Islam in West Africa Religion, Society and Politics to 1800

First published in 1994, this volume brings together essays from the celebrated scholar of African history, Nehemia Levtzion. The articles cover a wide range of themes including Islamization, Islam in politics, Islamic revolutions and the work of the historian in studying this field. This collection is a rich source of supplementary material to Professor Levtzion’s major publications on Islam in West Africa. This book will be of key interest to those studying Islamic and West African history.

Preface; Islamization; 1. Patterns of Islamization in West Africa 2. Slavery and Islamization in Africa: a comparative study; Islam in Politics: The Role of the ‘Ulama’; 3. Islam in West African politics: accommodation and tension between the ‘ulama’ and the political authorities 4. Sociopolitics roles of Muslim clerics and scholars in West Africa 5. Merchants versus scholars and clerics in West Africa: differential and complementary roles; Background to the Islamic Revolutions; 6. Rural and urban Islam in West Africa: an introductory essay 7. The eighteenth century: background to the Islamic revolutions in West Africa 8. Eighteenth century renewal and reform in Islam: the role of sufi turuq in West Africa 9. Notes on the origins of Islamic militancy in the Futa Jallon; Historical Studies; 10. Berber nomads and Sudanese states: the historiography of the desert-Sahel interface 11. The Jews of Sijilmasa and the Saharan trade 12. ‘Abd Allah b Yasin and the Almoravids 13. Mamluk Egypt and Takrur (West Africa); Textual Studies; 14. Ibn-Hawqal, the cheque, and Awdaghost 15. Ancient Ghana: a reassessment of some Arabic sources 16. The twelfth-century anonymous Kitab al-Istibsar: a history of a text 17. The thirteenth- and fourteenth-century kings of Mali 18. A seventeenth century chronicle by Ibn al-Mukhtar 19. Early nineteenth-century Arabic manuscripts from Kumasi; Index