| Islam and Social Change in French West Africa Contributor(s): Hanretta, Sean (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521899710 ISBN-13: 9780521899710 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $73.14 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 2009 Annotation: Exploring the history of a group of Muslim Sufi mystics in colonial French West Africa, this study shows the relationship between religious, social, and economic change in the region and highlights the role that the people played in shaping social and cultural change. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Africa - West - Religion | Islam - History - Religion | Islam - Sufi |
| Dewey: 297.096 |
| LCCN: 2008043636 |
| Series: African Studies (Hardcover) |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 6.5" W x 9.2" (1.30 lbs) 328 pages |
| Themes: - Religious Orientation - Islamic - Cultural Region - West Africa - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Exploring the history and religious community of a group of Muslim Sufi mystics who came largely from socially marginal backgrounds in colonial French West Africa, this study shows the relationship between religious, social, and economic change in the region. It highlights the role that intellectuals - including not only elite men, but also women, slaves, and the poor - played in shaping social and cultural change and illuminates the specific religious ideas on which Muslims drew and the political contexts that gave their efforts meaning. In contrast to depictions that emphasize the importance of international networks and anti-modern reaction in twentieth-century Islamic reform, this book claims that, in West Africa, such movements were driven by local forces and constituted only the most recent round in a set of centuries-old debates about the best way for pious people to confront social injustice. It argues that traditional historical methods prevent an appreciation of Muslim intellectual history in Africa by misunderstanding the nature of information gathering during colonial rule and misconstruing the relationship between documents and oral history. |
Contributor Bio(s): Hanretta, Sean: - Sean Hanretta is currently Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. He received a B.A. in history from the Colorado College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in African history from the University of Wisconsin. He has published research on precolonial Zulu history, on mining camps in the Belgian Congo and on the history of Islam in West Africa. His work has appeared in the Journal of African History and Comparative Studies in Society and History. His current research focuses on wedding and funeral reform efforts among Muslims in Ghana. |