Routledge Handbook of Islam in Africa

by Terje Østebø (Editor)

Overview

Bringing together cutting-edge research from a range of disciplines, this handbook argues that despite often being overlooked or treated as marginal, the study of Islam from an African context is integral to the broader Muslim world.

Challenging the portrayal of African Muslims as passive recipients of religious impetuses arriving from the outside, this book shows how the continent has been a site for the development of rich Islamic scholarship and religious discourses. Over the course of the book, the contributors reflect on:

• The history and infrastructure of Islam in Africa
• Politics and Islamic reform
• Gender, youth, and everyday life for African Muslims
• New technologies, media, and popular culture.

Written by leading scholars in the field, the contributions examine the connections between Islam and broader sociopolitical developments across the continent, demonstrating the important role of religion in the everyday lives of Africans.

This book is an important and timely contribution to a subject that is often diffusely studied, and will be of interest to researchers across religious studies, African studies, politics, and sociology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032127422
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/25/2023
Series:	Routledge International Handbooks
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Terje Østebø is Chair of the Department of Religion and Professor of Religion at the University of Florida, USA. He has joint appointments in the Department of Religion and the Center for African Studies and is also Founding Director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies, University of Florida.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Part I: Formation of Islam in Africa: Islamic Scholarship, Literature, and Sufism 2. The "Traveling Scholar" in African Islamic Traditions 3. An Overview of Islamic Literature in Africa 4. Pathways and Formations of ‘African Sufism’ Part II: Dynamics of Religious Infrastructure 5. A Historiography of Sub-Saharan African Mosques 6. Sufi Shrines as Material Space 7. The Qur’an School and Trajectories of Islamic Education Part III: Islam and African Intersections 8. Muslim Christian Relations in Africa 9. Islam and the Question of Gender Part IV: Islam, Politics, and Reform 10. Islam and Politics in Africa 11. Jihadism in Africa 12. African Salafism Part V: Patterns of Islamic Reform in Africa 13. Dynamics of Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa 14. Fayda-Tijaniyya and Islamic Reform in Twentieth and Twenty-first Africa 15. Reform in the Discourse of Islam and the Making of Muslim Subjects Part VI: Everyday Muslim Life 16. People’s Quest for Well-Being 17. Islam, Muslim Life-worlds, and Matters of the Everyday 18. Muslim Youth and Lived Experiences of Islam Part VII: New Technologies and New Connectiveness 19. Popular Culture in Muslim Africa 20. Media, the Digital, and New Connections 21. Beyond the Invisible Muslims Label

Editorial Reviews

"The Routledge Handbook of Islam in Africa provides a fresh synthesis of a field that has grown rapidly over the past four decades. Assembling the insights from first-hand research by twenty leading academics from three continents, the expertise on display here will benefit students and scholars alike, not least through the division of the book into thematic chapters that, each in its own way, open up new windows on the Islamic experience in Africa."

Rüdiger Seesemann, Chair of Islamic Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany

"Featuring rich, well-researched contributions by leading scholars in the field, this handbook offers an excellent synthesis of Islam and Muslim societies in Africa. The essays challenge assumptions that Islam in Africa sits on the fringe of the Muslim world and provide much needed insights on Africa’s role in the production of Islam as a global religion. This will be a great resource for students and scholars alike."

Adeline Masquelier, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, USA

From the Publisher