Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Note on Orthography

Figure 1 Senegambia in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Figure 2 Medina-Baye and the City of Kaolack

Figure 3 Clerical Lineages in West Africa: The Niasse and the Cissé

Glossary

Introduction

Theoretical Considerations

Macrohistory

Habitus

Embodiment and Subjectivity

Literature Review

Narrative Structure of the Book

Chapter 1 Clerical Communities in West African History

Enduring Learning Practices

Islamic Jurisprudence of the Mālikī School

Qurʾān Learning

Esoteric Sciences

Sufism

Muslim Scholars in West African Social History

The Jihad of Ma Ba Diakhou

The Social Appeal of the New Marabout Communities

Chapter 2 A New Senegambian Clerical Community

The Niassène: Social and Intellectual Background

Ibrāhīm Niasse and the “Community of the Flood”

Chapter 3 Honored Disciples: The Cissé of the Saloum

ʿAbdallāh Niasse and the Cissé of Diossong

ʿAlī Cissé and Paradigmatic Discipleship

Chapter 4 Knowing God

On Spiritual Training

Being Filled with God

The Prophet Muḥammad, Mirror of God

Aḥmad al-Tijānī and Divine Cognizance

Chapter 5 Understanding Sufi Discipleship

Assuring the Aspirants

Conduct of the Disciple

Qualities of the Spiritual Guide

Disciple Perspectives

Chapter 6 The Adaptation of Traditional Learning Practices

Maintaining the Sanad Tradition

Adopting the Madrasa

Maintaining the Learning Circles

Strategies of Structural Adaptation

Chapter 7 Cognizance and the Revival of the Islamic Sciences

Qurʾān Learning and Knowing God

Sufism and Mālikī Jurisprudence in Medina-Baye

The Esoteric Sciences and Shaykh-Disciple Relations

Divine Cognizance and the Sufi Orders in West Africa

Chapter 8 Islam and African Decolonization: Community Solidarities and Distinctions

Islam and African Liberation

Islam and the Postcolonial Nation-State

Pan-Africanism

A Vision of Global Islamic Solidarity

Conclusion

Bibliography and Sources

Index