RT Article
T1 Sufi Islamic Discourse in Africa: From the Greatest Jihad to the Establishment of the African Caliphate
JF Religions
VO 11
IS 12
A1 Ḥasan, Ḥamdī ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1744676879
AB In the nineteenth century, African Muslim societies were marked by the emergence of a reformist Sufi Islamic discourse aimed at changing and moving away from traditional Islamic practices. Although this discourse was influenced, to some extent, by external sources of inspiration, it was linked to the local African context. This study demonstrates that the reformist discourse of major Sufi figures such as Sheikh Amadu Bamba in Senegal and Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio in Nigeria reflects a number of common features of Islamic reform in Africa, yet their reform programs were shaped by the conditions of the local context. This research contribution aims to understand the actual role that the discourse of Sufi spirituality played—and still does—in the religious, economic, and political life of Muslim societies in Africa. This study has shown that despite the prevailing belief that Sufi discourse does not tend to politicize as it tries to maintain a safe distance away from matters of politics and governance in order to achieve its message of moral and spiritual purity, it may turn into violent radicalism as embodied by the jihadist Sufi experience in West Africa.
K1 Amadu Bamba
K1 Caliphate
K1 Islamic discourse
K1 Muridiyya order
K1 Sufism
K1 Usman Dan Fodio
K1 Jihad
DO 10.3390/rel11120639