ABSTRACT

Bringing together cutting-edge research from a range of disciplines, this handbook argues that despite often being overlooked or treated as marginal, the study of Islam from an African context is integral to the broader Muslim world.


Challenging the portrayal of African Muslims as passive recipients of religious impetuses arriving from the outside, this book shows how the continent has been a site for the development of rich Islamic scholarship and religious discourses. Over the course of the book, the contributors reflect on:

  • The history and infrastructure of Islam in Africa
  • Politics and Islamic reform
  • Gender, youth, and everyday life for African Muslims
  • New technologies, media, and popular culture.


Written by leading scholars in the field, the contributions examine the connections between Islam and broader sociopolitical developments across the continent, demonstrating the important role of religion in the everyday lives of Africans.

This book is an important and timely contribution to a subject that is often diffusely studied, and will be of interest to researchers across religious studies, African studies, politics, and sociology.

chapter 1|17 pages

Introduction

part I|43 pages

Formation of Islam in Africa

chapter 2|15 pages

The “traveling scholar” in African Islamic traditions

Local, regional, and global worlds

chapter 3|14 pages

An overview of Islamic literature in Africa

Local and global interactions

part II|43 pages

Dynamics of religious infrastructure

chapter 5|14 pages

A historiography of Sub-Saharan African mosques

From colonialism to modernity

chapter 6|13 pages

Sufi shrines as material space

part III|36 pages

Islam and African intersections

chapter 8|14 pages

Muslim–Christian relations in Africa

Tracing transformations on the ground and in a growing field of study

chapter 9|20 pages

Islam and the question of gender

part IV|30 pages

Islam, politics, and reform

chapter 10|13 pages

Islam and politics in Africa

Politics within and without the state

chapter 11|15 pages

Jihadism in Africa

chapter 12|15 pages

African Salafism

part VI|41 pages

Everyday Muslim life

chapter 16|13 pages

People's quest for well-being

Tracing Islamic healing practices in Africa

part VII|42 pages

New technologies and new connectiveness

chapter 21|13 pages

Beyond the invisible Muslims label

The building of African Muslim diasporic communities in the West