Three Ibrāhīms: Literary production and the remaking of the Tijāniyya sufi order in twentieth-century Sudanic Africa

Welt des Islams

Volumn 49, Issue 3-4, 2009, Pages 299-333

  Seesemann, Rüdiger ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Ibr h m Niasse; Ibr h m S lih; Ibr h m S d ; Nigeria; Polemics; Senegal; Sudan; Sufi literature; Sufi poetry; Sufism; Tij niyya; West Africa

Indexed keywords

EID: 71449104505     PISSN: 00432539     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/004325309X12458504137789     Document Type: Review

References (81)

1. I have addressed some of the erroneous assumptions underlying this model in earlier publications. See in particular Rüdiger Seesemann, "African Islam or Islam in Africa? Evidence from Kenya," in: Roman Loimeier and Rüdiger Seesemann: The Global Worlds of the Swahili, Berlin: LIT, 2006, pp. 229-250
2. I borrow the notion of "remaking" from Mark Sedgwick's work on the Rashīd iyya Ahmadiyya and the Idrīsī tradition more generally. Sedgwick argues, quite convincingly, that the development of Sufi orders follows a cyclical rather than a linear pattern, where each generation potentially produces leaders who make and remake their respective Sufi tradition by introducing new ideas and practices, or by adapting the teachings to new local contexts. See the introduction to Mark Sedgwick, Saints and Sons. The Making and Remaking of the Rashīdi Ahcombining dot belowmadi Sufi Order, 1799-2000, Leiden: Brill, 2005
3. The ALA volumes relevant for the present study are Rex S. O'Fahey et al., Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. I: The Writings of Eastern Sudanic Africa to c. 1900, Leiden: Brill, 1994 (henceforth quoted as ALA I)
4. John Hunwick et al., Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. II: The Writings of Central Sudanic Africa, Leiden: Brill, 1995 (henceforth ALA II )
5. and John Hunwick et al., Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. IV: The Writings of Western Sudanic Africa, Leiden: Brill, 2003 (hence forth ALA IV)
6. On al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) see Ebrahim Moosa, Ghazālī and the Poetics of Imagination, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005
7. and Frank Griffel, Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology. A Study of His Life and His Cosmology, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009
8. on Ibn al-'Arabī (d. 638/1240) see in particular William J. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge. Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989
9. and Michel Chodkiewicz, Le sceau des saints: prophétie et sainteté dans la doctrine d'Ibn Arabî, Paris: Gallimard, 1986
10. on al-Sha'rānī (d. 973/1565) see Michael Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt. Studies in the Writings of 'Abd al-Wahhâb al-Sha'rânî, New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1982
11. on Rābi'a (d. 185/801), al-Bistcombining dot belowāmī (d. 261/874), and al-Hcombining dot belowallāj (d. 309/922) see Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975, pp. 38ff., 47-51, and 62-77
12. on Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037) as a mystic see Henri Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, New York: Pantheon Books, 1960
13. on al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166) see Mehmet Ali Aïni, Un grand saint de l'Islam: Abd-al-Kadir Guilani, 1077-1166, Paris: Geuthner, 1967
14. on Ah̄mad al-Tijānī (d. 1230/1815), see now Zachary Wright, On the Path of the Prophet. Ahmad al-Tijani and the Tariqa Muhammadiyya, Atlanta: African American Islamic Institute, 2005
15. Another major figure of the more recent North African Sufi tradition who did not leave any writings himself is 'Abd al-'Azīz al-Dabbāgh (d. 1131/ 1790), whose disciple Ahcombining dot belowmad al-Mubārak al-Lamatcombining dot belowī (d. 1156/1743) wrote a tremendously influential work that summarizes his master's teachings and is now available in an English translation: Bernd Radtke and John O'Kane, Pure Gold from the Words of Sayyidī 'Abd al-'Azīz al-Dabbāgh, Leiden: Brill, 2007
16. In other words, the aphorism, which can be traced back to al-Bistcombining dot belowāmī, emphasizes that the journey on the mystical path requires a guide and cannot be undertaken as an autodidactic enterprise. It does not mean (contrary to the popular misunder standing) that everybody is in need of a shaykh.-On the relationship between Sufis, books, and writing in general see Fritz Meier, "Methods of Approach," in: Gustave E. von Grunebaum (ed.), Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955, pp. 38-46
17. and also his later essay "Sufik und Kulturzerfall," in: Gustave E. von Grunebaum and Willy Hartner, Klassizismus und Kulturverfall, Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1960, pp. 144-180
18. Winter, Society and Religion, pp. 192f
19. Ignaz Goldziher, Muhammadanische Studien, Zweiter Teil, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1961, p. 200
20. See Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp. 85 and 88
21. Both texts exist in authoritative translations: Richard Gramlich, Die Nahrung der Herzen: Abū Tcombining dot belowālib al-Makkī's Qūt al-Qulūb, 4 vols., Stuttgart: Steiner, 1992-1995
22. id., Das Send schreiben al-Qušayrī's über das Sufitum, Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1989
23. See also the recent English translation by Alexander Knysh, Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Sufism, Reading: Garnet Publishing, 2007
24. In his study of saint veneration in Islam, Goldziher expressed a rather negative opinion of the tahcombining dot belowadduth bi l-ni'ma genre and described it as a means to promote oneself under the disguise of the expression of gratitude. See Goldziher, Muham madanische Studien, Zweiter Teil, p. 290
25. See also my "Sufi Leaders and Social Welfare: Two Examples from the Sudan," in: Holger Weiss (ed.), Social Welfare in Muslim Societies in Africa, Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2002, pp. 98-117, where I make a similar argument, though based on rather different material
26. Charles Stewart has argued that the linkage between legal studies and Sufism, as reflected in literary production, was the normal state of affairs across Sudanic Africa at least until the late nineteenth century. See Charles C. Stewart, "Southern Saharan scholarship and the Bilād al-Sūdān," in: Journal of African History 17, 1976, pp. 73-93 (see particularly pp. 86ff.)
27. See also Vincent Cornell, Realm of the Saint. Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998
28. Although this literary history still awaits writing, some notable bits and pieces have been documented and analyzed, first by Jamil Abun-Nasr, The Tijaniyya: A Sufi Order in the Modern World, London: Oxford University Press, 1965
29. and later by several contributors to Jean-Louis Triaud and David Robinson (eds.), La Tijâniyya. Une confrérie musulmane à la conquête de l'Afrique, Paris: Karthala, 2000
30. Two other works, one of them still unpublished, contain rich material concerning Tijānī literature: Said Bousbina, Un siècle de savoir islamique en Afrique de l'Ouest (1820-1920) - Analyse et commentaire de la littérature de la Tijâniyya à travers les oeuvres d'al-Hâjj 'Umar, 'Ubaida ben Anbûja, Yirkoy Talfi et al-Hâjj Malick Sy, Thèse de doctorat en histoire, Université de Paris I, 1996
31. and Jilalli El-Adnani, La Tijâniyya, 1781-1881: les origines d'une confrérie religieuse au Maghreb, Rabat: Marsam, 2007. Last but not least, Zachary Wright's On the Path of the Prophet offers a useful analysis of some of the relevant texts
32. Ahcombining dot belowmad Skīraj, Kashf al-hcombining dot belowijāb 'amman talāqa ma'a l-shaykh al-Tijānī min al-ascombining dot belowhcombining dot belowāb, Beirut: al-Maktaba al-Sha'biyya, 1408/1987-1988, p. 62
33. Jillali El-Adnani discusses the history of the Jawāhir in considerable detail (El-Adnani, La Tijâniyya, pp. 102-115
34. see also his article "Les origines de la Tijâniyya. Quand les premiers disciples se mettent à parler," in: Triaud and Robinson, La Tijâniyya, pp. 35-68)
35. There is some confusion, however, as to when and under what circumstances the first printed edition was produced. Carl Brockelmann (Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, Leiden: Brill, 1937-1949, Suppl. II, p. 876) mentions a Cairo edition of 1310 (1892-1893), a later edition Istanbul 1318 (1900-1901), and another Cairo edition of 1345 (1926-1927)
36. Abun-Nasr, Tijaniyya, pp. 24f
37. See Ibrāhīm b. 'Abdallāh Niasse, al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn 'an al-Tijāniyya wa-l-Tijāniyyīn, Kaolack: published by Muhcombining dot belowammad al-Ma'mūn b. Ibrāhīm Niasse, 1988, pp. 8f
38. See the brief analysis in Rüdiger Seesemann, "The takfīr debate, Part II: The Sudanese arena," in: Sudanic Africa 10, 1999, pp. 65-110 (in particular pp. 77f.)
39. See the analysis of polemical literature from Mauritania in Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh, "Les perles et le soufre. Une polémique mauritanienne autour de la Tijâniyya (1830-1935)," in: Triaud and Robinson, La Tijâniyya, pp. 125-163
40. For a famous example of nineteenthcentury polemics see Jean-Louis Triaud, "La Tijâniyya, voie infaillible ou « voie soufi inventée »? Autour du pamphlet anti-tijânî d'Ibrâhîm al-Qattân," in: Triaud and Robinson, La Tijâniyya, pp. 165-199
41. One of the early proselytizers of the Tijāniyya in Trarza, Muhcombining dot belowamdi Baddi b. Sīdinā (d. 1264/1847-1848), was known by the nickname Hcombining dot belowassān al-Tcombining dot belowarīq, "the Tijāniyya order's Hcombining dot belowassān," in allusion to Hcombining dot belowassān b. Thābit, the celebrated panegyrist of the Prophet Muhcombining dot belowammad. See Muhcombining dot belowammad al-'Arabī b. al-Sā'ihcombining dot below Bughyat al-mustafīd fī sharhcombining dot below Munyat al-murīd, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1939/1973-1974, p. 101
42. see also his entry in Ulrich Rebstock, Maurische Literaturgeschichte, Würzburg: Ergon, 2001, vol. 1, pp. 248f
43. On Niasse, see now Rüdiger Seesemann, "Nach der Flut": Ibrāhīm Niasse, Sufik and Gesellschaft in Westafrika, Habilitationsschrift, Universität Bayreuth, 2004
44. Previous studies include Mervyn Hiskett, "The 'Community of Grace' and its opponents, the 'Rejecters'," in: African Language Studies 17, 1980, pp. 99-140
45. Christopher Gray, "The Rise of the Niassene Tijaniyya, 1875 to the present," in: Islam et sociétés au Sud du Sahara 2, 1988, pp. 34-60
46. Ousmane Kane, "Shaikh al-Islam Al-Hajj Ibrahim Niasse," in: David Robinson and Jean-Louis Triaud (eds.), Le temps des marabouts, Paris: Karthala, 1997, pp. 299-316
47. See the translation and discussion of this passage in Seesemann, Nach der Flut, pp. 167ff
48. and Andrea Brigaglia, "The Fayda Tijaniyya of Ibrahim Nyass: Genesis and implications of a Sufi doctrine," in: Islam et sociétés au sud du Sahara 14-15, 2000-2001, pp. 41-56 (see in particular p. 49)
49. For details see Rüdiger Seesemann, "The shurafâ' and the 'blacksmith': The role of the Idaw 'Alî of Mauritania in the career of the Senegalese Tijânî shaykh Ibrâhim Niasse," in: Scott S. Reese (ed.), The Transmission of Learning in Islamic Africa, Leiden: Brill, 2004, pp. 72-98
50. See the short biographical sketches in Rüdiger Seesemann, "The takfîr debate. Sources for the study of a contemporary dispute among African Sufis. Part I: The Nigerian arena," in: Sudanic Africa 9, 1998, pp. 39-70
51. and Rüdiger Seesemann, "Der lange Arm des Ibrâhîm Sâlih. Erfahrungen eines deutschen Forschers mit dem Netzwerk eines nigerianischen Gelehrten," in: Roman Loimeier (ed.), Die islamische Welt als Netzwerk, Würzburg: Ergon, 2000, pp. 135-161
52. For details see Roman Loimeier, Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1997, pp. 266-324
53. Rüdiger Seesemann, "Internationalisierung des 'afrikanischen Islam'? Das Beispiel von Ibrâhîm Sâlih (Maiduguri/Nigeria), " in: Hans Peter Hahn and Gerd Spittler, Afrika und die Globalisierung, Hamburg: LIT, 1999, pp. 325-336
54. For a more detailed biographical note see Rüdiger Seesemann, "The writings of the Sudanese Tijānī shaykh Ibrāhīm Sīdī (1949-1999), with notes on the writings of his grandfather, shaykh Muhcombining dot belowammad Salmā (d. 1918), and his brother, shaykh Muhcombining dot belowammad al-Ghālī (b. c. 1947)," in: Sudanic Africa 11, 2000, pp. 107-124
55. On the Tijāniyya in Darfur, see Rüdiger Seesemann, "The history of the Tijâniyya and the issue of tarbiya in Darfur (Sudan)," in: Triaud and Robinson, La Tijâniyya, pp. 393-437
56. Shaykh Salmā was also one of the masters of Cerno Bokaar Saalif Taal. See Louis Brenner West African Sufi. The Religious Heritage and Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Taal, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984, p. 108
57. Ibrāhīm Niasse, Kāshif al-ilbās 'an faydcombining dot belowat al-khatm Abī l-'Abbās, Kaolack: published by Muhcombining dot belowammad al-Ma'mūn Ibrāhīm Niasse, 1988
58. Muhcombining dot belowammad al-Tcombining dot belowāhir Maigharī, al-Shaykh Ibrāhīm Aniyās [sic] hcombining dot belowayātuhū wa-arā'uhū wa-ta'ālīmuhū, Beirut: Dār al-'Arabiyya, 1981. The Sirr is rendered on pp. 410-459
59. Ibrāhīm Niasse, al-Sirr al-akbar (ed. Maigharī), p. 426
60. A collection of eight (sic; not six, as the title suggests) poetic works, published in many different editions in Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt, and most recently (1415/1994-1995) by al-Maktaba al-Thaqāfiyya in Beirut (ALA IV, p. 282)
61. First published as Ibrāhīm Niasse, Rihcombining dot belowla [sic] al-Hcombining dot belowijāziyya al-ūlā ... wa-talīhā rihcombining dot belowlatuhū al-musammā bi-Nayl al-mafāz wa-rihcombining dot belowlatuhū al-Kanawiyya, Kano: Matcombining dot belowba'at al-Amīriyya, 1380/1960
62. Ibrāhīm Niasse, Nafahcombining dot belowāt al-malik al-ghanī, Kaolack: published by Muhcombining dot belowammad al-Ma'mūn b. Ibrāhīm Niasse, 1988, p. 11
63. Ibrāhīm Niasse, Irshād al-sārīn ilā 'adam zakāt al-hārīn (sic; a Wolof word for unprocessed groundnuts), MS, no place, 1355/1936
64. Ibrāhīm Niasse, Raf ' al-malām 'amman rafa'a wa-qabadcombining dot belowa iqtidā'an bi-sayyid al-anām, Cairo: Matcombining dot belowba'at al-Mashhad al-Hcombining dot belowusaynī, n.d
65. -For an analysis of the qabdcombining dot below controversy, see Rüdiger Seesemann and Benjamin F. Soares, "'Being as good Muslims as Frenchmen': On marabouts, colonial modernity, and the Islamic sphere in French West Africa," in: Journal of Religion in Africa 39, 2009, pp. 91-120 (in particular pp. 106f.)
66. for the Nigerian arena, see Loimeier, Islamic Reform, pp. 79-83
67. See Knut S. Vikør, Sufi and Scholar in the Desert Edge. Muhcombining dot belowammad b. 'Alī al-Sanūsī and his Brotherhood, London: Hurst, 1995, pp. 223-228
68. ALA II, pp. 407-415
69. See item 94 in Scombining dot belowālihcombining dot below's entry in ALA II.-Literature on the shar̄'a laws in Nigeria abounds. The best background is provided by Philip Ostien, Sharia Implementation in Northern Nigeria, 1999-2006: A Sourcebook, 5 vols., Ibadan: Spectrum Books
70. The former was written as an immediate response to the practice of the Yan Izala, a Salafī-oriented group in Nigeria led by Abū Bakr Gumi (d. 1413/1992), to accuse members of the Tijāniyya of unbelief. The latter was a rejoinder to objections to al-Takfīr raised within the Tijāniyya, which criticized Scombining dot belowālihcombining dot below for taking too soft of a stance in the controversy with the anti-Sufis. See the detailed analysis in Seesemann, "The takfīr debate, Part I"
71. I had one personal encounter with Ibrāhīm Scombining dot belowālihcombining dot below in December 1997 in Maiduguri, in the course of which he explained his position regarding the authenticity of Jawāhir al-ma'ānī. See further Seesemann, "Der lange Arm," pp. 156-159. In the same piece, I quote a slightly different version of this dialogue that I heard from Scombining dot belowālihcombining dot below's followers in Maiduguri (see p. 159)
72. The huge literary output of Jalāl al-Dīn al- Suyūtcombining dot belowī (d. 910/1505) is almost proverbial among scholars of Islam. He wrote on virtually every topic in every branch of the Islamic sciences cultivated during his time. For a classical assessment, see Ignaz Goldziher, "Zur Charakteristik Gelāl ud-Dīn us-Sujūtī's und seiner literarischen Tätigkeit," in: Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Classe 69, 1871, pp. 7-28. For recent studies of al-Ghazālī see footnote 4
73. ALA I, pp. 301ff. Several of the titles in my possession were written after the compilation of ALA I
74. On the background and context of these controversies see Seesemann, "The history of the Tijâniyya"
75. See the full reference to this work in footnote 36. For further details on Sīdī's attitude, see Rüdiger Seesemann, "Islam, Arbeit und Arbeitsethik: die zâwiya der Tijâniyya in el-Fasher/Sudan," in: Kurt Beck and Gerd Spittler, Arbeit in Afrika, Münster: Lit, 1996, pp. 141-160
76. see also Seesemann, "Sufi Leaders and Social Welfare"
77. Carl Ernst, Words of Ecstasy in Sufism, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985
78. The full title is al-Ifāda fī wujūb al-siyāda fī l-scombining dot belowalāt wa-l-iqāma wa-l-adhān wa-l-shahāda, published by the author in Khartoum around 1986. According to Ibrāhīm Sīdī, the treatise is taken from Muhcombining dot belowammad Salmā's al-Kitāb al-karīm, an unpublished work kept in the zāwiya in El Fasher. See Seesemann, "The writings," p. 111 and item no. 17 in the list of Ibrāhīm Sīdī's works
79. Meier, "Sufik und Kulturzerfall," p. 178; my translation from the German original
80. See Rüdiger Seesemann, Ahcombining dot belowmadu Bamba und die Entstehung der Murīdīya, Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, p. 121
81. For details see Seesemann, "Islam, Arbeit, und Arbeitsethik" and id., "Sufi Leaders and Social Welfare"