Research Catalog

Title

Islamic and caste knowledge practices among Haalpulaar'en in Senegal : between mosque and termite mound / R.M. Dilley.

Author

Dilley, Roy, 1954-

Publication

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, London, c2004.

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Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

International African Institute

Description

xv, 270 p. : ill., maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"This book examines in historical perspective the hitherto little-studied relationship between Islam and caste among the Haalpulaar'en of Senegal. The Islamic uprising of the 1770s, which established a class of Islamic clerics in positions of authority in the Senegal river valley, had long-term consequences for the social relations between clerics and caste groups. The book examines how at different historical junctures attempts were made to negotiate the equalitarian claims of a universalist faith with the expression of social differentiation lying at the heart of case inequality. While the existing literature focuses on those who established Islam within the region, this present work provides insights into how marginalised artisans, poets and musicians understood themselves and how they responded to a faith which had become the cornerstone of social prestige and status. It analyses the knowledge practices of clerics and of specialised craft groups, arguing that they are crucial for our understanding of social and cultural distinction. This involves a synthesis of historical sources and ethnography, and provides an innovative approach to the study of religious identity and specialist practitioners."--Jacket.

Series Statement

International African library ; 30

Uniform Title

International African library ; 30.

Subject

• Caste > Senegal
• Islam > Senegal
• Tukulor (African people) > Religion
• Tukulor (African people) > Religious life
• Tukulor (African people) > Social conditions

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-265) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The Mosque and the termite mound -- Ranks and categories: the emergence of a Haalpulaar social division of labour -- Historical origins and social pedigrees of craftsmen and musicians: genealogies of power and knowledge of the wild -- The white and the black: ideology and the rise to dominance of the Islamic clerics -- Accommodationist Sufi Islam and rites of passage: tensions and ambiguities -- The witch-hunter and the marabout: competing domains of knowledge and power -- The power of the word: the oral and the written -- Islamic reformers, Islamists and the Muslim community.

ISBN

0748619909 (pbk.)

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library