Islam and Social Change in French West Africa

Islam and Social Change in French West Africa
Title Islam and Social Change in French West Africa PDF eBook
Author Sean Hanretta
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 329
Release 2009-03-23
Genre History
ISBN 0521899710

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Exploring the history and religious community 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. It highlights the role that intellectuals played in shaping social and cultural change and illuminates the specific religious ideas and 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.

Islam and Social Change in French West Africa

Islam and Social Change in French West Africa
Title Islam and Social Change in French West Africa PDF eBook
Author Sean Hanretta
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 313
Release 2009-03-23
Genre History
ISBN 1139477285

Download Islam and Social Change in French West Africa Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Exploring the history and religious community 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. It highlights the role that intellectuals played in shaping social and cultural change and illuminates the specific religious ideas and 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.

France and Islam in West Africa, 1860-1960

France and Islam in West Africa, 1860-1960
Title France and Islam in West Africa, 1860-1960 PDF eBook
Author Christopher Harrison
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 268
Release 2003-09-18
Genre History
ISBN 9780521541121

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A major contribution to the social, political and intellectual history of the French West African Federation.

Integrating Islam

Integrating Islam
Title Integrating Islam PDF eBook
Author Jonathan Laurence
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Pages 365
Release 2007-02-01
Genre Religion
ISBN 0815751524

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Nearly five million Muslims call France home, the vast majority from former French colonies in North Africa. While France has successfully integrated waves of immigrants in the past, this new influx poses a new variety of challenges—much as it does in neighboring European countries. Alarmists view the growing role of Muslims in French society as a form of "reverse colonization"; they believe Muslim political and religious networks seek to undermine European rule of law or that fundamentalists are creating a society entirely separate from the mainstream. Integrating Islam portrays the more complex reality of integration's successes and failures in French politics and society. From intermarriage rates to economic indicators, the authors paint a comprehensive portrait of Muslims in France. Using original research, they devote special attention to the policies developed by successive French governments to encourage integration and discourage extremism. Because of the size of its Muslim population and its universalistic definition of citizenship, France is an especially good test case for the encounter of Islam and the West. Despite serious and sometimes spectacular problems, the authors see a "French Islam" slowly replacing "Islam in France"–in other words, the emergence of a religion and a culture that feels at home in, and is largely at peace with, its host society. Integrating Islam provides readers with a comprehensive view of the state of Muslim integration into French society that cannot be found anywhere else. It is essential reading for students of French politics and those studying the interaction of Islam and the West, as well as the general public.

Controlling Knowledge

Controlling Knowledge
Title Controlling Knowledge PDF eBook
Author Louis Brenner
Publisher Indiana University Press
Pages 374
Release 2001-03-22
Genre History
ISBN 9780253339171

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"I know of no one who has taken such an ambitious swath of time and done such a good job of showing the continuity and change across those one hundred years. . . . a splendid achievement, the result of decades of research and reflection." —David Robinson Controlling Knowledge examines the history of West African Muslim society in the Republic of Mali, formerly the Soudan Français, in the 20th century. Focusing on the transformation of Muslim institutions—especially modernized Muslim schools (médersas) and voluntary organizations—over the past hundred years, Louis Brenner uncovers the social and political processes that have produced new forms, definitions, and expressions of Islam that are patently different from those that prevailed a century earlier. Brenner's study shows that Muslim society in Mali is religiously pluralistic and that it has developed different ways of relating religious obligations to prevailing social and political conditions. Although they were heavily influenced by French and Middle Eastern models, Brenner demonstrates that it was in opposition to French colonial authority that the first médersas and voluntary associations appeared. The complex array of power relations within which these institutions evolved, under French colonial rule and in the postcolonial secularist state, is revealed in this thoughtful book. Controlling Knowledge makes a major contribution to our understanding of Muslim history in Mali and West Africa, both in recent decades and over the long term.

The History of Islam in Africa

The History of Islam in Africa
Title The History of Islam in Africa PDF eBook
Author Nehemia Levtzion
Publisher James Currey
Pages 616
Release 2000
Genre Religion
ISBN

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The history of the Islamic faith in Africa spans 14 centuries. This book provides a detailed mapping of the cultural, political, geographic and religious past of Islam in a single volume. Intended as a reference and textbook, it does not assume prior knowledge of the subject.

Islam in West Africa

Islam in West Africa
Title Islam in West Africa PDF eBook
Author John Spencer Trimingham
Publisher
Pages 262
Release 1972
Genre
ISBN

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