THE SPREAD OF ISLAM THROUGH NORTH TO WEST AFRICA
errol9
Inclosed is a whole book titled THE SPREAD OF ISLAM THROUGH NORTH TO WEST
AFRICA for those religious historians who wish to understand more about
Christianity and Islam's trials and tribulations at trying to understand
each other down through the centuries.................Errol
a historical survey with relevant Arab documents
by Joseph Kenny, O.P.
http://www.op.org/nigeriaop/kenny/nwafr/DefaultNW.htm#intro
© DOMINICAN PUBLICATIONS
LAGOS
2000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
Introduction (below)
1. Christianity before Islam: a summary
2. Islam meets Christianity in northeast Africa
3. The conquest of the Maghrib
A later embellished version by Ibn-`Idharī (c. 1300)
4. Later history of the Maghrib
5. Crusaders and preachers in North Africa
6. Trans-Saharan communication: Early Arab crossings and impressions
7. West African kingdoms, 8th to 10th centuries
8. The Murābit movement
9. West African kingdoms, 11th to 13th centuries
10. Empires and states, 13th to 16th centuries
11. Mali in the Arab accounts
12. The Songhay empire according to Ta¹rīkh al-Fattāsh, Ta'rīkh as-Sūdān
and Leo Africanus
13. The Jihād states, 17th to 19th centuries
14. 19th century Sokoto, Oyo, Borno
15. Islam in colonial and independent times
Bibliography
Maps:
Northwest Africa‹The Maghrib
Northeast Africa
West Africa‹The Niger River
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
The present and past West Africa cannot be understood without knowing the
major role Islam has played in shaping events in the region. Islam in one
way or another affects the lives of all the people there, Muslims and
non-Muslims alike. To understand the present it is good to take a look at
the past, how Islam came to West Africa, took root and spread before the
dramatic changes introduced by colonial and independent national rule.
To reach West Africa, Islam had to come first to Egypt, then to the Maghrib,
and then filter across the Sahara. In Egypt and the Maghrib Islam met
Christianity; in West Africa it met Traditional Religion. Its
confrontation and interaction with these two religions is a sub-theme of
this book.
Since our chief source of information for the period surveyed is Arabic
literature, we must not only summarize or refer to it, but present they key
passages that give not only information but also the perspective of the
writers. Certainly there are distortions, prejudices and exaggerations;
these are most easily detected and corrected by presenting the very words of
the writers.
We can appreciate the acumen and systematic approach of the Arab geographers
with their division of the world by latitude into climes and by longitude
into sections. We can admire the first-hand accounts of travellers and the
care of other writers to get accurate information from those who did
travel. Nevertheless, considerable confusion emerges from the
identification of the Nile with the Senegal and Niger rivers and from place
names which are often garbled and vary from one writer to another. The
dating of events and assessment of the state of power, wealth, culture and
Islam in an area also vary from one author to another.
There is considerable literature by recent writers who attempt to interpret
and resolve the problems raised by the Arabic accounts. They have solved
many problems, but many points are still controverted. I refer to this
literature in the appropriate places.
Since the focus of this book is West Africa, the texts on North Africa and
the Sahara are briefer. Yet in the interest of studying the interaction of
Islam with Christianity and African Traditional Religion, I carry the story
of Islam in the Maghrib to the final extinction of indigenous Christianity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3575