Jakhanke Muslim Clerics: A Religious and Historical Study of Islam in Senegambia [Hardcover]

This study effectively illuminates a neglected yet most significant element in West African Islam.>>>> (Richard Gray American Historical Review )

...develops an insightful portrait of these clerics in ten chapters....>>>> (Richard Gray Journal Of African History )

Sanneh's range of scholarship is impressive, as is his scrutiny of the evidence.>>>> (Richard Gray International Journal Of African Historical Studies )

...represents a significant contribution to the study of Islam in Africa.>>>> (American Historical Review )

...represents a significant contribution to the study of Islam in Africa. (American Historical Review )

This study effectively illuminates a neglected yet most significant element in West African Islam. (Richard Gray American Historical Review )

...develops an insightful portrait of these clerics in ten chapters.... (Richard Gray Journal Of African History )

Sanneh's range of scholarship is impressive, as is his scrutiny of the evidence. (Richard Gray International Journal Of African Historical Studies )

This book attempts the first major study of the Jakhanke people. The Jakhanke have since the thirteenth century been a specialist group of Muslim clerics and teachers, living among the Serakhulle, from whom they sprang, and the Manding, whose language they speak. Despite the nineteenth-century ambience of militancy, they maintained their tradition of consistent pacifism and political neutrality which is unique in Muslim Black Africa. Their manuscripts and clan histories survive today in precious family collections and libraries. The author has drawn on these histories, present-day interviews, travellers' observations and colonial reports to weave a fascinating, comprehensive study of the Jakhanke for the first time in any language. The author traces the details of their wanderings and analyzes important themes such as their system of education, their function as dream-interpreters and amulet-makers and finally-the dark side of the coin-the dependence of their way of life on the institution of slavery. Includes photos and maps.

Lamin Sanneh is Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.