Copyright © 2018 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
First published in hardback in 2018
This electronic edition published in 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978 977 416 863 5
eISBN 978 1 61797 872 2
Version 1
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Sufi Scholarship of Islamic West Africa
Zachary Wright
Part 1: Shaykh ‘Uthman bin Fudi
Rudolph Ware and Muhammad Shareef
2 The Roots of the Religion (Kitab usul al-din)
3 The Sciences of Behavior (‘Ulum al-mu‘amala)
4 The Book of Distinction (Kitab al-tafriqa)
Part 2: Shaykh ‘Umar al-Futi Tal
Amir Syed
8 The Vessel of Happiness and Assistance for the Weak (Safinat al-sa‘ada li-ahl du‘f wa-l-najada)
Part 3: Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba Mbacké
Rudolph Ware
10 “The Valiant One” (al-Sindid)
11 Pathways of Paradise (Masalik al-Jinan)
12 “Gifts of the Benefactor in Praise of the Intercessor” (Mawahib al-nafi‘ fi mada’ih al-shafi‘)
Part 4: Shaykh Ibrahim bin ‘Abdallah Niasse
Zachary Wright
14 “The Spirit of Etiquette” (Ruh al-adab)
15 The Removal of Confusion (Kashif al-ilbas)
16 “The Jeweled Letters” (Jawahir al-rasa’il)
17 Poetry for the Prophet (from Dawawin al-sitt)
Conclusion: The Prophet, the Qur’an, and Islamic Ethics
Rudolph Ware
We would like to acknowledge the many scholars, both Muslim ‘ulama’ and Western academics, who have made accessible the Islamic scholarly tradition of West Africa to a wider readership. They are too many to name here, but this work would not have been possible without their efforts.
For previous source-work on Shehu ‘Uthman bin Fudi, we are grateful for the efforts of Mervyn Hiskett, Murray Last, and John Hunwick. We also acknowledge the direct assistance of ‘A’isha Bewley and Muhammad Shareef in preparing the section on Ibn Fudi.
For prior work on the writings of al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal, we acknowledge the work of Bernd Radtke, John Hunwick, Said Bousbina, and Muhtar Holland. We also thank Kamal Husayni for making available to us unpublished drafts of Holland’s translations of sections of the Rimah. We are grateful to Imam Fode Drame and Sillah Drammeh for offering translation advice on difficult passages from al-Hajj ‘Umar’s writing.
Earlier work with the writings of Serin Touba Ahmadu Bamba deserving mention includes that of Cheikh Babou, Bachir Mbacké, and Sana Camara.
For the writings of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, we are thankful for the previous translation and analytical work of Shaykh Hasan Cissé, Ousmane Kane, Rüdiger Seesemann, and Fakhruddin Owaisi. The explanations provided by Imam Cheikh Tijani Cissé in various interviews were also indispensable in fully understanding the writing of Shaykh Ibrahim.
For useful feedback with this manuscript at various stages, we thank Robert Launay, Brannon Ingram, Rebecca Shereikis, Oludamini Ogunnaike, Mauro Nobili, and Matthew Schumann. We are also grateful to our anonymous reviewers for their useful comments, and to Tarek Ghanem, Lucy Hanna, and the entire staff at AUC Press for believing in this project from the start and seeing it through.
We thank all of our families for putting up with yet another writing project. Wa akhir da‘wa’ina inna l-hamd li-Lah rabb al-‘alamin.