The History of Islam in Africa (review)

The editors Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels have assembled an impressive team of well-qualified contributors, who have compressed a mass of details into a clear comprehensible focus, offering a valuable book that one can give to the students, without reservation. This book, which contains twenty-four chapters, has been written by the best scholars in the history of Islam in Africa. It is by far the best approach to the history of Islam in Africa on a continent-wide scale. The editors have successfully achieved a balance between East and West Africa, paying equal attention to both of these primary regional sections. This book is perhaps the first work on Islam in Africa which explores the achievements of Islam in East Africa at such a comprehensive level. The diverse nature of the sources used by the contributors, such as the local chronicles and the religious writings, the archaeological and the ethnographic evidences, the novels and the biographical accounts of both European and non-European geographers, travelers, as well as rich oral traditions collected in local regions, offer insight into unlimited sets of historical themes. The book examines the spread of Islam within the context of complex processes of state formations, foreign interventions and alliances, and within the shifting patterns of long-distance trade. This book indeed provides a comprehensive overview of Muslim communities all over Africa. The contributors demonstrate how Islam, as a religion, interacted with African communities and their rich traditions. While Islam profoundly influenced the traditions of African societies, local African traditions "Africanized" Islam, thus enabling it to foster unity between communities. Islam and Muslims played creative roles in the story of Africa's development by introducing literacy, contributing in the process of state-building, in establishing interstate diplomacy, and in the creation of commercial networks inside Africa and beyond.

The themes of political economy, regionalism, and family law found in each chapter provide important background to the book as a whole. The book is divided into four parts. Each part focuses on a particular region and it chronologically delineates the principal themes of the book. Following a comprehensive introduction by the editors, in Part One and Two, the contributors unfold the historical processes which led to the victory of the Arabs over the Byzantine in the middle of the seventh century, enabling them to gain control over coastal North Africa. Reaching Africa through "two gateways" from the "east" and from the "north," Islam navigated across the vast waters of the Indian Ocean, and the endless desert sands of the Sahara, becoming an integral part of the African continent. The impact of Islam further grew on the continent as Islam filtered in the culture of the common people, engaging in symbiotic relationships with traditional religions. Although African chiefs had come under Islamic influence long before the time of Sunjata, the founder of the empire of Mali, they nevertheless often turned to the traditional religions for spiritual support, rather than to Islam (p. 66).

In addition to exploring the early history of Islam, Part One and Two also fully examine the recent history of Islam, highlighting the themes of Islam's relationship with colonial and postcolonial states, and delineating the nature of the recent upsurges in the Muslim motivated resistance of the political authority. The contributors deal with wide-ranging aspects of European colonialism. The chapters on the colonial economy and politics begin with a lucid, low-key discussion by Voll, followed by an in-depth analysis by Triaud and Kaba. Part Two is concluded with an interesting and well-researched chapter by Miles, who unfolds the complex and elusive intersections between European colonialism, African traditionalism, and Islam. One theme that emerges from Miles' analysis is that "[t]he accommodations between colonialism and traditionalism had important implications for Islam" (p. 211).

In Part Three, the contributors of the book cover the...