Sufis and Scholars of the Sea: Family Networks in East Africa, 1860-1925

by Bang,Anne

• ISBN13: 9780415317634
• ISBN10: 0415317630
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-17
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

This book focuses on the ways in which a particular Islamic brotherhood, or 'tariqa', the tariqa Alawiyya, spread, maintained and propagated their particular brand of the Islamic faith. Originating in the South-Yemeni region of Hadramawt, the Alawi tariqa mainly spread along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The Alawis are here portrayed as one of many cultural mediators in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious Indian Ocean world in the era of European colonialism.

Author Biography

Anne K. Bang is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Table of Contents

List of figures	viii
List of plates	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	1	(1)
Background, perspectives and aims	2	(6)
Sources	8	(4)
The Al Ba (Bani) `Alawi	12	(23)
The Hadramawt and the Al Ba `Alawi	12	(1)
The Tariqa `Alawiyya	13	(10)
The migrations of the `Alawi sada	23	(2)
The `Alawis in East Africa	25	(10)
The Al bin Sumayt	35	(12)
The Al bin Sumayt: From Hadramawt to the Indian Ocean	35	(12)
Ahmad b. Abi Bakr b. Sumayt: Childhood and youth in the Comoro Islands	47	(10)
Ibn Sumayt: The first twenty years	47	(5)
The `ulama' of Grande Comore and their network	52	(3)
The Comoro Islands and the outside world: Indian Ocean trade	55	(2)
Hadramawt revisited: Family and scholarly networks reinforced	57	(20)
The homeward journey: The return of the Muwallad	57	(3)
Family networks	60	(1)
Islamic education in Hadramawt in the 1880s	61	(3)
The teachers of Ibn Sumayt in Hadramawt	64	(6)
Ibn Sumayt's studies in the Hadramawt: An appreciation	70	(7)
Travelling years: Zanzibar--Istanbul--Cairo--Mecca--Java--Zanzibar, 1885--1888	77	(16)
Fadl b. `Alawi b. Sahl (Fadl Pasha)	78	(10)
Ibn Sumayt and Fadl Pasha	88	(1)
Further travels: Egypt, Hijaz, India and Java	89	(1)
1886--1888: Travels in the search of knowledge	90	(3)
Ibn Sumayt, the `Alawiyya and the Shafi'i `ulama' of Zanzibar c. 1870--1925: Profile of the learned class: recruitment, training and careers	93	(33)
Two generations Shafi'i `ulama': c. 1870--1925	93	(9)
The process of recruitment	102	(2)
The transmission of Islamic knowledge	104	(12)
Careers: The `ulama' and political power -- co-operation and avoidance	116	(10)
Scriptural Islam in East Africa: The 'Alawiyya, Arabisation and the indigenisation of Islam, 1880--1925	126	(27)
Background: The `new' `ulama' and the wider Islamic world	127	(6)
Counterbalance: The 'Alawiyya and Islamic reform in East Africa	133	(11)
`Alawis as agents of scriptural learning: Al-Riyad of Lamu and the Madrasa Ba Kathir of Zanzibar	144	(6)
Educational reform and the Tariqa 'Alawiyya in East Africa	150	(3)
The work of a Qadi: Ibn Sumayt and the official roles of the Zanzibari `ulama' in the British-Bu Sa'idi state, c. 1890--1925	153	(20)
The Chief Qadis of the British-Bu Sa'idi state	154	(3)
The legal system: `Ulama' as government judges	157	(8)
Qadis as consultants: Ibn Sumayt and 'Ali Al-Mundhiri on the Wakf Commission	165	(8)
Educational efforts within the colonial state: Ibn Sumayt, the `ulama' and the colonial quest for secular education	173	(15)
Education in Zanzibar: Historical background	173	(4)
`Acceptable religious instruction'	177	(6)
Quranic/religious instruction in a non-Arabic setting: Controversies and conflicting interests	183	(5)
The death of a generation	188	(11)
The Al bin Sumayt after Ahmad: Tradition continued	194	(5)
Conclusion	199	(5)
Strings attached: The 'Alawis of East Africa, their links and networks	199	(3)
Content: What was transmitted and propagated?	202	(2)
Appendix: The writings of Ahmad b. Abi Bakr b. Sumayt	204	(5)
Printed works in Arabic, ordered chronologically by date of completion	204	(3)
Unpublished, located works	207	(1)
Unpublished works that have been mentioned by previous scholars but remain unlocated	208	(1)
Notes	209	(35)
Sources	244	(6)
Bibliography	250	(7)
Index	257