Living Knowledge in West African Islam

Living Knowledge in West African Islam examines the actualization of religious identity in the community of Ibrāhīm Niasse (d.1975, Senegal). With millions of followers throughout Africa and the world, the community arguably represents one of the twentieth century’s most successful Islamic revivals. Niasse’s followers, members of the Tijāniyya Sufi order, gave particular attention to the widespread transmission of the experiential knowledge (maʿrifa) of God. They also worked to articulate a global Islamic identity in the crucible of African decolonization.

The central argument of this book is that West African Sufism is legible only with an appreciation of centuries of Islamic knowledge specialization in the region. Sufi masters and disciples reenacted and deepened preexisting teacher-student relationships surrounding the learning of core Islamic disciplines, such as the Qurʾān and jurisprudence. Learning Islam meant the transformative inscription of sacred knowledge in the student’s very being, a disposition acquired in the master’s exemplary physical presence. Sufism did not undermine traditional Islamic orthodoxy: the continued transmission of Sufi knowledge has in fact preserved and revived traditional Islamic learning in West Africa.

Zachary V. Wright, Ph.D. (2010), Northwestern University, is Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at Northwestern University in Qatar. His previous publications have been in the field of African Islam, Sufism, and Islamic education. He translated a number of West African Arabic texts, and was the leading translator for Ibrāhīm Niasse’s renowned work on Sufism, the Kāshif al-ilbās or Removal of Confusion (Fons Vitae, 2010).

'Wright’s close reading of those sources is a particular strength. As an excellent arabist, he offers a fascinating and deep analysis of the doctrines and views of Ibrahim Niasse by looking at his collections of poems, theological treaties, and letters to disciples. Especially Niasse’s poetry is a useful source for the study of this Tijani community as acknowledged by many, however nobody before Wright has undertaken such a deep and systematic reading of Niasse’s poetry'.

Ousmane Kane, Harvard University, in Islamic Africa8 (2017), pp. 229-231