Islamic Intellectual Traditions in the Sahel

Abstract

This chapter offers an analysis of Islamic scholarly culture and intellectual currents in the Sahel through the lens of different conceptions of Islamic knowledge. It discusses three epistemological patterns called traditionalist, reformist, and Islamist and links them to broader intellectual developments within Islam. In the traditionalist paradigm, knowledge practices are rooted in classical Islamic notions of character formation, described as a habitus that can only be attained through internalization and personal connection to a master. In the reformist paradigm, which largely corresponds to “Salafi” or “Wahhabi” epistemology, the primacy of the textual evidence supersedes the authority of the master. The Islamist paradigm pursues a new epistemological approach that seeks to fuse Islamic and “Western” knowledge. The chapter indicates how the different epistemologies intersect with broader worldviews and highlights the ways in which “Salafi” or “Wahhabi” epistemology connects to jihadist action in the Sahel in the early twenty-first century.