DOCSLIB.ORG

GSC Newsletter, No. 16

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
GSC Newsletter, No. 16 Issue 16 Summer/Fall 2003 Ghana Studies (no. 5, 2002) three grants-in-aid, up to 1.8 Chair’s Remarks has appeared and, like its million cedis ($200 US), to By Ray Kea predecessors, the academic facilitate research, in any University of California, Riverside quality of its articles does the discipline, in Ghana. Eligible editor (Larry Yarak) and the applicants have to be Ph.D. his year’s newsletter editorial board proud. On be- students or university faculty arrives later than half of Council members I members who are permanently Tprevious issues. I extend would like to commend them resident in Ghana. In May the my apologies for the for a job well done. Members executive committee delay. The timely support and are encouraged to submit (Emmanuel Akyeampong, Jean assistance of the History articles to the journal. The new Allman, Ray Kea, David Department chair and office editors are Takyiwaa Manuh Owusu-Ansah, and Larry were indispensable. I would (Institute of African Studies, Yarak) selected three appli- like to take this opportunity to University of Ghana) and cants – a PhD student, a senior thank them for formatting and Lynne Brydon (University of lecturer, and a lecturer. While mailing the newsletter. Birmingham). in Ghana, Jean Allman presented the awards. (For the The Ghana Studies Council Larry Yarak, the Council’s awardees see below.) The (GSC) is sponsoring two panels webmaster, has created a pdf quality of the applications was at the 46th annual African file of the GSC Directory and generally high, but the Studies Association meeting in placed it on the GSC website. committee was disappointed at Boston (30 October-2 This is for the convenience of the small number of applicants. November 2003). On behalf of the membership. The website It would like a much larger Council members I would like address is: applicant pool in the second to thank Jean Allman http://people.tamu.edu/~yarak/ round and would like GSC (University of Illinois) and gsc.html. members to inform friends, Larry Yarak (Texas A&M colleagues, and others resident University) for putting the The African Studies Program at in Ghana about the research panels together: “Consid- the University of Wisconsin- award. rations and Reconsiderations of Madison has changed its web Ghana’s Precolonial Past” and servers. The new email address * * * * * * “Youth in Ghana: New for African Studies Publication is: In Memoriam: Research Perspectives on Professor Nehemia Gender, Education, and [email protected]. Sexuality.” Members are urged The website address is: Levtzion, 1935-2002 to support the panels with their http://africa.wisc.edu/publicatio attendance. Last year’s panels ns. David Owusu-Ansah, were a fine success, and all of James Madison University us should make a concerted At its December 2002 meeting effort to continue this tradition. GSC members voted to award 1 ews of the death of Arabic Sources for West Ghana in September 1963 to Nehemia Levtzion, African History (1973), was begin fieldwork that lasted N Hebrew University’s characteristic of Nehemia. He until August of the following Bamberger and Fuld loved to work with primary year. It was during the Ghana Professor of the History of the sources, and he enjoyed years that he came to know Muslim Peoples, was received collaborative scholarship. As Ray Kea and Ivor Wilks (both with great shock. I was par- recently as early this year illustrious scholars and active ticularly taken aback because (2003), Nehemia revisited the members of Ghana Studies the email that Tirtza (his wife) theme of the corpus and with Council). In fact, it was also sent on August 22nd to Jay Spaulding they published through Wilks and Kea that announce the sad news was in the Medieval West Africa: View Nehemia was introduced to the Nehemia’s own address. from Arab Scholars and manuscript “Cod Arab CCCII: Nehemia communicated with Merchants. The work was Arabic Manuscripts from the many of us earlier this summer preceded by another joint Guinea Coast.” Written by to inform us of his return to the project with my good friend Gonja and Mamprugu Muslims Hebrew University of Jeru- Mirian Hoexter, and Shmuel at the request of Asantehene salem after six years of Eisenstadt titled The Public Osei Tutu Kwame (d. 1824) administrative assignment as Sphere in Muslim Societies and for some of the leading Chairman of the Israel Council (2002). Review journals, how- Kumasi Muslims in the king’s for Higher Education Planning ever, show Levtzion and service, the Arabic materials and Budget Committee. Randall Pouwels’ edited became what I described else- Several weeks later, I wrote to History of Islam in Africa where as a “handbook for the acknowledge receipt of the (2002) as the most recent major making of amulets.” The email. Typical of him, he contribution to making the Arabic writings were taken to responded immediately to study of Islam accessible to the Katamanso (Dodowa) express his appreciation and students. Nehemia’s edited battlefield in 1826, where asked that I “take care and keep book with Humphrey Fisher, Asantehene Osei Yaw Akoto’s in contact.” Nehemia had plans Rural and Urban Islam in West forces confronted troops of the to retire in a year or two, and Africa (1986) has served the British, Danish, and their local surely, he had plans to attend same purpose of making allies. The manuscripts were the Boston African Studies materials available to teaching. among the Asante para- Association meeting scheduled In fact, he was involved in a phernalia that were lost at for late October of 2003. His project with David Conrad of Katamanso. In 1963, Ray Kea death on the 15th of August our sister association, Mande came across the over 900 folios 2003 was thus a shock even to Studies, when his untimely of documents wrongly shelved those who had been in recent death occurred. at the Copenhagen Royal communications with him. He Library with their Middle was 68. Born in British Eastern collections. Nehemia’s Mandatory Palestine on 24 attention was drawn to the For those engaged in November 1935, Nehemia documents. His 1968 article, the study of the history of Levtzion received both his “Arabic Manuscripts from Islam in Africa, Nehemia bachelor and master’s degrees Early Nineteenth Century Levtzion needs no introduction. in Arabic and Islamic history Kumase,” published in the His Ancient Ghana and Mali (1957-1962) from the Hebrew Transactions of the Ghana (1973), which he dedicated to University. As part of his Historical Society, was signi- Tritza, remains an invaluable doctoral work at the University ficant because he was able to contribution to the field. His of London’s School for properly classify the content of joint publication with J. F. P. Oriental and African Studies the documents. Thus he made Hopkins, Corpus of Early (1962-65), Nehemia came to an added contribution to the 2 efforts of the Institute of me to Professor Martin Klein. and African Studies before Ray African Studies (Legon) Arabic He also made the effort to Kea invited me to come to Project. It was also from the show up at my panel Carleton College in fall 1985 as content of the documents that presentation before rushing to a sabbatical replacement. But Ivor Wilks, with Nehemia and the airport to make his flight Nehemia maintained contact. Bruce Haight, found additional back home. I saw Nehemia His November 2002 visit to information for their project on again in the fall of 1985 when I participate in James Madison the history of Gonja, arrived in Jerusalem under the University’s Visiting Scholar Chronicles from Gonja: A fancy title of Lester Martin program was the final honor he Tradition of West African Fellow at the Harry Truman did me. It was just wonderful to Muslim Historiography (1986). Center for International Peace, see him and Tirtza again. Hebrew University of Little did I know in Jerusalem. He always made us feel September 1980 when I came welcome and comfortable, he to study under Professor Ivor In retrospect, my in- showed respect for our Wilks that I had become itation to Jerusalem reflected interpretative positions even inextricably linked to this story the two remarkable qualities of when he thought otherwise, and in which Ray Kea, and Professor Levtzion. He be- he remained generous. He will Nehemia were active par- ieved strongly that knowledge be missed dearly. ticipants. On the morning of must be shared and during his Monday 23 September 1980, time spent at the Center for * * * * Ivor showed me the folios of Advanced Studies, he invited Grants-in-Aid of Arabic manuscripts that were as many scholars as his budget Research Awardees to become the main source for could support to come to Israel my dissertation. This is not the as participants in the various he following three time to go into discussing seminars he organized. His applicants received difficulties I encountered trans- work with Humphrey Fisher Tawards of $200 US each: lating the documents or the resulted from one of these support I received from friends activities. The second such Yaw Ameyaw, Botany Depart- and teachers. It will suffice to project on Eighteenth Century ment, University of Cape mention that it was because of Renewal and Reform in Islam Coast, “Morphohistological my work with the Copenhagen (1987) was published with variation and its bearing on the manuscripts that I came to John Voll as co-editor. alkaloidal content of know Nehemia. On a brief fall Importantly to me, however, Cryotolepis sanguinolenta, an 1982 visit to Northwestern, he was the Levtzion attribute of antimalaria plant species”; invited me to lunch. At this opening doors to beginning first ever face-to-face meeting graduates.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Question of 'Race' in the Pre-Colonial Southern Sahara
    The Question of ‘Race’ in the Pre-colonial Southern Sahara BRUCE S. HALL One of the principle issues that divide people in the southern margins of the Sahara Desert is the issue of ‘race.’ Each of the countries that share this region, from Mauritania to Sudan, has experienced civil violence with racial overtones since achieving independence from colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s. Today’s crisis in Western Sudan is only the latest example. However, very little academic attention has been paid to the issue of ‘race’ in the region, in large part because southern Saharan racial discourses do not correspond directly to the idea of ‘race’ in the West. For the outsider, local racial distinctions are often difficult to discern because somatic difference is not the only, and certainly not the most important, basis for racial identities. In this article, I focus on the development of pre-colonial ideas about ‘race’ in the Hodh, Azawad, and Niger Bend, which today are in Northern Mali and Western Mauritania. The article examines the evolving relationship between North and West Africans along this Sahelian borderland using the writings of Arab travellers, local chroniclers, as well as several specific documents that address the issue of the legitimacy of enslavement of different West African groups. Using primarily the Arabic writings of the Kunta, a politically ascendant Arab group in the area, the paper explores the extent to which discourses of ‘race’ served growing nomadic power. My argument is that during the nineteenth century, honorable lineages and genealogies came to play an increasingly important role as ideological buttresses to struggles for power amongst nomadic groups and in legitimising domination over sedentary communities.
    [Show full text]
  • Pas Newsletter W20.Pdf
    Program of NEWS AND EVENTS Winter 2020 African Studies Volume 30, Number 2 Message from interim PAS director Wendy Griswold While it has been a challenge Ghana/Africa/World.” The Institute for the Study of Islamic to fill the shoes of departing Thought in Africa (ISITA), which continues to flourish under Program of African Studies director Zekeria Ahmed Salem (political science), brought Susana director Rachel Riedl, we’ve con- Molins-Lliteras (University of Cape Town) to campus to speak tinued to move in the direction on “Iconic Archive: Timbuktu and Its Manuscripts in Public she was heading, even as we set Discourse.” out for some new horizons. At an institution as long established as PAS, now in its 72nd Many PAS activities con- year, much of what takes place is business as usual. Postdocs tinue to be organizaed around and visiting scholars flow through 620 Library Place. Afrisem, three research clusters: Health coordinated by Ahmed Salem and students Patrick Owuor and Healing; Environment, Security, and Development; and Avant- (anthropology) and Omoyemi Aijsebutu (comparative literary Garde Africa. Faculty and students in each cluster pursue indi- studies), carries on as a biweekly venue for presenting disserta- vidual and sometimes collaborative research in the broad areas tion research, and its annual spring conference is in the works. they cover; the clusters also serve as the bases for grant proposals Undergraduates routinely choose from dozens of African studies and other development activities. Each cluster also contributes to electives offered through PAS. Our ties to the Herskovits Library general programming, enabling the various and far-flung mem- and the Block Museum of Art grow ever stronger: Herskovits bers of our community to know what others are doing.
    [Show full text]
  • Mu√Allaf T Al-Shuyükh: I. the Writings of Ivor Wilks
    MU√ALLAF◊T AL-SHUYÜKH: I. THE WRITINGS OF IVOR WILKS This is the first of a series of reports, listing the writings of senior scholars in the field of Sudanic Africa. The aim is to help researchers become more fully acquainted with such scholars’ writings, which are often to be found in a wide range of journals and multi-authored volumes, some of which have long been out of print, or in the case of journals, ceased to be regularly published. The lists are based on information provided by the scholars themselves. We begin the series with the writings of the historian Ivor Wilks, now in retirement after over two decades of service at Northwestern University (1971-1993), and thirteen years at the University of Ghana (1953-66).1 He has contributed to Sudanic Africa, and has made a valuable contribution to volume 4 of Arabic Literature of Africa, which will shortly be published by Brill. Publications 1961 The Northern Factor in Ashanti History. Legon: Institute of African Studies. 1961 ‘Festival at Jenne’. West African Review, xxxii, 402, June 1961, 48-50. 1961 ‘The Northern Factor in Ashanti History: Begho and the Mande’. Journal of African History, ii, 1, 25-34. 1 For more biographical information on him, see Nancy Lawler, ‘Ivor Wilks: a biographical note’, in John Hunwick and Nancy Lawler (eds.), The Cloth of Many Colored Silks: Papers on History and Society, Ghanaian and Islamic, in Honor of Ivor Wilks, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1996, 5-13. Sudanic Africa, 12, 2001, 143-155 144 MU√ALLAF◊T AL-SHUYÜKH [Repr., The Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series, BC-318.] 1961-62 [with Mahmoud El-Wakkad] ‘Qissatu Salga Tarikhu Gonja: the Story of Salaga and the History of Gonja’.
    [Show full text]
  • Ousmane KANE Ph.D Alwaleed Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society, Harvard Divinity School & Professor Of
    Ousmane KANE Ph.D Alwaleed Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society, Harvard Divinity School & Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 Email: [email protected] TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS Islam and Muslim Societies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Comparative Politics, Islamic politics, religion and transnational migration, African Islamic intellectual history. EDUCATION Doctorat (Ph.D) in Political Science. Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. Paris, France. 1993. Areas of specialization: Comparative Politics (Sub- Saharan Africa). Maîtrise (M.A.) in translation and documentation. Ecole Supérieure d'Interprètes et de Traducteurs, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, France. 1988. DEA (M.Phil) in Political Science. Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. Paris, France. 1987. Area of concentration: Political Sociology (Sub- Saharan Africa). Diplôme Supérieur d'Etudes Islamiques (Advanced Degree in Islamic Studies). Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France. 1985. Area of concentration : Islamic history and civilisation. Diplôme d'Arabe Classique (BA in Classical Arabic). Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, France. 1985. Area of concentration : Arabic language, Islamic civilisation. Diplôme d'Arabe Dialectal (B.A in Colloquial Arabic). Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, France. 1985. Concentration: dialects of the Middle East with emphasis on Colloquial Arabic of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.= 1 SELECTED AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS Grant from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung Germany to fund research on “Islamic Institutions of Higher Learning in Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • West African Manuscripts in Arabic and African Languages and Digital Preservation
    West African Manuscripts in Arabic and African Languages and Digital Preservation Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History West African Manuscripts in Arabic and African Languages and Digital Preservation Fallou Ngom Subject: Historical Preservation and Cultural Heritage, Intellectual History, West Africa Online Publication Date: Jun 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.123 Abstract and Keywords West African manuscripts are numerous and varied in forms and contents. There are thousands of them across West Africa. A significant portion of them are documents written in Arabic and Ajami (African languages written in Arabic script). They deal with both religious and nonreligious subjects. The development of these manuscript traditions dates back to the early days of Islam in West Africa, in the 11th century. In addition to these Arabic and Ajami manuscripts, there have been others written in indigenous scripts. These include those in the Vai script invented in Liberia; Tifinagh, the traditional writing system of the Amazigh (Berber) people; and the N’KO script invented in Guinea for Mande languages. While the writings in indigenous scripts are rare less numerous and widespread, they nonetheless constitute an important component of West Africa’s written heritage. Though the efforts devoted to the preservation of West African manuscripts are limited compared to other world regions, interest in preserving them has increased. Some of the initial preservation efforts of West African manuscripts are the collections of colonial officers. Academics later supplemented these collections. These efforts resulted in important print and digital repositories of West African manuscripts in Africa, Europe, and America. Until recently, most of the cataloguing and digital preservation efforts of West African manuscripts have focused on those written in Arabic.
    [Show full text]
  • (Mali) by Mamadou Cisse a THESIS SUBMITTE
    RICE UNIVERSITY Archaeological Investigations of Early Trade and Urbanism at Gao Saney (Mali) By Mamadou Cisse A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFULMENT OF THE REGUEREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE Doctor of Philosophy APPROVED, THESIS COMMITTEE: Susan Keech McIntosh, Professor, Anthropology Je frey FleIsher, ro essor, Anthropology ~~ Ro rick J. McIntosh, Professor, Anthropology Ie University HOUSTON, TEXAS OCTOBER 2010 Abstract Excavations at the mound site of Gao Saney, located near the historic town of Gao eastern Niger Bend, Mali, revealed over six meters of domestic deposits and debris from secondary processing of glass and copper dating to the period 700--1100 A.D. This is 200-300 years earlier than anticipated and points to the early development oflong distance trade networks. Lead isotope analysis of copper and glass samples using LA­ ICP-MS points to multiple sources areas, including copper ores in Tunisia and glass production areas in the Middle East. Secondary processing of copper and glass took place at the site, and a substantial portion ofthe sequence comprised mud brick structures and associated domestic trash and wall collapse episodes. The distinctive polychrome pottery assemblage found in the Gao Saney deposits occurs along a 500 km stretch of the Niger Bend between Bentia to the south and Timbucktu to the west, where it appears suddenly and intrusively c. 650-700 A.D. This thesis documents the excavations and the material culture, chronology, subsistence economy and production activities at the site. It argues that the findings support the identification of Gao Saney with the trading town Sarneh mentioned in a tenth century Arab chronicle.
    [Show full text]
  • Ousmane KANE Ph.D Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor Of
    Ousmane KANE Ph.D Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society, Harvard Divinity School & Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 Email: [email protected] TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS Islamic politics, Comparative Politics, Transnational migration, Muslim Societies in Africa, Islamic intellectual history. EDUCATION Doctorat (Ph.D) in Political Science. Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. Paris, France. 1993. Areas of specialization: Comparative Politics (Sub- Saharan Africa). Maîtrise (M.A.) in translation and documentation. Ecole Supérieure d'Interprètes et de Traducteurs, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, France. 1988. DEA (M.Phil) in Political Science. Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. Paris, France. 1987. Area of concentration: Political Sociology (Sub- Saharan Africa). Diplôme Supérieur d'Etudes Islamiques (Advanced Degree in Islamic Studies). Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France. 1985. Area of concentration : Islamic history and civilisation. Diplôme d'Arabe Classique (BA in Classical Arabic). Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, France. 1985. Area of concentration : Arabic language, Islamic civilisation. Diplôme d'Arabe Dialectal (B.A in Colloquial Arabic). Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, France. 1985. Concentration: dialects of the Middle East with emphasis on Colloquial Arabic of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. 1 SELECTED AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS HDS Faculty Grant to fund West Africa and the Maghreb Conference Fall 2018 (20 K).
    [Show full text]
  • African Studies Volume 26, Number 2
    Program of NEWS AND EVENTS Winter 2016 African Studies Volume 26, Number 2 PAS welcomes new associate director Meagan Keefe has joined PAS as associate director. Keefe was most recently at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, working on policy reports that focused on nutrition, climate change, and agricultural development. Prior to that, she served as the Ghana country coor- dinator for the International Food Policy Research Institute, manag- ing the country strategy support Hanretta and Stewart join program. She was a Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellow based ISITA leadership team at IFPRI, focusing on governance The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa has issues, the food price crisis, and announced the appointment of associate professor of history, sustainable land and water technologies. Sean Hanretta (above left) as interim director for the 2015–16 Keefe first became interested in international development academic year. when she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, where Hanretta’s scholarship focuses on the cultural, intellectual, she worked with agricultural communities to improve natural and religious history of West Africa. He is the author of Islam and resource management. She holds a BA in economics from St. Olaf Social Change in French West Africa: History of an Emancipatory College and an MS in natural resource management from the Community (Cambridge 2009) and is completing a manuscript on University of Minnesota. the history of Muslim weddings and funerals in Ghana. ISITA also welcomes Charles Stewart (above right), profes- sor emeritus of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, as director of programming for 2015–16.
    [Show full text]
  • Yusuf Ibish 1926–2003
    YUSUF IBISH 1926–2003 Professor Yusuf Ibish, director of the Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation died on 19 January 2003 after a short illness. All of us who work at, or with, the Al-Furqan Foundation will certainly be disappointed and sad to work without his support. All of his adult lifetime Ibish was a strong supporter and promotor of Islamic culture, working to make it better known and appreciated in the non-Islamic world. Yusuf Ibish was born in Damascus in 1926, son of Hussein Bey Ibish, a prominent Syrian landowner of Kurdish descent. Following elementary education in Damascus, Ibish studied at International College in Beirut and later at the American University of Beirut. From Beirut he went to Harvard where he studied under Sir Hamilton Gibb. He completed his doctoral thesis in 1960 and returned to the American University of Beirut where he taught at the Department of Political Science from 1960 to 1984. In 1985, Ibish continued his academic career at the American Uni- versity in Washington, DC, where he was distinguished professor from 1985 to 1989, and then at Cambridge University in England, where he was visiting professor between 1991 and 1992. Throughout his scholarly career he published twenty-four books and seventy-five articles. He planned and undertook several major research projects, such as the American University of Beirut’s ‘Chronology and Documents of Arab Politics’ and a series of films entitled ‘The Traditional World of Islam’. Among his more important contributions was an anthology of seminal texts in pre-modern Islamic political Sudanic Africa, 14, 2003, 9-12 10 YUSUF IBISH thought, as well as an edition of the memoirs of Emir Adil Arslan, a Pan-Arabist political figure of considerable importance in the first half of the twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Inventions and Reinventions of Sharia in African History and the Recent Experiences of Nigeria, Somalia and Mali
    UCLA Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies Title Inventions and Reinventions of Sharia in African History and the Recent Experiences of Nigeria, Somalia and Mali Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8xh2g5wm Journal Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 40(1) ISSN 0041-5715 Author Lydon, Ghislaine Publication Date 2018 DOI 10.5070/F7401037784 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Inventions and Reinventions of Sharia in African History and the Recent Experiences of Nigeria, Somalia and Mali* Ghislaine Lydon Abstract This essay provides a reflection on how the concept of “sharia” has been re-invented in recent African history. It sketches the history of Islamic legal practice among African Muslims, with a particular focus on women’s rights and the question of adultery (zinā), in an effort to place in context contemporary events in Nigeria, Somalia and Mali. Its overarching conclusion is that the recent actions by extreme Muslims groups in Africa, in the name of so-called sharia, are far removed from the spirit of Islamic law. The meaning of the word sharīʿa has shifted considerably in modern times. In its unadulterated sense it is the divinely ordained path or way, as per the Qur’ānic verse 45:18 (“We have set you on a sharīʿa of command, so follow it”).1 In other words, the sharīʿa is God’s ideal pathway for governing the affairs of men and women. Muslims, being mere mortals and prone to error, can only but strive to act and be judged in accordance to the divine path- way.
    [Show full text]
  • Arabic Literature of Africa: Project and Publication
    NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PROGRAM OF AFRICAN STUDIES WORKING PAPER SERIES ARABIC LITERATURE OF AFRICA: PROJECT AND PUBLICATION by John Hunwick Director-General, The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa i INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT IN AFRICA 2005 ii PREFACE The items in this publication are partially derived from presentations given at a symposium on Arabic Literature of Africa (ALA), at the Program of African Studies in November 2003. Also included is some detailed information on the contents of already published volumes (ALA I, II, IIIA, IV), and "Overviews" of volumes II, IIIA, IIIB, and IV. Writing in the Arabic language in Muslim areas of Saharan or sub-Saharan Africa, well away from Arabic North Africa, was taken on after 1000 A.D., when Islam became the more widely adopted religion; hence Arabic–the language of the Qurn and of the Prophet Mu˛ammad—played a role that allows it to be described as " the Latin of Africa", i.e. fulfilling a role parallel to what Latin did in Europe, where it was a language used for writing and reading (especially after the adoption of Christianity there, and with Latin Bibles), and with a script that was adopted for the writing of many languages of the continent. John Hunwick Director-Emeritus, ISITA i I CONTENTS Abbreviations...............................................................................................iv The Origins and Development of ALA. 1. West Africa...................................................................................1 2. Arabic Literature
    [Show full text]
  • 7/04 Curriculum Vitae Name: Lamin Sanneh Mailing Address: Yale Divinity School 409 Prospect Street New Haven, CT 06511 203/432
    Lamin Sanneh/CV 1 7/04 Curriculum Vitae Name: Lamin Sanneh Mailing Address: Yale Divinity School 409 Prospect Street New Haven, CT 06511 203/432-5336 (Bacon S206) Title: D. Willis James Prof. of World Christianity & Prof. of History Fellow of Trumbull College Education: 1968 M.A., University of Birmingham, England 1968-69 Near East School of Theology, Beirut 1974 Ph.D., University of London, England Honors and Awards: 1971-74 Theological Education Fund 1972 Central Research Fund of the University of London 1980 Carnegie Trust of the Universities of Scotland 1992 Commandeur de l'Ordre National Du Lion of Senegal 2002 Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa), University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Academic Employment: 1997- Honorary Professional Research Fellow, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London Lamin Sanneh/CV 2 7/04 1989- D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity, Professor of History, Fellow of Trumbull College, Yale Divinity School 1981-89 Assistant and later Associate Professor, History of Religion, Harvard University 1987 San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California (summer) 1981-82 Visiting Lecturer, Harvard University 1978-81 Lecturer, tenured, University of Aberdeen 1975-78 Lecturer, University of Ghana 1974-75 Visiting Scholar, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown 1969-71 Resident Tutor, Centre for the Study of Islam and Christianity, Ibadan, Nigeria (December 1970, January 1971: Research Trip to North Nigeria) Life Member, Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England, from 1996 Summer School Teaching: 1988 Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado (summer) 1987 San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California 2001 Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Lamin Sanneh/CV 3 7/04 Academic Conferences (select): Mansfield College, Oxford, Resident Seminar, January 1983 Co-organizer of Workshop on African Models of Human Potential, Banjul, The Gambia, 1986.
    [Show full text]