Pub Date : 2024-08-05DOI: 10.1163/21540993-20240002
Kota Kariya
Miṣbāḥ al-arwāḥ fī uṣūl al-falāḥ, written by a fifteenth-century Maliki scholar from Tlemcen, Muḥammad al-Maghīlī (d. c. 1505), had a great influence on the religious and legal thought of ʿUthmān b. Fūdī (d. 1817), the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, and the issue of takfīr in the history of his jihad movement. Although this work has not been fully examined because only one manuscript was previously known, I recently identified two manuscripts of this work held at al-Khizāna al-Ḥasaniyya (mss. 13446 and 13722). In the present paper, I provide a brief examination of these newly identified manuscripts, particularly from the perspective of the historical study of the early Sokoto Caliphate.
{"title":"A Short Report on Newly Identified Manuscripts of Miṣbāḥ al-Arwāḥ: A Treatise Authorizing Takfīr in the Early Sokoto Caliphate","authors":"Kota Kariya","doi":"10.1163/21540993-20240002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-20240002","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:italic>Miṣbāḥ al-arwāḥ fī uṣūl al-falāḥ</jats:italic>, written by a fifteenth-century Maliki scholar from Tlemcen, Muḥammad al-Maghīlī (d. <jats:italic>c</jats:italic>. 1505), had a great influence on the religious and legal thought of ʿUthmān b. Fūdī (d. 1817), the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, and the issue of <jats:italic>takfīr</jats:italic> in the history of his jihad movement. Although this work has not been fully examined because only one manuscript was previously known, I recently identified two manuscripts of this work held at al-Khizāna al-Ḥasaniyya (<jats:sc>mss</jats:sc>. 13446 and 13722). In the present paper, I provide a brief examination of these newly identified manuscripts, particularly from the perspective of the historical study of the early Sokoto Caliphate.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141969195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-19DOI: 10.1163/21540993-20240001
Sakariyau Alabi Aliyu
Due to its Christian roots, western education in Nigeria was initially resisted by Muslims as Judeo-Christian agenda, despite some acquiescence and appropriation of values of western education for Islamic education system. However, from the mid-1980s, neoliberal economic policies led to decline of government responsibility over education, and by the new millennium, private enterprise had become the major provider of education in Nigeria. The fear of Christianisation through education particularly challenged the Muslims. Socio-economic contingencies and prodding by the Muslim populace encouraged some of the ulama to venture into edupreneurship. Using the infrastructures of the madrasa, they adapted by establishing Western-style nursery/primary schools, running the two systems in the same space but at different times. What are the arguments of these scholars? Using the analytical lens of adaptive position-taking, this paper argues that, apart from the economic benefits, the trend also broadens Muslims’ socio-economic and political agenda.
{"title":"No Longer ‘Christian’ Education: Ulama Edupreneurship in Ilorin 1995–2022","authors":"Sakariyau Alabi Aliyu","doi":"10.1163/21540993-20240001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-20240001","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Due to its Christian roots, western education in Nigeria was initially resisted by Muslims as Judeo-Christian agenda, despite some acquiescence and appropriation of values of western education for Islamic education system. However, from the mid-1980s, neoliberal economic policies led to decline of government responsibility over education, and by the new millennium, private enterprise had become the major provider of education in Nigeria. The fear of Christianisation through education particularly challenged the Muslims. Socio-economic contingencies and prodding by the Muslim populace encouraged some of the ulama to venture into edupreneurship. Using the infrastructures of the madrasa, they adapted by establishing Western-style nursery/primary schools, running the two systems in the same space but at different times. What are the arguments of these scholars? Using the analytical lens of adaptive position-taking, this paper argues that, apart from the economic benefits, the trend also broadens Muslims’ socio-economic and political agenda.</p>","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"101 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141781689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-04DOI: 10.1163/21540993-20230001
Chapane Mutiua
The present article traces the history of a Qurʾān manuscript that, according to oral testimony, travelled from Oman to Inhambane via Zanzibar between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The manuscript is kept at the Jam’a Mosque in the city of Inhambane, southern Mozambique. Inhambane fell under the sphere of influence of the ancient sheikhdom of Sofala, founded by Swahili Arab traders as part of the Zimbabwe gold trade in the eighth century ad and destroyed by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century. The presence of this manuscript in Inhambane contradicts the general idea of a disconnect between the southern Mozambique region and Swahili trading networks as a result of the Portuguese presence in Sofala, Tete, Quelimane, and Mozambique Island. The properties of the manuscript, its materials (ink and paper), and its writing style (its script style and punctuation marks) are adduced, on the one hand, to argue that it was not produced in the territory of Mozambique; on the other hand, this highlights its connection with Qurʾān manuscripts produced in other parts of the western Indian Ocean region.
{"title":"A History of a Traveling Qurʾān Manuscript in Inhambane, Mozambique","authors":"Chapane Mutiua","doi":"10.1163/21540993-20230001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-20230001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The present article traces the history of a Qurʾān manuscript that, according to oral testimony, travelled from Oman to Inhambane via Zanzibar between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The manuscript is kept at the Jam’a Mosque in the city of Inhambane, southern Mozambique. Inhambane fell under the sphere of influence of the ancient sheikhdom of Sofala, founded by Swahili Arab traders as part of the Zimbabwe gold trade in the eighth century ad and destroyed by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century. The presence of this manuscript in Inhambane contradicts the general idea of a disconnect between the southern Mozambique region and Swahili trading networks as a result of the Portuguese presence in Sofala, Tete, Quelimane, and Mozambique Island. The properties of the manuscript, its materials (ink and paper), and its writing style (its script style and punctuation marks) are adduced, on the one hand, to argue that it was not produced in the territory of Mozambique; on the other hand, this highlights its connection with Qurʾān manuscripts produced in other parts of the western Indian Ocean region.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89187755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01302003
M. Ibrahim
Focusing on al-Ḥaraka al-Islamiyya fī Nayjīriyā (Islamic Movement in Nigeria), which is the largest Shia group in the country, this article examines Shia’s growth and social relations between its members and the Sunni majority. It analyses how the imn uses its structure, networks, and reform programs to spread Shia at the grassroots despite theological and political opposition from the Sunni majority. Beyond engaging in doctrinal polemics with the Sunnis, the Shias organized themselves into a well- structured religious movement with a political agenda challenging the Sunni majority and the Nigerian state. They are construed as a threat by the state, a notion supported by the Sunni Muslims within and outside the government. Subsequently, these dynamics inform how both Shia minorities and Sunni majority react to each other and how they both partake in remaking the wider social fabric of the society they share through interpersonal encounters and their relationship with the state.
本文聚焦于al-Ḥaraka al- islamiyya f æ nayjj riyā(尼日利亚伊斯兰运动)，这是该国最大的什叶派组织，研究了什叶派的发展及其成员与占多数的逊尼派之间的社会关系。它分析了伊斯兰国如何利用其结构、网络和改革计划在基层传播什叶派，尽管在神学和政治上遭到逊尼派多数人的反对。除了与逊尼派进行教义辩论外，什叶派还组织了一个结构良好的宗教运动，其政治议程挑战占多数的逊尼派和尼日利亚政府。他们被认为是国家的威胁，这一观点得到了政府内外逊尼派穆斯林的支持。随后，这些动态揭示了什叶派少数派和逊尼派多数派如何相互反应，以及他们如何通过人际交往和他们与国家的关系参与重塑他们所共享的社会的更广泛的社会结构。
{"title":"The Formation of Muslim Minorities within a Muslim Majority Context: the Case of Shia Groups in Nigeria","authors":"M. Ibrahim","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01302003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01302003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Focusing on al-Ḥaraka al-Islamiyya fī Nayjīriyā (Islamic Movement in Nigeria), which is the largest Shia group in the country, this article examines Shia’s growth and social relations between its members and the Sunni majority. It analyses how the imn uses its structure, networks, and reform programs to spread Shia at the grassroots despite theological and political opposition from the Sunni majority. Beyond engaging in doctrinal polemics with the Sunnis, the Shias organized themselves into a well- structured religious movement with a political agenda challenging the Sunni majority and the Nigerian state. They are construed as a threat by the state, a notion supported by the Sunni Muslims within and outside the government. Subsequently, these dynamics inform how both Shia minorities and Sunni majority react to each other and how they both partake in remaking the wider social fabric of the society they share through interpersonal encounters and their relationship with the state.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"100 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80992988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01302002
A. Tayob
This essay proposes a framework for understanding the construction of religious groups and minorities in Muslim societies through two intersecting and inter-related discourses. The first is a discourse and experience of modern state formation with roots in Africa’s colonial history. And the second is a discourse of the Other in Islamic jurisprudence and theology. It builds on Talal Asad’s thesis that a modern state discourse of secular authority does not preclude religious symbols that shape religious minorities. However, the essay goes beyond Asad by showing that Muslim reformist groups also articulate a religious discourse on minorities and religious groups. The essay argues that a discursive construction of Muslim religious minorities and groups occurs through contemporary state and Islamic reformist discourses. The article presents Egypt and Nigeria as case studies to illustrate this construction.
{"title":"Minorities Between State and Sharia Discourses in African Muslim Societies","authors":"A. Tayob","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01302002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01302002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This essay proposes a framework for understanding the construction of religious groups and minorities in Muslim societies through two intersecting and inter-related discourses. The first is a discourse and experience of modern state formation with roots in Africa’s colonial history. And the second is a discourse of the Other in Islamic jurisprudence and theology. It builds on Talal Asad’s thesis that a modern state discourse of secular authority does not preclude religious symbols that shape religious minorities. However, the essay goes beyond Asad by showing that Muslim reformist groups also articulate a religious discourse on minorities and religious groups. The essay argues that a discursive construction of Muslim religious minorities and groups occurs through contemporary state and Islamic reformist discourses. The article presents Egypt and Nigeria as case studies to illustrate this construction.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80913879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01302005
M. Leichtman
Senegal’s Shi‘i Muslim leaders have been establishing religious centers as ngo s, which bring material and spiritual development to neighborhoods and villages. Obtaining ngo status grants legitimacy and convinces a growing network of followers of the wider benefits of adhering to a minority branch of Islam. This article uses a framework of “development brokerage,” “religious engineering,” and “translation” to examine one Shi‘i ngo’s presentation of self. A promotional video illustrates the Shi‘i development project for Western and Muslim donors and the Senegalese state by appropriating the global discourse of international development. This example is contrasted with a religious ceremony for converts grounded in the universal rhetoric of Islamic salvation and the exclusivity of belonging to a local West African community of Shi‘a. Through employing multiple linguistic registers strategically adapted for distinct audiences, ngo leaders assert authority and cultivate a self-sustaining society of moral and ethical Shi‘a able to contribute to the Senegalese nation.
{"title":"ngo-ization as Legitimization: The “Engineering” of a Senegalese Shi‘i Islamic Development Model","authors":"M. Leichtman","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01302005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01302005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Senegal’s Shi‘i Muslim leaders have been establishing religious centers as ngo s, which bring material and spiritual development to neighborhoods and villages. Obtaining ngo status grants legitimacy and convinces a growing network of followers of the wider benefits of adhering to a minority branch of Islam. This article uses a framework of “development brokerage,” “religious engineering,” and “translation” to examine one Shi‘i ngo’s presentation of self. A promotional video illustrates the Shi‘i development project for Western and Muslim donors and the Senegalese state by appropriating the global discourse of international development. This example is contrasted with a religious ceremony for converts grounded in the universal rhetoric of Islamic salvation and the exclusivity of belonging to a local West African community of Shi‘a. Through employing multiple linguistic registers strategically adapted for distinct audiences, ngo leaders assert authority and cultivate a self-sustaining society of moral and ethical Shi‘a able to contribute to the Senegalese nation.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83732888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01302004
Kota Kariya
It has been frequently stated that ʿUthmān b. Fūdī (d. 1817), founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, was influenced by the works of Muḥammad al-Maghīlī (d.c. 1505), a Maliki jurist from Maghrib, in the formation of his religious and juristic views. However, their intellectual relationship has not been fully scrutinized based on a concrete and detailed comparison of their works. By closely comparing two of their well-known works (Ajwiba by al-Maghīlī and Sirāj al-ikhwān by ʿUthmān), I demonstrate that ʿUthmān did not blindly accept al-Maghīlī’s views but actively reorganized his predecessor’s words using selective quotations and strategic interpretations to justify his own thoughts and actions.
人们经常说，索科托哈里发的创始人阿卜杜拉Uthmān b. Fūdī(1817年)在形成他的宗教和法理学观点时，受到了来自马格里布的马利基法学家Muḥammad al- magh l /(1505年)的作品的影响。然而，他们的智力关系并没有通过具体和详细的作品比较来充分审视。通过对他们的两部著名著作(al- magh伊尔的《Ajwiba》和al- magh伊尔的《Sirāj al-ikhwān》)的密切比较，我发现，al- magh伊尔的观点并不是被al- magh伊尔盲目接受的，而是通过选择性的引用和战略性的解释来积极地重组其前任的言论，为自己的思想和行为辩护。
{"title":"Reconsidering the Intellectual Relationship between Muḥammad al-Maghīlī and ʿUthmān b. Fūdī: A Comparative Examination of Ajwiba and Sirāj al-Ikhwān","authors":"Kota Kariya","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01302004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01302004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 It has been frequently stated that ʿUthmān b. Fūdī (d. 1817), founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, was influenced by the works of Muḥammad al-Maghīlī (d.c. 1505), a Maliki jurist from Maghrib, in the formation of his religious and juristic views. However, their intellectual relationship has not been fully scrutinized based on a concrete and detailed comparison of their works. By closely comparing two of their well-known works (Ajwiba by al-Maghīlī and Sirāj al-ikhwān by ʿUthmān), I demonstrate that ʿUthmān did not blindly accept al-Maghīlī’s views but actively reorganized his predecessor’s words using selective quotations and strategic interpretations to justify his own thoughts and actions.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74206316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01302001
J. Hanson
The Ahmadiyya, a messianic Muslim missionary movement that expanded globally from South Asia, provided religious, social, and educational services and offered a compelling End Times message in colonial Ghana. An Ahmadi missionary arrived at the invitation of African Muslims, who learned about the movement from the Ahmadiyya’s English-language publications. Africans negotiated the terms of the mission’s founding and supported the residence of a South Asian missionary. Other West African Muslim movements navigated the colonial era with reformed religious practices and organizational changes, and the Ahmadiyya was distinctive with its English-language schools and an eschatology based on its founder’s claims to receive divine revelation as the Messiah and Mahdi. Ghanaian Ahmadi Muslims were a small minority within an overall Muslim minority in Ghana. Their initiatives created a dynamic regional center in an expanding Ahmadiyya network.
{"title":"End Times and the Modern World: The Ahmadiyya in Colonial Ghana","authors":"J. Hanson","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01302001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01302001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Ahmadiyya, a messianic Muslim missionary movement that expanded globally from South Asia, provided religious, social, and educational services and offered a compelling End Times message in colonial Ghana. An Ahmadi missionary arrived at the invitation of African Muslims, who learned about the movement from the Ahmadiyya’s English-language publications. Africans negotiated the terms of the mission’s founding and supported the residence of a South Asian missionary. Other West African Muslim movements navigated the colonial era with reformed religious practices and organizational changes, and the Ahmadiyya was distinctive with its English-language schools and an eschatology based on its founder’s claims to receive divine revelation as the Messiah and Mahdi. Ghanaian Ahmadi Muslims were a small minority within an overall Muslim minority in Ghana. Their initiatives created a dynamic regional center in an expanding Ahmadiyya network.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"247 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74684949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01302000
Terje Østebø, Benedikt Pontzen
Minorities are not defined by mere numbers but must be considered as emergent formations within their wider surroundings. As such, minorities are defined by the relations to their majorities, especially by the differences to, but also by their exchanges with them, which have an impact on their lives and communal identities. Minorities emerge in larger processes and narratives by which their surrounding societies render themselves into imagined communities and thereby partake in the remaking of the wider social fabric. Focusing on religious minorities in Muslim Africa, this introduction to the special issue provides a framework for how to understand how various minorities form and how their minority status impacts how they live their religion, see themselves as members of society, and make claims towards the state. The introduction moreover reviews the scholarly work done on the different religious minorities found within Muslim Africa and presents the essays included in the special issue. Considering the resulting social dynamics and their surrounding debates, we move beyond an understanding of Muslim Africa as coined solely by its Sunni Muslim majority.
{"title":"Introduction: the Formation of Religious Minorities in Muslim Africa","authors":"Terje Østebø, Benedikt Pontzen","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01302000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01302000","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Minorities are not defined by mere numbers but must be considered as emergent formations within their wider surroundings. As such, minorities are defined by the relations to their majorities, especially by the differences to, but also by their exchanges with them, which have an impact on their lives and communal identities. Minorities emerge in larger processes and narratives by which their surrounding societies render themselves into imagined communities and thereby partake in the remaking of the wider social fabric. Focusing on religious minorities in Muslim Africa, this introduction to the special issue provides a framework for how to understand how various minorities form and how their minority status impacts how they live their religion, see themselves as members of society, and make claims towards the state. The introduction moreover reviews the scholarly work done on the different religious minorities found within Muslim Africa and presents the essays included in the special issue. Considering the resulting social dynamics and their surrounding debates, we move beyond an understanding of Muslim Africa as coined solely by its Sunni Muslim majority.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88600554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-19DOI: 10.1163/21540993-20220003
C. Vierke
The Swahili poem of “The Hawk and the Dove” (Kozi na Ndiwa) has long been popular along the Swahili coast. In brief, the poem tells the story of the prophet Musa, who is put to the test by the angels Mikaili and Jibrili, disguised as a dove and a hawk. The dove, fleeing the famished hawk, finds refuge in the folds of Musa’s clothes. The bird of prey, approaching Musa, claims its right to the dove, since it is hungry. Musa faces a dilemma: he understands the hawk’s argument but is also full of pity for the dove. When he finally offers to cut off a part of his own right thigh to feed the hawk, the birds reveal themselves as the two angels and praise the prophet. “The Hawk and the Dove” has been a travelling Islamic poem par excellence: like many other popular Swahili Islamic poems dating back to the eighteenth, but mostly the nineteenth century – the heyday of Swahili Islamic poetry, having flourished amid the Sufi movements and their emphasis on poetry in vernacular languages as a means to ignite religious zeal in wider audiences – the poem is also based on sources that have widely travelled the Indian Ocean. Swahili poets creatively adapted them into Swahili verse, just as other Muslim poets in North Africa, West Africa, and, earlier, the Iberian Peninsula did for the discourses relevant to their own contexts. This contribution takes the double optic of providing a first text edition of the most ancient surviving Swahili manuscript of the poem. Secondly, I view the poem amid a longer history of circulation beyond the Swahili coast, as well as compare it with other popular, vernacular versions in the Arabic dialect of Algeria, Hausa in Nigeria, and the earlier adaptations by moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula in Aljamiado. This kaleidoscope of various rewritings of the story allows me to see the Swahili-specific readings more clearly in contrast.
斯瓦希里语诗“鹰与鸽子”(Kozi na Ndiwa)一直在斯瓦希里海岸流行。简而言之，这首诗讲述了先知穆萨的故事，他被伪装成鸽子和老鹰的天使米凯利和吉布里利考验。鸽子为了躲避饥饿的鹰，躲在穆萨的衣褶里。猛禽接近穆萨，声称它有权利得到鸽子，因为它饿了。穆萨面临着两难:他理解鹰的论点，但也对鸽子充满了怜悯。当他最终提出割下自己右大腿的一部分来喂鹰时，鸟儿们显示出自己是两个天使，并赞美先知。《鹰与鸽子》是一首杰出的伊斯兰诗歌:就像许多其他流行的斯瓦希里伊斯兰诗歌一样，可以追溯到18世纪，但主要是在19世纪——斯瓦希里伊斯兰诗歌的全盛时期，在苏菲运动和他们强调用方言诗歌作为点燃更广泛听众宗教热情的一种手段中蓬勃发展——这首诗也基于广泛传播于印度洋的资料。斯瓦希里诗人创造性地将它们改编成斯瓦希里诗，就像北非、西非和更早的伊比利亚半岛的其他穆斯林诗人一样，将与他们自己背景相关的话语改编成诗。这一贡献具有双重意义，提供了现存最古老的斯瓦希里语诗歌手稿的第一版文本。其次，我将这首诗放在斯瓦希里海岸以外更长的流传历史中，并将其与阿尔及利亚阿拉伯语方言、尼日利亚豪萨语的其他流行方言版本以及来自伊比利亚半岛的摩洛哥人在阿尔贾米多的早期改编版本进行比较。这种千变万化的对故事的各种重写，使我能够更清楚地看到斯瓦希里语特有的阅读。
{"title":"Of Patience and Pity: Rewriting and Reciting the Widely Travelled Islamic Poem “The Hawk and the Dove” in East Africa","authors":"C. Vierke","doi":"10.1163/21540993-20220003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-20220003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Swahili poem of “The Hawk and the Dove” (Kozi na Ndiwa) has long been popular along the Swahili coast. In brief, the poem tells the story of the prophet Musa, who is put to the test by the angels Mikaili and Jibrili, disguised as a dove and a hawk. The dove, fleeing the famished hawk, finds refuge in the folds of Musa’s clothes. The bird of prey, approaching Musa, claims its right to the dove, since it is hungry. Musa faces a dilemma: he understands the hawk’s argument but is also full of pity for the dove. When he finally offers to cut off a part of his own right thigh to feed the hawk, the birds reveal themselves as the two angels and praise the prophet.\u0000 “The Hawk and the Dove” has been a travelling Islamic poem par excellence: like many other popular Swahili Islamic poems dating back to the eighteenth, but mostly the nineteenth century – the heyday of Swahili Islamic poetry, having flourished amid the Sufi movements and their emphasis on poetry in vernacular languages as a means to ignite religious zeal in wider audiences – the poem is also based on sources that have widely travelled the Indian Ocean. Swahili poets creatively adapted them into Swahili verse, just as other Muslim poets in North Africa, West Africa, and, earlier, the Iberian Peninsula did for the discourses relevant to their own contexts. This contribution takes the double optic of providing a first text edition of the most ancient surviving Swahili manuscript of the poem. Secondly, I view the poem amid a longer history of circulation beyond the Swahili coast, as well as compare it with other popular, vernacular versions in the Arabic dialect of Algeria, Hausa in Nigeria, and the earlier adaptations by moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula in Aljamiado. This kaleidoscope of various rewritings of the story allows me to see the Swahili-specific readings more clearly in contrast.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89285850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：