Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of West African Muslims

Timbuktu (northern Mali) was in the Middle Ages a rich city whose great libraries allowed it to flourish as a center of learning, and it was home to centers of knowledge in the Middle Ages including the study of Arabic language sciences for which it is still famous today.

During the period in which violent incidents occurred recently, the international media showed fear of the destruction and loss of its "manuscripts". "Timbuktu manuscripts" became a commonly used phrase, and international public opinion began to realize that there are indeed centuries-old texts preserved in that ancient and mythical city that need protection, and drew attention. That attention is given to an ancient African written culture, in contrast to the prevailing image of Africa and its oral culture.

Contrary to the traditional view of the "black continent", Timbuktu was an integral part of the larger world of Islam. The desert was not a wall between two worlds but an intersecting space being crossed through multiple routes all kinds of goods and commodities, as well as Muslim students, scholars and manuscripts, traveled back and forth.

Osman Omar Kane, academic at Harvard University's School of Theology and grandson of the famous Senegalese cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Abdallah (1900-1975), in his book published by Harvard Press entitled "Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of West African Muslims" discusses this rich history of western Africa.

The book "Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of West African Muslims" published by Harvard Press 2016 (communication sites)

The expansion of Islam in Sudan (which historically extends from present-day Sudan to West Africa) starting from the Almoravid period in the 11th century meant the development of the tradition of teaching and writing in the various disciplines that were formed over centuries in the Islamic world as Islamic sciences.

This tradition has continued through the influence of some ethnic groups that became "messengers of Islam" such as the Berbers, the Sanhaja tribes, the Gula or Diola, the Zawiya or the Bidhan, the Fulani, the Wolof and others.

The Harvard Gazette previously discussed Othman Omar Kane about the cultural and philosophical influence of West African Muslims on Islam as a whole, and the interview was conducted to shed light on the roots of Islam and its influence in Africa, which includes nearly 30% of the world's Muslims, and two-thirds of the Arabs According to the author.

A deeper sense of Muslim Africa

In the interview, Kane said that the most common misconception in the West of African Muslims relates to the representation of black Africa in academia as well as in popular representations as a continent of warring tribes.

"Look at the coverage of most of the TV channels in Africa. Most of the time it is limited to tribal disputes," he added.

On the other hand, in his book, Kane discusses the case of large sections of the peoples of West Africa, past and present, "that have proven their ability to transcend narrow-minded identities, visions, and differences on common issues, and have already gained independence of thought and a common destiny."

This is embodied, more than anything else, in a long literary tradition in Arabic and African languages ​​written in Arabic letters, but, unfortunately, this literary tradition has been obscured by Western discourses in the last century that tended to represent mainly black Africa as a continent dependent on culture. Only oral, and therefore these discourses obscured their literary traditions, according to the author.

On his question of how Islam spread from the Arabian Peninsula to the rest of Africa, Kane considered that Islam has a long history in Africa.

He added that Islam entered Africa "before it spread to the Arabian Peninsula, not to mention the neighboring countries of the Arabian Peninsula. The Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) sent dozens of his companions to Ethiopia before the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

During the first century of the Islamic (Hijri) calendar, Islam spread to Egypt across the Red Sea and coastal areas of eastern Africa on the one hand, and from Egypt across the Sahara to the rest of North Africa on the other hand.

And from North Africa it was introduced to West Africa through the Sahara.

When asked about Timbuktu, and its importance in the history of Islam, Kane considered the ancient city of Mali to be a great center for trade and Muslim education from the golden age of Islam.

"It is famous for its mosques, its many ancient colleges and its collections of rare Arabic manuscripts. For centuries it has attracted Muslim scholars and merchants, but it was not unique. It was only one of the many scholarly centers that flourished in West Africa in the past several centuries. My book illustrates the rise of education. Muslims from the beginning not only in Timbuktu, but in other parts of West Africa as well, up to the present time. It also examines the changing contexts that have affected the production and diffusion of Islamic knowledge.

African science centers

Kane told the prestigious university newspaper about other places in West Africa that have the same importance as Timbuktu, saying that other prominent centers for Muslim education in West Africa included Agadez (the largest city in central Niger), Chinguetti and Latta of Mauritania (on the borders of Mali), and Jeni (a central city of Mali). It is famous for its Great Mosque and was a link between the countries of the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa), the ancient cities of Kaolack, Peer, Kuki Senegalese, Kano, Katsina, Borno, Nigeria, and others.

The author estimates the number of Muslims in Africa between 450 and 500 million.

This is nearly a third of the number of Muslims in the world.

And the vast majority live in the northern half of the continent above the equator.

In North African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and West African countries such as Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, more than 90% of the population is Muslim, according to the author, and Nigeria alone has more than 80 million Muslims, and it is the sixth country with Muslims in the world after Indonesia, Pakistan and India. And Bangladesh and Egypt.

On the contributions of West Africa to the development of Islam, Kane says that the influence of Africans on science throughout the Islamic world extends for more than a thousand years.

This has been fully documented through recent research on literary cultures in West Africa, especially the manuscript heritage.

With the spread of Arab literacy, African scholars have developed a rich tradition of debate about doctrine and meaning in Islam.

The emergence of such a tradition was not separate from the centers of Islamic learning outside Africa, according to the author.

In Timbuktu, Cairo, Mecca and Baghdad, African scholars played important roles in developing nearly every field of Islamic science.

A quick look at the writings and curricula of West African Muslims shows that they are citing works from the entire Islamic world, evidence that they participate in a global network of scholarly exchange.

Regarding the importance of writing a book on Muslims in West Africa and Africa in general, the author said to the academic journal that he hopes his book will correct the misconceptions in both the West and the Middle East that the Islamic heritage of West Africa represents a secondary thread in the larger fabric of Islam.

"I also hope they realize that African Muslims in general have never been isolated. Neither the Red Sea nor the Sahara ever constituted an insurmountable barrier to communication. On the contrary, they were bridges that allowed Arabs and black African Muslims to maintain relationships," he concluded. A document through commerce, diplomacy, and intellectual and spiritual exchange. "