Realizing islam islamic civilization and muslim netwoRks Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, editors Highlighting themes with historical as well as contemporary significance, Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks features works that explore Islamic societies and Muslim peoples from a fresh perspective, drawing on new interpretive frameworks or theoretical strategies in a variety of disciplines. Special emphasis is given to systems of exchange that have promoted the creation and development of Islamic identities—cultural, religious, or geopolitical. The series spans all periods and regions of Islamic civilization. A complete list of titles published in this series appears at the end of the book. Realizing Islam The Tijaniyya in North Africa and the Eighteenth-Century Muslim World • Zachary Valentine Wright the univeRsity of noRth caRolina PRess chaPel hill © 2020 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Set in Times New Roman by PageMajik Manufactured in the United States of America The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wright, Zachary Valentine, author. Title: Realizing Islam: the Tijāniyya in North Africa and the eighteenth-century Muslim world / Zachary Valentine Wright. Other titles: Islamic civilization & Muslim networks. Description: Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2020. | Series: Islamic civilization and Muslim networks | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2020010716 | isbn 9781469660813 (cloth: alk. paper) | isbn 9781469660820 (pbk.: alk. paper) | isbn 9781469660837 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Tijānī, Abū al-ʻAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, 1737 or 1738–1815. | Tijānīyah—Africa, North. | Sufism—Africa, North. | Islam—History—18th century. Classification: lcc bP189.7.t5 w75 2020 | ddc 297.4/8—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010716 Cover illustration: Zawiya ceiling. Photograph by author. Portions of this book were previously published in a different form as “On the Path of the Prophet: Shaykh Ahmad Tijani and the Tariqa Muhammadiyya” (master’s thesis, American University in Cairo, 2005) and “Secrets on the Muhammadan Way: Transmission of the Esoteric Sciences in 18th Century Scholarly Networks,” Islamic Africa 9, no. 1 (May 2018): 77–105. Both are used here with permission. is book is published as part of the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot. With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Pilot uses cutting-edge publishing technology to produce open access digital editions of high-quality, peer-reviewed monographs from leading university presses. Free digital editions can be download- ed from: Books at JSTOR, EBSCO, Hathi Trust, Internet Archive, OAPEN, Project MUSE, and many other open repositories. While the digital edition is free to download, read, and share, the book is under copyright and covered by the following Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND .. Please consult www.creativecommons.org if you have questions about your rights to reuse the material in this book. When you cite the book, please include the following URL for its Digital Object Identier (DOI): https://doi.org/./_Wright We are eager to learn more about how you discovered this title and how you are using it. We hope you will spend a few minutes answering a couple of questions at this url: https://www.longleafservices.org/shmp-survey/ More information about the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot can be found at https://www.longleafservices.org. contents Acknowledgments, ix Note on Orthography, xi Introduction The Tijāniyya and the Verification of Islamic Knowledge, 1 chaPteR one Sufism and Islamic Intellectual Developments in the Eighteenth Century, 18 chaPteR two Portrait of a Scholar: An Intellectual Biography of Shaykh al-Tijānī, 53 chaPteR thRee The Actualization of Humanity on the Muḥammadan Path, 100 chaPteR fouR The Seal of Muḥammadan Sainthood and Hidden Pole, 142 chaPteR five Abundant Blessing in an Age of Corruption, 175 Conclusion, 208 Notes, 219 Bibliography, 265 acknowledgments Alḥamdulillāh wa ṣalāt wa salām ʿala rasūlillāh. I have been honored in completing this work by the assistance of many guides, mentors, and schol- ars better than myself. First and foremost, my gratitude to the late Shaykh Ḥasan Cissé and the current Imam of Medina-Baye Senegal, Shaykh al-Ti- jānī Cissé, who graciously provided me access to their knowledge and ar- chives. Scholars of the Tijāniyya who also helped me with this work in- clude Shaykh Muḥammad al-Māḥī Cissé of Senegal, the late Dr. Abdelaziz Benabdallah of Morocco, the late Shaykh Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ of Egypt, and Shaykh Muḥsin Shalaby of Egypt. I am graced by a supportive academic community, many of whom gave substantive feedback on this manuscript. I thank Ousmane Kane, Rüdiger Seesemann, Rudolph Ware, and Mark Sedgwick for reading this work or earlier versions of it, and for their invaluable comments, resources and mentorship over the years. I also thank Souleymane Bachir Diagne, An- drea Brigaglia, Oludamini Ogunnaike, John Voll, Joseph Hill, Ahmad Dal- lal, Louis Brenner, Zekeria Ould Salem, Said Bousbina, Nelly Hanna, Carl Petry, Mohamed Serag, Justin Stearns, Omar Edward Moad, Erin Petti- grew, Mamadou Diouf, Ismail Warcheid, Farah El-Sharif, Amir Syed, Sean Hanretta, Will Caldwell, and Brannon Ingram for pointed interventions in the development of my research on the Tijāniyya and the eighteenth-century Islamic world. I am grateful to UNC Press editors Elaine Maisner, Carl Erst, and Bruce Lawrence for their invaluable feedback through the revi- sion process, and for supporting the publication of this book. I am honored by a rich research network, with Sohaira Siddiqui, Jon- athan Brown, Abdel Rahman Azzam, Joseph Lumbard, Gavin Picken, Mauro Nobili, Ibrahim Abusharif, Alexandre Caeiro, Henry Lauziere, Re- becca Shereikis, Ousman Kobo, Rasul Miller, Samiha Rahman, Patrick Laude, Jonathan Glassman, David Schoenbrun, Nate Matthews, Rogaia Abusharaf, Anto Mohsin, and Sami Hermez deserving special mention for sharing their insights on Islamic intellectual history, and African and Middle East Studies more broadly. I also thank the Muslim intellectuals ix x Acknowledgments and readers who gave feedback and provided resources on various parts of this research: Fakhruddin Owaisi (South Africa), Muḥammad al-ʿIrāqī and his uncle Anas b. Idrīs al-ʿIrāqī (Morocco), Ibrāhīm Khalīl al-Tijānī (Morocco), Muṣṭafa Sané (Senegal), Ashaki Taha-Cissé (USA), the late Sayyid Abdussalam (USA), Selma Bennani (Morocco), Abu Bakr Kindi (Ghana/Morocco), Talut Dawud (USA/Mexico), Ibrahim Dimson (USA), Hicham Hall (USA), ʿAbd al-Ṣamad Uruzzi (Italy), Yahya Weldon (USA/ Qatar), and Khalīfa al-Khulayfī (Qatar). This research has been supported by a number of grants and institutions over the years: Fulbright Hayes and IIE grants in Senegal and Morocco, Northwestern in Qatar research grants, and visiting fellowships at North- western’s Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa and Har- vard’s Divinity School. For hosting my presentation of various sections of this book, I especially thank Northwestern’s ISITA and Middle East and North Africa programs, the Harvard Divinity School, Columbia Uni- versity’s Institute for African Studies, Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, the University of Michigan’s IKHLAS initiative, NYU-Abu Dhabi’s Arab Crossroads program, and Hamad Bin Khalifa’s College of Islamic Studies. During my time at Northwestern in Qatar, I am especially indebted to the support of Marwan Kraidy, Hariclea Zengos, Craig LaMay, Kathleen Hewett-Smith, Elizabeth Lance, Iman Khamis, Mark Paul, Everette Dennis, and Sandra Richards. I must also recognize the generosity of the Qatar Foundation, and especially the vision of Shaykha Moza bint Nasser and Shaykha Hind Al Thani, in the ongoing support for research and scholarship in Qatar’s Education City. Lastly, I am grateful for the support of my family, without whom this book would not have been possible. To my children: this work is for you. note on oRthogRaPhy Transliteration of Arabic words complies with the system utilized by Cam- bridge’s International Journal of Middle East Studies. This system is re- produced for reference purposes below. Place names rely on the French spelling (thus Oujdah, not Wijda), unless the name has been previously Anglicized (thus Fez, not Fès). Family names from sub-Saharan Africa are preserved as earlier represented in literature for the sake of continuity. Thus Niasse, Sy, and Cissé appear as they would on government passports and in earlier academic literature, rather than the Wolof spelling Ñaas, Sii, and Seesay or the Arabic transliteration Anyās, Sih, and Sīsi. I have otherwise opted for the Arabic transliteration of first names in most cases (thus Tijānī rather than Tidiane, Ḥasan rather than Assane, Aḥmad rather than Amadou). All dates mentioned in the text have been converted to “Common Era” (ce). Translations from Arabic and French into English are my own, unless otherwise indicated. Arabic Transliteration Chart Arabic letter Transliteration Phonetic equivalent ā talk ا b boy ب t table ت th bath ث j joy ج - ḥ ح - kh خ d day د dh then ذ r run ر xi xii Note on Orthography Arabic letter Transliteration Phonetic equivalent z zebra ز s sun س sh shine ش - ṣ ص - ḍ ض - ṭ ط - ẓ ظ - ʿ ع - gh غ f feast ف - q ق k key ك l love ل m mother م n none ن h health ه w/ū weather/food و y/ī yes/street ي (ʾ (glottal stop ء t (silent)/hat/- ة a bag َ i big ِ u bug ُ Realizing islam Algiers Rabat Tunis Casablanca Constantine Atlantic Tlemcen Fez Oujda Tamasin Ocean Ain Madi Marrakesh Abu Samghun Mediterranean Sea Sijilamasa SUS Jerusalem Alexandria Cairo TUWAT Muscat Reggane Nile River Medina Shinqit Sahara Desert IBRI Mecca Boutilimit AIR Senegal Walata River Niger River HADRAMAWT Dakar Timbuktu Kaolack Agades Banjul Gao Sanaa Segou BORNU KANEM Sokoto Kano Lake Chad Muslim Africa and the Middle East in the eighteenth century.