Introduction: Part 1

Sept. 7 Video Excerpt: ‘Islam: Empire of Faith – the awakening’

Sept. 10Basic Institutions of Islam

Discussion: ‘Islam: Empire of Faith – “the Awakening”’

- what aspects of ‘birth’ of Islam suggest issues/questions relevant to movement of Islam into Africa?

• nature of spread: how much of Islam was ‘spread by the sword’(emphasized in video), how much by other means?

• Relation to ‘other’ religions, eg Judaism, Christianity, other non-monotheist religions: how achieved? What kind of guidelines to regulate interactions?

• Significance of social awareness: what attracted people –individuals, communities – to Islam in its early phases?

‘Islam: Empire of Faith – “the Awakening”’ (cont.)

Other relevant points (not specifically discussed):

•Orality and veneration of language

•Role of family, ‘tribe’ and patrilineal influence

•Issues/values of desert life(eg. Belief in spirits, mysticism; centrality of inter-tribal conflict)

•Emergence of ‘urban’, commercial life and impact on desert life

Basic Institutions of Islam

‘The Word’, ‘The Message’:

• delivered orally to prophet Mohammed in Arabic• association of Arabic with ‘holy’ language• spread by word of mouth Mohammed and followers• ‘stories’, parables used to explain meaning• ‘essence’ divine, communication/interpretation human

Basic Institutions of Islam

Critical Development: oral becomes written

• Following Mohammed’s death – need to ‘record’ the word lest it become forgotten or distorted

• Associates wrote ‘the canon’ down in Arabic: Qur’an• Next two centuries others recorded the history of the

founding and the ‘stories’ Mohammed heard to have used to explain Allah’s ‘word’: basis of Sharia (law)

• Other words attributed to Mohammed but often questionable: hadith

Basic Institutions of Islam

Law integral to Islam:

• Sharia developed over time ‘guidelines to living’ (as good Muslim)

• applied ‘consensus’: seeking views of leading scholars to be expressed as ‘umma’ (community)

• Applied ‘analogy’: drawing on earlier examples/precedents to ‘translate’ contemporary issues

• Although derived from ‘divine’, produced by humans• Variations occurred in outcomes: different ‘schools’ of

law

Basic Institutions of Islam

Law integral to Islam:Four main schools –• Maliki (most important in North and West Africa)• Hanafi (important in East Africa)• Shafi’i (also important in East Africa)• HanbaliAll recognize each otherAlso:• Shia, Kharaijiite

[see ‘Muslim Law and Jurisprudence’, additional readings]

Basic Institutions of Islam

Concepts: ijtihad and taqlid

• Process of ‘independent thinking’, right of all jurists to interpret problems not directly addressed in Qur’an, hadiths, processes of ‘consensus’ and ‘analogy’characterized construction Sharia through 10th C.

• Known as ijtihad (Ar. ‘effort’)• With full articulation sharia, many argued ‘the door (bab)

to ijtihad was closed – all subsequent jurists bound by the authority of predecessors, taqlid

• Legal decisions allowed for analysis but rooted in precedent

Basic Institutions of Islam

Ijtihad and taqlid (cont):• Divisions in Islam followed death of Mohammed over

question of succession• Sunnites (sunni) argued for recognition taqlid: became

predominant ‘school’ thought West Africa (malike law)• Shi’ites (shia) argued for continuing right of jurists to

interpret – the ‘door to ijtihad’ remained open: minority but had influence East Africa

• Issue became KEY factor in African Muslim societies, especially 19th, early 20th C. reformist movements

• Remains key in context of 21st C. ‘fundamentalism’[see ‘Ijtihad & taqlid’, additional readings]

Law

Administers of Islamic Law:

• Ulama: Scholars, jurists in charge of the theoretical interpretation of the Sharia'a (jurists constituting the umma)

• Qadi: Local judge appointed by government of Caliph • Mufti: Consultant who produced written opinions on legal

questions • Qadi’s and Mufti’s judgements were often ‘joined’ by

opinions provided by well-respected scholars, known in Middle East and North Africa as nawazil

Law

Areas where nawazil played important role:

• Commerce: merchants concerned when trading with in ‘foreign’ markets, with foreign traders, how to interact as ‘good Muslim’[document discussion]

• Slave Trade: interpretation of 16th C Timbuktu scholar drawn upon to shape trans-Saharan slave trade – areas from which slaves could be drawn, treatment of slaves, legitimate buying/selling practices etc[specific issues to be treated in later lecture; Ch. 5 of Robinson]

• Social questions (eg marriage, divorce, slavery etc)

Basic Institutions of Islam

‘Five Pillars’:These are the five ‘required’ practices of all Muslims:• Profession of the Faith: simple repetition of

acknowledgement of Allah, the one God and Mohammed, his Prophet – begins each prayer

• Prayer: five stipulated times per day for every individual, once on Friday as a community

• Giving of alms for the Poor (Ar. Zakat)• Fasting, month Ramadan: purifies, reconnects to Allah• Pilgrimage (Ar. Hajj): travel to Mecca to perform rituals;

at least once in lifetime if circumstances permit

Hajj: literally 'to set out for a place'

• Occurs in twelfth month of lunar calendar• traditionally took months, often years• important part local economies that provided services• pilgrimage spread ideas, cultures over very long

distances • ‘Pilgrimage facilitated Diaspora of scholars, spread of

knowledge• stories of pilgrimage’ became literary genre

The Hajj

(left) Traditional hajj: by caravan, large groups travellingTogether for safety

(right) Kabba, Meccacontemporary worshippers

Basic Institutions of Islam

‘Five Pillars’ (cont):Resting upon ‘pillars’, outlined in qur’an and sharia are

rights and responsibilities to individuals and community

• Matters of Faith: eg. prohibition of Idolatry • Ritual laws: eg. dietary regulations (pork, wine). • Ethical rules: eg. gambling, fraud, perjury, slander, etc. • Family Law: eg. divorce, remarriage, inheritance, status

of women, limit on number of wives, etc. • Civil and Criminal laws: eg. contracts (commercial,

property), taxation (what goods/transactions are taxable)

Basic Institutions of Islam

‘Five Pillars’ (cont):Resting upon ‘pillars’, outlined in qur’an and sharia are

rights and responsibilities to individuals and community

• community obligations• treatment of slaves, freed slaves• position, rights of non-Muslims (within community)• relations to ‘the state’• relations between men and woman

Basic Institutions of Islam

‘Five Pillars’ (cont):

As we look at process of Islam becoming ‘African’ and of Africans becoming Muslims (submitting to Allah – literal meaning of ‘Muslim – one who submits’) these rights and responsibilities are aspects most often discussed, debated, fought over

these ‘rights and responsibilities’, along with prayer, are part of daily living and relate to individuals, communities and political structures: they are what defined Muslims, and distinguished between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims

Basic Institutions of Islam

Among Community ‘Responsibilities’: obligation to defend Islam - jihad

• against outside threats by non-believers ‘kafir’ (eg. original attacks on Mohammed and followers)

• Later, against external threats to states established in name of Islam: ‘caliphates’ (eg. Ottoman empire)

• Against internal threats – internal to the umma or Muslim community: so-called ‘bad Muslims’ whose threat is greater than that of non-muslims (many examples in 18th-19th c. known as era of reformism)

Basic Institutions of Islam

Implied Critical Concepts:

• Dar al-Islam: ‘abode of Islam’• Dar al-Kafir: ‘abode of the Unbeliever’• Dar al-Harb: ‘abode of War’

Much of history of Muslim societies in Africa framed by these concepts: - affected application of ‘Law’ (especially with respect to commerce and slavery) - legitimacy of jihad

Basic Institutions of Islam

Conversion:• ‘becoming Muslim’: occurs at level of state (related to

justification for jihad) and of individual• What constitutes conversion? (religious issue)• How is conversion recognized? (political issue)• How can conversion be ‘encouraged’? When is force

justified (if ever)?• How does conversion change one’s rights and

obligations (eg. slave)?These questions also underlie much of the history of

Muslims/Muslim Societies in Africa

Key Questions

Importance of ‘basic institutions’: They frame critical questions -

1. How did different peoples (in Africa) understand and articulate 'being Muslim’ – importantly, being a ‘good Muslim’?

2. How did those understandings and articulations change over time and place -- and why?

These questions, in turn, will shape our explorations of the Muslim societies we examine