010
A glimpse on some issues in the islamic perspective / Mustafa A. A. Roshash. - [Zanzibar? s.n.], 2010
A living library: Amadou Hampâté Bâ and the oral transmission of Islamic religious knowledge / Louis Brenner
In: Islamic Africa: (2010), vol.1, no.2, p.167-215 : fig.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5192/215409910794105887 (restricted access)
Ambiguous accommodation: Cape Muslims and post-apartheid politics / Sindre Bangstad & Aslam Fataar
In: Journal of Southern African Studies: (2010), vol. 36, no. 4, p. 817-831.
An alternative vision of sharia application in Northern Nigeria : Ibrahim Salih's 'Hadd Offences in the sharia' / Gunnar J. Weimann
In: Journal of Religion in Africa: (2010), vol. 40, no. 2, p. 192-221.
An examination of the appointment of Chief Imam of Abeokuta Central Mosque and its attendant crises (1890-1960) / I. A. Seriki
In: Journal of Oriental and African Studies: (2010), vol. 19, p. 223-231.
The killing of the Imam / Khalid Shamis. - [S.l.] : Tuba Films, 2010. - 1 dvd-video (10 min.). : kleur, gel..
Trailer: http://youtu.be/TmrQM-K9oiY
The removal of confusion concerning the flood of the saintly seal Ahmad Al-tijani = Kashif Al-ilbas an Fayda Al-khatm Abi' Abbas / Ibrahim Niasse, Sayyid Ali Cisse & Zachary Wright. - Louisville, NY : Fons Vitae, 2010
Dans la cité des marabouts : Djenné, Mali / Geert Mommersteeg, Mireille Cohendy, Constant Hamès & Joseph Brunet-Jailly. - Brinon-sur-Sauldre : Grandvaux, 2009
Du soufisme au réformisme: la trajectoire de Mohamed Habib, imam à Cotonou / Denise Brégand
In: Politique africaine: (2009), no. 116, p. 121-142.
La Grande Mosquée de Kairouan: l'imam, la ville et le pouvoir / Mohammed Kerrou
In: Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée: (2009), no. 125, p. 161-175.
La mosquée en Algérie: figures nouvelles et pratiques reconstituées / Abderrahmane Moussaoui
In: Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée: (2009), no. 125, p. 23-45.
Les "Ulama" et la propriété foncière en Ifriqiya (1er-IIIe/VIIe-IXe siècles) / Tahar Mansouri
In: Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée: (2009), no. 126, p. 173-183.
Maghreb influence on the Arabic literary tradition of Northern Nigeria / Muhammad Tukur Usman
In: The Maghreb Review: (2009), vol. 34, no. 2/3, p. 207-226 : ill. , foto.
Scholars of the circles: training of qds and transmission of Islamic scholarship along the East African coast from the mid-19th century to the 21st century / Abdulkadir Hashim
In: Journal for Islamic Studies: (2009), vol. 29, p. 104-143 : ill. , fig.
Shaykh K.S. Apaokagi, a visionary Nigerian Islamic scholar and mufti of Ilorin / Zakariyau I. Oseni & Hashiru A. Abdulsalam. - Auchi : Darun-Nur, 2009
Timbuktu's scientific manuscript heritage : the reopening of an ancient vista? / Aslam Farouk-Alli
In: Journal for the Study of Religion: (2009), vol. 22, no. 1, p. 43-62.
A spirit of tolerance : the inspiring life of Tierno Bokar / Amadou Hampate Ba, Roger Gaetani & Jane Casewit. - Bloomington, IN : World Wisdom Books, 2008. - (The library of perenniel philosophy, Spiritual masters - East & West series)
Intellectual innovation and reinvention of the Sahel: the seventeenth-century Timbuktu chronicles / Paulo F. Moraes Farias
In: The meanings of Timbuktu / Shamil Jeppie; Souleymane Bachir Diagne.Cape Town : HSRC Press in association with CODESRIA.: (2008), p.95-107.
Islamism in Morocco : religion, authoritarianism, and electoral politics / Malika Zeghal & George Holoch. - Princeton, NJ : Markus Wiener, 2008
Renewers of the Age : holy men and social discourse in colonial Benaadir / Scott Reese. - Leiden [etc.] : Brill, 2008. - (Islam in Africa, ISSN 1570-3754 ; vol. 9)
The meanings of Timbuktu / Shamil Jeppie & Souleymane Bachir Diagne (ed.). - Cape Town : HSRC Press, 2008
The study of Arabic grammar in Ethiopia : the case of two contemporary Muslim learned men / Alessandro Gori
In: Aethiopica / Asien-Afrika-Institut: (2008), vol. 11, p. 134-147.
Toward an intellectual history of West Africa: the meaning of Timbuktu / Souleymane Bachir Diagne
In: The meanings of Timbuktu / Shamil Jeppie; Souleymane Bachir Diagne.Cape Town : HSRC Press in association with CODESRIA, 2008: (2008), p.19-28.
Une vie au Fouta-Djalon / Thierno Mouhammadou Baldé & Bernard Salvaing. - Brinon-sur-Sauldre : Grandvaux, 2008
Varieties of persuasion in modern forms of Islamic proselytizing in Egypt / Jacob Høigilt
In: Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée: (2008), no. 124, p. 243-262.
In the heart of a West African Islamic revival : Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio (1774-1804) / Abdullah Hakim Quick. - Cairo [etc.] : Al-Falah [etc.], 2007
Les nouveaux oulémas : la recomposition des autorités musulmanes au nord du Mozambique / Lorenzo Macagno
In: Lusotopie: (2007), vol. 14, no. 1, p. 151-177 : foto.
Mohamed Salah Enneifer : un pionnier du mouvement associatif engagé / Abdeljelil Temimi
In: Revue d'histoire maghrébine: (2007), année 34, no. 125, p. 85-130.
Philosophising in Mombasa : knowledge, islam and intellectual practice on the Swahili coast / Kai Kresse. - Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2007. - (International African library, ISSN 0951-1377 ; 35)
Coming to terms with "popular culture" : the 'ulama and the state in Zanzibar / Roman Loimeier
In: The global worlds of the Swahili : interfaces of Islam, identity and space in 19th and 20th-century East Africa / Roman Loimeier; Rüdiger Seesemann.Berlin : Lit, 2006.: (2006), p.111-130.
In his (Arab) Majesty's service : the career of a Somali scholar and diplomat in Nineteenth century Zanzibar / Valerie Hoffman
In: The global worlds of the Swahili : interfaces of Islam, identity and space in 19th and 20th-century East Africa / Roman Loimeier; Rüdiger Seesemann.Berlin : Lit, 2006.: (2006), p.251- 272.
Institution savante et institution confrérique en Tunisie et en Algérie à l'époque antécoloniale : ébauche d'une analyse comparative / Abdellatif Hermassi
In: Revue d'histoire maghrébine: (2006), année 33, no. 122, p. 55-64.
Islam and colonialism : intellectual response of Muslims of Northern Nigeria to British colonial rule / Muhammad S. Umar. - Leiden [etc.] : Brill, 2006. - (Islam in Africa, ISSN 1570-3754 ; vol. 5)
The global worlds of the Swahili : interfaces of Islam, identity and space in 19th and 20th-century East Africa / Roman Loimeier & Rüdiger Seesemann. - Münster [etc.] : Lit Verlag, 2006. - (Beiträge zur Afrikaforschung, ISSN 0938-7285 ; 26)
Ulamas réformistes et religiosité populaire : approche sociologique d'un différend tuniso-algérien / Abdellatif Hermassi
In: Insaniyat: (2006), année 10, no. 31, p. 13-31.
Contemporary and historical Muslim scholars as portrayed by the Ethiopian Islamic press in the 1990s / Alessandro Gori
In: Aethiopica / Institut für Afrikanistik und Äthiopistik der Universität Hamburg: (2005), vol. 8, p. 72-94.
Islam and the prayer economy : history and authority in a Malian town / Benjamin F. Soares. - Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2005. - (International African library, ISSN 0951-1377 ; 32)
Mallam Muhammad Bakatsine and the 'jihad' in eastern Kano / P. J. Shea
In: History in Africa: (2005), vol. 32, p. 371-383.
Shaykh Hasan B. 'Amayr Al-Shirazi (1880-1979) / Issa Ziddy
In: Sudanic Africa: (2005), vol. 16, p. 1-26.
"Making people think": the Ramadan lectures of Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir in Mombasa (1419 A.H.) / Kai Kresse
In: The transmission of learning in Islamic Africa / Scott Reese (ed.).- Leiden : Brill: (2004), p.212-243
Inkwells of the Sahara: reflections on the production of Islamic knowledge in Bilad Shinqit / Ghislaine Lydon
In: The transmission of learning in Islamic Africa / Scott Reese (ed.).- Leiden : Brill: (2004), p.39-71.
La Ligue des ulémas de Mauritanie : débats religieux et politiques dans une république islamique post-colonial / Francisco Manuel Machado da Rosa da Silva Freire. - [s.l. s.n.], 2003
http://www.asclibrary.nl/docs/UBL_ALMA51310265890002711.pdf
Controlling knowledge : religion, power and schooling in a West African Muslim society / Louis Brenner. - Bloomington, IN [etc.] : Indiana University Press, 2001
Le temps des marabouts : itinéraires et stratégies islamiques en Afrique occidentale française v. 1880-1960 / David Robinson & Jean Louis Triaud. - Paris : Karthala, 1997. - (Hommes et sociétés, ISSN 0290-6600)
Knowledge and practice in Mayotte : local discourses of Islam, sorcery, and spirit possession / Michael Lambek. - Toronto [etc.] : University of Toronto Press, 1993. - (Anthropological horizons ; 3)
The Shafi'i ulama of East Africa, ca. 1830-1970 : a hagiographic account / Abdallah Salih Farsy & Randall L. Pouwels. - Madison, WI : University of Wisconsin-Madison, African Studies Program, 1989. - (African primary texts ; 2)
Social history of Timbuktu : the role of Muslim scholars and notables, 1400-1900 / Elias N. Saad. - Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York [etc.] : Cambridge University Press, 1983. - (Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization)
3. Qur'an
The walking qur'an : islamic education, embodied knowledge, and history in West Africa / Rudolph T. Ware. - North Carolina : The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. - (Islamic civilization & Muslim networks)
A Bamana commentary on Surat al-Waqia (Q. 56): a linguistic and stylistic analysis / Tal Tamari
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.123-183.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2013.0116 (restricted access)
Changing criticism of Swahili Qur'an translations: the three Rods of Moses / Gerard C. Bruinhorst
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.206-231.
http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/jqs.2013.0118 (restricted access)
Classical Hausa glosses in a nineteenth-century Quranic manuscript: a case of translational reading in Sudanic Africa? / Nikolay Dobronravin
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.84-122.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2013.0115 (restricted access)
Introduction and annotated bibliography / Tal Tamari & Dmitry Bondarev
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.1-55.
http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/jqs.2013.0113 (restricted access)
Qur'anic exegesis in African languages / Tal Tamari & Dmitry Bondarev. - London : Centre of Islamic Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, 2013. - (Journal of Quranic studies, ISSN 1465-3591 ; vol. XV, issue 3)
Qur'anic exegesis in Niger: a Songhay-Zarma oral commentary on Srat al-Baqara / Moulaye Hassane
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.184-205.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2013.0117 (restricted access)
Qur'anic exegesis in old Kanembu: linguistic precision for better interpretation / Dmitry Bondarev
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.56-83.
http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/jqs.2013.0114 (restricted access)
Sura headings and subdivisions in Qur'an manuscripts from Sub-Saharan Africa: variations and historical implications / Constant Hames
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.232-252.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2013.0119 (restricted access)
Two exegetical works from twentieth-century West Africa: Shaykh Abu Bakr Gumi's Radd al-adhhan and Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse's Fï riyad al-tafsir / Andrea Brigaglia
In: Journal of Qur'anic Studies: (2013), vol.15, no.3, p.253-266.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2013.0120 (restricted access)
Medicine in the Qur'an and Sunnah : an intellectual reappraisal of the legacy and future of Islamic medicine and its representation in the language of science and modernity / Umar Faruk Adamu. - Ibadan : Safari Books, 2012
Un nouvel élargissement du corpus littéraire en malgache moderne: les traductions du Coran / Noel J. Gueunier & Nazir Morcid Ahmad
In: Études océan Indien: (2012), no. 48, p. 145-192 : fig.
Muslim and Christian interaction with regard to Old Testament interpretation in Africa / Knut Holter
In: African Journal of Biblical Studies: (2011), vol. 29, no. 1/2, p. 99-112.
Comment (ne pas) lire le Coran : logiques de l'enseignement religieux au Sénégal et en Cote d'Ivoire / Rudolph T. Ware & Robert Launay
In: L'islam, nouvel espace public en Afrique / Gilles Holder (éd.).- Paris : KarthalaPalgrave MacMillan: (2009), p.127-145.
La législation islamique relative à l'esclavage: le fossé entre la loi et son application effective (Étude de cas en Afrique) / Babacar Samb
In: Bulletin de l'Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire Cheikh Anta Diop. Série B, Sciences humaines: (2009/11), t. 53, no. 1/2, p. 111-122.
Le temps des Oulèmas : les manuscrits africains comme sources historiques / Seyni Moumouni & Viera Pawlikova-Vilhanova. - Niamey : Centre Nigérien de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, 2009. - (Études nigériennes, ISSN 0373-6296 ; no. 61)
The longue durée of Quran schooling, society, and state in Senegambia / Rudolph T. Ware
In: New perspectives on Islam in Senegal : conversion, migration, wealth, power, and femininity / ed.by Mamadou Diouf and Mara A.Leichtman.- New York : Palgrave MacMillan: (2009), p.21-50.
Translating the message : the missionary impact on culture / Lamin Sanneh. - Maryknoll, NY : Orbis Books, 2009. - (American society of missiology series ; no. 42)
Coran et talismans : textes et pratiques magiques en milieu musulman / Constant Hamès. - Paris : Karthala, 2007. - (Hommes et sociétés, ISSN 0290-6600)
Instrumentalizing the Qur'an in Niger's public life / Abdoulaye Sounaye
In: Journal for Islamic Studies: (2007), vol. 27, p. 211-239.
The Radio Kaduna 'tafsîr' (1978-1992) and the construction of public images of Muslim scholars in the Nigerian media / Andrea Brigaglia
In: Journal for Islamic Studies: (2007), vol. 27, p. 173-210.
Have you all got your copy of the Quran? : Rationalisation, ritual and the role of God's word in a Kenyan Islamic educational setting / Jonas Svensson
In: Tidsskrift for Islamforskning - Danske koranstudier: (2006), no.1, p.1-27.
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:272961/FULLTEXT02.pdf
Translating the Qur'an in sub-Saharan Africa : dynamics and disputes / Roman Loimeier
In: Journal of Religion in Africa: (2005), vol. 35, no. 4, p. 403-423.
Two published Hausa translations of the Qur'an and their doctrinal background / Andrea Brigaglia
In: Journal of Religion in Africa: (2005), vol. 35, no. 4, p. 424-449.
'Njàngaan': the daily regime of qur'ânic students in twentieth-century Senegal / Rudolph T. Ware
In: The International Journal of African Historical Studies: (2004), vol. 37, no. 3, p. 515-538.
4. Women
Aicha's Sounith Hair Salon: friendship, profit, and resistance in Dakar / Erin Augis
In: Islamic Africa: (2014), vol.5, no.2, p.199-224.
Following in the steps of 'Aisha: Hassaniyya-speaking Tijani women as spiritual guides (Muqaddamat) and teaching Islamic scholars (Limrabutat) in Mauritania / Britta Frede
In: Islamic Africa: (2014), vol.5, no.2, p.225-273.
Introduction: en-gendering Islamic authority in West Africa / Britta Frede & Joseph Hill
In: Islamic Africa: (2014), vol.5, no.2, p.131-165.
Islam, youth and modernity in the Gambia : the Tablighi Jamaat / Marloes Janson. - New York : Cambridge University Press, 2014. - (International African library, ISSN 0951-1377)
Picturing Islamic authority: gender metaphors and Sufi leadership in Senegal / Joseph Hill
In: Islamic Africa: (2014), vol.5, no.2, p.275-315.
Piety, moral agency, and leadership: dynamics around the feminization of Islamic authority in Côte d'Ivoire / Marie Nathalie LeBlanc
In: Islamic Africa: (2014), vol.5, no.2, p.131-165.
Continuities and departures : women's religious and spiritual leadership / Maheshvari Naidu & Nina Hoel
In: Journal for the study of religion, ISSN 1011-7601 ; vol. 26, no. 2
Muslim women in postcolonial Kenya : leadership, representation, and social change / Ousseina Alidou. - Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. - (Women in Africa and the diaspora)
Transmission of Muslim practices and women's agency in Ibo Island and Pemba (Mozambique) / Francesca Declich
In: Journal of Eastern African Studies: (2013), vol. 7, no. 4, p. 588-606.
Chaykha Rokhaya Niass, the sufi, the educator : study and analysis of her thought / Thierno Kâ. - [Dakar] : Thierno Kâ, 2011
Gender and Islam in Africa : rights, sexuality, and law / Margot Badran (ed.). - Stanford, CA [etc.] : Stanford University Press [etc.], 2011
Gendered media and gendered religion : female preachers, audiovisual media and the construction of religious authority in Niamey / Abdoulaye Sounaye
In: CODESRIA Bulletin: (2011), no. 3/4, p. 27-31.
Muslim women's knowledge production in the greater Maghreb: the example of Nana Asmau of Northern Nigeria / Beverly Mack
In: Gender and Islam in Africa : rights, sexuality, and law.Stanford: university press.: (2011), p.17-40.
Renewal and enlightenment: Muslim women's biographic narratives of personal reform in Mali / Dorothea Schulz
In: Journal of Religion in Africa: (2011), vol. 41, no. 1, p. 93-123.
'All women are guides' : Sufi leadership and womanhood among 'Taalibe Baay' in Senegal / Joseph Hill
In: Journal of Religion in Africa: (2010), vol. 40, no. 4, p. 375-412 : foto's.
Women in political process in Nigeria : problems and prospects / Islam Ali
In: Indian Journal of African Studies: (2010), vol. 16, no. 1/2, p. 15-38 : tab.
Women in the Middle East and North Africa : change and continuity / Elhum Haghighat-Sordellini. - New York [etc.] : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010
Marabout women in Dakar: creating authority in Islamic knowledge / Amber B. Gemmeke
In: Africa / International African Institute: (2009), vol. 79, no. 1, p. 128-147 : foto's.
Mass Islamic education and emergence of female 'ulama' in Northern Nigeria: background, trends, and consequences / Muhammad S. Umar
In: The transmission of learning in Islamic Africa / Scott Reese (ed.).- Leiden : Brill: (2009), p.99-120.
New perspectives on Islam in Senegal : conversion, migration, wealth, power, and femininity / Mamadou Diouf & Mara A. Leichtman (ed.). - New York : Palgrave MacMillan, 2009
Women and Islamic revival in a West African town / Adeline Marie Masquelier. - Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 2009
Muslim women scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centures: Morocco to Nigeria / Beverly Mack
In: The meanings of Timbuktu / Shamil Jeppie; Souleymane Bachir Diagne.Cape Town : HSRC Press in association with CODESRIA, 2008: (2008), p.164-179.
Liberating Shahrazad : feminism, postcolonialism, and Islam / Suzanne Gauch. - Minneapolis, MN [etc.] : 2007
Telling stories, making histories : women, words, and Islam in nineteenth-century Hausaland and the Sokoto Caliphate / Mary Wren Bivins. - Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, 2007. - (Social history of Africa, ISSN 1099-8098)
Gender and citizenship : Hausa women's political identity from the caliphate to the protectorate / Hauwa Mahdi. - Göteborg : University of Göteborg, 2006. - (Avhandlingar från Historiska Institutionen vid Göteborgs Universitet, ISSN 1100-6781 ; 46)
Sainte parmi les saints : Sayyda Mannûbiya ou les recompositions cultuelles dans la Tunisie contemporaine / Katia Boissevain. - Paris : Maisonneuve et Larose, 2006. - (Connaissance du Maghreb)
Transnational Muslim women : a qualitative study of conceptions of Islam in Morocco and in France / Doris H. Gray
In: The Journal of North African Studies: (2006), vol. 11, no. 3, p. [319]-335.
Marriage and divorce : opportunities and challenges facing South African Muslim women with the recognition of Muslim personal law / Wesahl Agherdien Domingo
In: Agenda / Feminist Media: (2005), spec. issue, p. 68-77.
5. Selected (web) resources
Arabic Manuscripts from West Africa: A Catalog of the Herskovits Library Collection
The Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University houses an important collection of Arabic script materials from West Africa. It contains over 5,000 items collected from Africa and donated to the library by several Northwestern professors. Original, hand-written manuscripts make up more than 60 percent of the content, which also includes “market” editions (photocopies of handwritten works that are often sold in African marketplaces), printed editions, and photocopies. Most are in Arabic, though some are in ajami—African languages such as Hausa, Fulfulde, and Wolof written in the Arabic script.
http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/arbmss/
Old Kanembu Manuscripts, SOAS digital library
The digital collection of Old Kanembu manuscripts provides an online access to one of the earliest written sub-Saharan languages in manuscript form. Old Kanembu written in Arabic script was a language of Qur’anic interpretation in the ancient Borno Sultanate. It has survived in marginal and interlinear annotations in the early Qur’an manuscripts dating from the 17th to 19th centuries and in various other religious texts dating from the 19th century to 1980’s
https://digital.soas.ac.uk/okim
Bibliography on Islam in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, Paul Schrijver
This bibliography on Islam in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa lists over 4,000 references to secondary literature in European languages about Islam in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa. It supplements and updates two existing bibliographies, Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Partially Annotated Guide by Samir Zoghby and Islam in Africa South of the Sahara: A Select Bibliographic Guide by Patrick Ofori, both of which were compiled in the 1970s.
http://www.africabib.org/islam.htm
Wikipedia list of Quran translations
Contains a bibliography of Qur’an translations including some African languages such as Afrikaans, Mande and Swahili
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_translations_of_the_Quran
Pluralism and Adaption in the Islamic Practice of Senegal and Ghana
Pluralism and Adaptation in the Islamic Practice of Senegal and Ghana is a digital library of multi-media resources that demonstrate how innovative Africans have been in the history of Islam and Islamic practice and how they continue to live and experience Islam. Four digital galleries – two from Senegal and two from Ghana – emphasize pluralism - the coexistence and indeed the mutual respect among people of different religious persuasions - and adaptation – situations where Islam takes root in a particular society and culture that changes over time.
http://aodl.org/islamicpluralism/
Islamic manuscripts from Mali
Islamic Manuscripts from Mali features 32 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Library of Cheick Zayni Baye of Boujbeha, both in Timbuktu, Mali. The manuscripts presented online are displayed in their entirety and are an exemplary grouping that showcase the wide variety of subjects covered by the written traditions of Timbuktu, Mali, and West Africa.
http://international.loc.gov/intldl/malihtml/malihome.html
Ajami webresources
This is a research guide of the Boston University Library on Ajami webresources. Ajami is a modified Arabic script that has been used for centuries to write many African languages including Hausa, Mandinka, Pular, Swahili, and Wolof. (Wolof-language Ajami is known as Wolofal).
http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/ajami/
The Manuscripts of the Riydha Mosque in Lamu (Kenya)
The manuscript collection of the Riyadha mosque is unique from several perspectives. Firstly, it provides an important overview of the historical orientation of Islamic education in East Africa. The collection also contains works that can be found nowhere else. Several of the manuscripts have inscriptions that name owners over decades, indicating the economy of books and reading. Finally, the presence in many of the manuscripts of inter-linear Swahili translations in the Arabic script opens for research on the use of the Arabic script before colonial education.
https://www.cmi.no/research/project/?1519=the-manuscripts-of-the-riydha-mosque-in-lamu
The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa
The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA) is the first research center in the United States devoted entirely to the study of Islam and Africa. ISITA was founded in 2000 by John O. Hunwick of Northwestern University and R. Séan O’Fahey of the University of Bergen.
https://isita.northwestern.edu/
Tombouctou manuscripts project
This project has been very much concerned with the diverse content of the manuscripts, the circulation of scholars and ideas, the economy of the manuscript book, and other aspects of the “work of scholarship” in Timbuktu. However, the scope of the project is broadening, to encompass writing cultures from other parts of the African continent.
http://www.tombouctoumanuscripts.org/
Islamic Africa: A Select, Annotated Webography by Peter Limb
https://brill.com/view/journals/iafr/5/1/article-p91_5.xml?language=en
Arabic Literature of Africa (ALA)
The six volumes of Arabic Literature of Africa provide a survey of Muslim authors writing in Arabic in Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa and a bibliography of their works. Falling within the tradition of the great works of Brockelmann and Sezgin, it forms a basic reference tool for the study of Arabic writing in areas of the African Islamic world that fall outside the parameters of these works.
https://brill.com/view/serial/HO1-13ALA
West African Arabic Manuscript Project
https://waamd.lib.berkeley.edu/
A bi-lingual database that was developed to describe a collection of Arabic manuscripts in southern Mauritania (Boutilimit). It subsequently has been used to catalogue seven other West African collections including the manuscript libraries at the Institut Mauritanien de Recherche Scientifique, Northwestern University, and the Centre Ahmad Baba in Timbuctu. The database has a search engine designed to identify manuscripts and authors when only fragmentary information is available, in Arabic or Roman script, for records now in excess of 23,000. Experimental linkage of digital images of manuscript texts to the records is currently underway.
Swahili web: the Swahili resource website
SwahiliWeb is a resource destined both for the research community and for the general public and intended to facilitate access to unpublished or difficult to locate documents dealing with or originating in the Swahili world. This will include journal articles, manuscripts, maps, sound files, photographs and film. It will serve as a digital archive for materials that are difficult to consult elsewhere, or are damaged or threatened in their present state; and it will ensure that basic tools for research and for locating sources on the Swahili hosted elsewhere are more easily accessible.
www.swahiliweb.net
See also two earlier web dossiers: Islam in Africa & Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Posted on 13 April 2015, last modified on 20 April 2020