Living Knowledge in West African Islam

Zachary V. Wright, Ph.D. (2010), Northwestern University, is Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at Northwestern University in Qatar. His previous publications have been in the field of African Islam, Sufism, and Islamic education. He translated a number of West African Arabic texts, and was the leading translator for Ibrāhīm Niasse’s renowned work on Sufism, the Kāshif al-ilbās or Removal of Confusion (Fons Vitae, 2010).

• Acknowledgments PrefaceList of IllustrationsGlossaryNote on OrthographyIntroduction Theoretical ConsiderationsMacrohistoryHabitusEmbodiment and SubjectivityLiterature ReviewNarrative Structure of the Book Chapter 1: Clerical Communities in West African History Enduring Learning PracticesIslamic Jurisprudence of the Mālikī SchoolQurʾān LearningEsoteric SciencesSufism Muslim Scholars in West African Social HistoryThe Jihad of Ma Ba DiakhouThe Social Appeal of the New Marabout CommunitiesChapter 2: A New Senegambian Clerical CommunityThe Niasse: Social and Intellectual BackgroundIbrāhīm Niasse and the ‟Community of the Flood”Chapter 3: Honored Disciples: The Cissé of the SaloumʿAbdallāh Niasse and the Cissé of DiossongʿAlī Cissé and Paradigmatic DiscipleshipChapter 4: Knowing GodOn Spiritual TrainingBeing Filled with GodThe Prophet Muḥammad, Mirror of GodAḥmad al-Tijānī and Divine CognizanceChapter 5: Understanding Sufi DiscipleshipAssuring the AspirantsConduct of the DiscipleQualities of the Spiritual GuideDisciple PerspectivesChapter 6: The Adaptation of Traditional Learning PracticesMaintaining the Sanad TraditionAdopting the MadrasaMaintaining the Learning CirclesStrategies of Structural AdaptationChapter 7: Cognizance and the Revival of the Islamic SciencesQurʾān Learning and Knowing GodSufism and Mālikī Jurisprudence in Medina-BayeThe Esoteric Sciences and Shaykh-Disciple RelationsDivine Cognizance and the Sufi Orders in West AfricaChapter 8: Islam and African Decolonization: Community Solidarities and DistinctionsIslam and African LiberationIslam and the Postcolonial Nation-StatePan-AfricanismA Vision of Global Islamic SolidarityConclusionBibliography and SourcesIndex

'Wright’s close reading of those sources is a particular strength. As an excellent arabist, he offers a fascinating and deep analysis of the doctrines and views of Ibrahim Niasse by looking at his collections of poems, theological treaties, and letters to disciples. Especially Niasse’s poetry is a useful source for the study of this Tijani community as acknowledged by many, however nobody before Wright has undertaken such a deep and systematic reading of Niasse’s poetry'.Ousmane Kane, Harvard University, in Islamic Africa8 (2017), pp. 229-231