Approaches to the History and Society of the Southwestern Sahara: The Study of Sufi Culture as an Alternate Paradigm
Western modernist theories conjectured that an inevitable shift in the location of decision-making from religious leaders and institutions claiming divine authority to agencies legitimating their authority by reference to different sources of power would bring about secularization of society and sta...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2013
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| In: |
Religious studies and theology
Year: 2013, Volume: 32, Issue: 1, Pages: 31-56 |
| Further subjects: | B
Islamic political power
B Zwâya culture B Sufism B Islamic religious authority B Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Western modernist theories conjectured that an inevitable shift in the location of decision-making from religious leaders and institutions claiming divine authority to agencies legitimating their authority by reference to different sources of power would bring about secularization of society and state in the modern world. They anticipated that the intervention of religious leaders in politics would no longer happen in modern societies; they held that this shift would bring about a separation between politics and religion relegating the latter to the private sphere. That this has not occurred, at least in Islamic contexts, undermines the paradigm. This article argues that the study of Sufi history and society in Southwestern Sahara points to alternate paradigms. These allow us to suggest that Islamic cultures may operate according to distinctive models in the relationship between political power and religious authority that may well have wider application. |
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| ISSN: | 1747-5414 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religious studies and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rsth.v32i1.31 |