Muslim Societies in African History

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, (2004). orig.wrappers. 22x14cm, xx,220 pp. PAPERBACK.. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ Contents : The historical and institutional background. Muhammad and the birth of Islam -- The basic institutions of Islam -- General themes. The islamization of Africa -- The africanization of Islam -- Muslim identity and the slave trades -- Western views of Africa and Islam -- Case studies. Morocco: Muslims in a "Muslim nation" -- Ethiopia: Muslims in a "Christian nation" -- Asante and Kumasi: a Muslim minority in a "sea of paganism" -- Sokoto and Hausaland: jihad within the Dar al-Islam -- Buganda: religious competition for the kingdom -- The Sudan: the Mahdi and Khalifa amid competing imperialisms -- Senegal: Bamba and the Murids under French colonial rule -- Conclusion. ["Examining a series of processes ( Islamization, Arabization, Africanization) and case studies from North, West and East Africa, this book gives snapshots of Muslim societies in Africa over the last millennium. In contrast to traditions which suggest that Islam did not take root in Africa, author David Robinson shows the complex struggles of Muslims in the Muslim state of Morocco and in the Hausaland region of Nigeria. He portrays the ways in which Islam was practiced in the 'pagan' societies of Ashanti (Ghana) and Buganda (Uganda) and in the ostensibly Christian state of Ethiopia - beginning with the first emigration of Muslims from Mecca in 615 CE, well before the foundational hijra to Medina in 622. He concludes with chapters on the Mahdi and Khalifa of the Sudan and the Murid Sufi movement that originated in Senegal, and reflections in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001

Robinson, David - Muslim Societies in African History