Islamic Sufi Networks in the Western Indian Ocean (c.1880-1940): Ripples of Reform

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BRILL, Aug 7, 2014 - Religion - 242 pages
In the period c. 1880-1940, organized Sufism spread rapidly in the western Indian Ocean. New communities turned to Islam, and Muslim communities turned to new texts, practices and religious leaders. On the East African coast, the orders were both a vehicle for conversion to Islam and for reform of Islamic practice. The impact of Sufism on local communities is here traced geographically as a ripple reaching beyond the Swahili cultural zone southwards to Mozambique, Madagascar and Cape Town. Through an investigation of the texts, ritual practices and scholarly networks that went alongside Sufi expansion, this book places religious change in the western Indian Ocean within the wider framework of Islamic reform.
 

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
1
Towards a Geography of Reform
20
Silsilas to the South
47
The Planting of a Garden and the Growing of Malagasy Roots
72
Beyond the Monsoon
90
Arabic Literate Learning in Coastal East Africa c 18601930
108
Rātib alḤaddād in the Southwestern Indian Ocean c 18801940
143
Waqf Distribution and New Organizations in Zanzibar c 19001930
163
Chapter 9 Conclusions
191
Appendix 1 The Zanzibari Meccan Waqfs Contained in ZAHD10
199
Sources and Bibliography
201
Index
225
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