Sufism in West Africa

Abstract

Abstract Sufism had a decisive influence on the development and spread of Islam in West Africa. Although it has been the subject of a considerable number of academic works, Sufism in West Africa remains understudied and often misunderstood. French and British colonial views of Islam had a lasting impact on the perception of Sufism in Africa, resulting in its depreciation as a kind of “popular” Islam of the ignorant masses. A closer look at eminent West African Sufi leaders and their movements, including the Qadiriyya, the Tijaniyya, and the Muridiyya, reveals that Sufism articulated itself in a variety of ways over the past three centuries, and that it continues to be a formidable spiritual, intellectual, and social force in many countries in the Western parts of the African continent.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 27 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.