Islam and Gender in Colonial Northeast Africa

Silvia Bruzzi, (PhD 2011) is a Researcher at the Chaire d'Études Africaines Comparées (EGE Rabat). She was formerly a research fellow at the Institut Émilie du Châtelet and a visiting researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Bergen. She has also taught African and Middle Eastern History at the University of Bologna, the University of Padova and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS – Paris). She specialises in Islam and gender in the colonial context.

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsA Note on Transliteration and DatesTransliteration ListIntroductionSufism, Colonialism and Gender DynamicsSufism and the Female Body1 Islamic Renewal Movements, Colonial Occupation, and the Ḫatmiyya in the Red Sea RegionIslam and the Idrīsī Tradition in Northeast AfricaThe Establishment of the Ḫatmiyya in the Red Sea Region2 Sufis at the Crossroads: Regional Conflicts and Colonial PenetrationThe Ḫatmiyya up against the Sudanese MahdīA Marriage Alliance between the Mīrġanī and the Beni ʿAmer PeopleSīdī Hāšim: Spy or walī ?3 Islam, Gender and LeadershipFemale Heirs by Blood Alone: A Power Vacuum?Women and Heresy in Sufi CentresEmbodying Religious Orthodoxy4 Fragmented, (In)Visible and (Un)Told StoriesLooking for Muslim Women in Northeast African HistoryRegional Women’s Centres of Empowerment and Religious LearningBaraka, Itinerant Preaching and the Mobility of Pious Women5 Sufi Women’s “Fantasy”, Performances and FashionImagination and Desire in Women’s BodiesWomen’s Fantasia in Sufi Regional CentresVisiting a Fashionable, Cosmopolitan Woman6 Growing Visibility in the Political ArenaWomen’s Bodies, Photography, and ColonialismGrowing Popularity Broadcast through Visual MediaVisibility, Visuality and Power in Portraits of the Šarīfa7 Marvels, Charisma and ModernityPerformed and Contested KarāmātModern Enchantment: Colonial Technologies and InfrastructuresMediating Conflicts8 Military Bodies: Askaris, Officials and “the Female Warrior”Religious Intermediaries and Regional NetworksEnlisting Askaris and Colonial PropagandaThe Defeat of Italy9 A Female Icon of Muslim “Emancipation” for the Conquest of Ethiopia (1936–1941)Building Mosques: Muslim Policies from Libya to EthiopiaA Female Icon of Muslim “Emancipation”The Mosques Built in Honour of Sittī ʿAlawiyyaMuslim Attitudes towards the Italian Occupation: From Collaboration to Agency10 Conclusion: Sufi MemoriesWomen’s Embodied Archives and Spirit PossessionEmbodying Sittī ʿAlawiyya’s Visit to HararSufi Visions and Historical ImaginationBibliographyIndex

[...] “Constant experimentation of approaches and the use of a wide variety of sources are the distinctive traits of this book [...]. Silvia Bruzzi’s book is an original and stimulating contribution that gives Eritrea the history of one of its foremost female protagonists”.Massimo Zaccaria, University of Pavia, in Aethiopica 23 (2020) pp. 292-295[...] 'Cet ouvrage passionnant et érudit participe du renouvellement de l’approche biographique dans le champ des études africaines'Ophélie Rillon, CNRS, in Cahiers d’études africains 242 (2021) pp. 1-3