THE TRADITION OF TAJDID IN WESTERN BILAD AL-SUDAN: A STUDY OF THE GENESIS, DEVELOPMENT AND PATTERNS OF ISLAMIC REVIVALISM IN THE REGION 900 -1900 AD. THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KHARTOUM, SUDAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY USMAN MUHAMMAD BUGAJE DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-ASIAN STUDIES INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN AND ASIAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF KHARTOUM, SUDAN. DECEMBER 1991. 1 TABLE OF CONTENT Abstract 3 Acknowledgment 5 Chapter One Introduction 7 Chapter Two The Concept, Meaning and Place of Tajdid. 18 Chapter Three An Outline of the Spread of Islam in Western Bilad al-Sudan 900-1900 44 Chapter Four Al-Murabitun Movement and the Genesis of Tajdid in Western Bilad al-Sudan 1000-1400 80 Chapter Five The trends in Tajdid in Western Bilad al-Sudan 13th- 18th Centuries. 115 Chapter Six Tajdid in the Nineteenth Century Western Bilad al- Sudan. 158 Chapter Seven The Tradition of Tajdid in Western Bilad al-Sudan. 196 Conclusion 213 Bibliography 217 2 ABSTRACT This is a study on the tradition of tajdid in Western Bilad al-Sudan, the tradition of Islamic revival and revolution which spun out several centuries and brought about far reaching social, economic and political changes in the region. It aims at examining the genesis, development and fruition of the thoughts and ideas which spurred this tradition over the centuries in the region. To this extent, the study represents an attempt at the intellectual history of the Islamic revolutionary movements in the 19th century Western Bilad al-Sudan. The rationale for this study emanates from the fact that previous studies on the jihad movements in the region tended to interpret events outside the Islamic frame of reference and pay little heed to the thoughts and ideas of tajdid, which in point of fact were the key motivating factors. Recent studies which conceded to Islam a central role in these events have, with some justification, concentrated on individual manifestations of the phenomenon of tajdid. While this brings us closer to understanding these movements, it does not provide us with the broader perspective within which the real weight and significance of these events can be assessed and appreciated. Thus this study of the tradition of tajdid provides us not only with the perspective within which to appreciate the various jihad movements but, perhaps even more important, it informs us about the genus of which the jihad movements are species. The study first discussed the concept, meaning and place of tajdid in Islam to provide both a working concept for tajdid and the Islamic frame of reference within which events are 3 interpreted. The study then focused on the tradition of learning in Western Bilad al-Sudan, within which the thoughts and ideas of tajdid were nurtured and developed. The genesis and development of the thoughts and ideas of tajdid were then traced and five various approaches to tajdid, the schools of tajdid, as it were, that developed between the 16th to the l8th centuries were discerned. tajdid in the 19th century which took the form of intensive teaching followed by jihad and the reordering of society (islah) was then discussed in the context of these schools of tajdid. The study then examined and discussed the features of this tradition of tajdid. The study was able to show that this tradition of tajdid has deep roots in the history of the region and provides a key component for the understanding of the major social, economic and political developments in the region. It was also shown that the thoughts and ideas of tajdid lie at the very core of the Islamic worldview and tend to retain their potency through the vagaries of time and may continue to do so for the foreseeable future. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My thanks and gratitude are first and foremost to Allah the Most High, for reasons too obvious and too numerous to mention here. I wish to then express my profound gratitude to my Supervisors, Dr. al-Tayyib Z. al'Abidin who started supervising the work and Professor Yusuf Fadl Hasan who saw it through to its rather tedious end. To both I shall remain indebted for their patience and understanding and above all for the valuable suggestions they made in the course of this work. As is usual with a work of this nature, there are several institutions and individuals who have rendered varied and valuable assistance during the course of this work. While it is not possible to mention all, it is certainly unfair not to mention any. I wish to therefore gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Munazzamat al-Da'wa al-Islamiyya, the International University of Africa (formally the Islamic African Centre), both in Khartoum, Sudan; the Muslim World League, Makka, Saudi Arabia; the Islamic Council, London, UK; and the Islamic Foundation Leicester, UK, whose assistance, hospitality and research facilities were of great benefit. I must also express my gratitude to the staff of educational and research institutions like the IFAN, University of Dakar, Senegal; CEDRAB, Timbuktu, Mali; SOAS, University of London, UK; Centre for West African Studies, University of Birmingham, UK; and the Institute of African and Asian Studies, University of Khartoum, Sudan. I should also like to convey my thanks and appreciation to several individuals who rendered assistance in several ways, especially Dr. Tijani 'Abd Qadir, and Dr. Ibrahim Zein, both of 5 the Institute of Islamic Studies, and Dr. Al-Amin Abu Manga of the Institute of African and Asian Studies, all of the University of Khartoum, Sudan; Mallam Ibrahim Sulaiman of the C.I.L.S. A.B.U. Zaria; and P. Farlas of the CWAS, University of Birmingham, UK; many of whom found time to read parts of my drafts and made useful observations and suggestions. I must also mention Ambassador Ibrahim Karfi and Alhaji Aminu Hanga whose hospitality in Khartoum and London respectively was of tremendous assistance in writing up this work. Needless, perhaps, to add that, I alone take responsibility for whatever shortcomings are found in this work. Lastly, but by no means the least, I wish to express my sincere thanks to the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Trust of Nigeria, especially its chairman, for allowing me a generous study leave and the Institute of the African and Asian Studies for the opportunity to undertake the study. 6 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Rationale The days when African history was seen as an appendage of European history have certainly gone for good. But the influence of European perspective on African history seems to linger on and may take some time to wither away. In West Africa in particular, the jihad movements of the 19th century, which were once thought to be inner reactions to European presence in the region, have continued to be seen and studied within the western European frame of reference. Several studies on these jihad movements, for example, tended to interpret events outside the Islamic frame of reference and paid little heed to the thoughts and ideas of tajdid, which in point of fact were the key motivating factors. It was only recently that the Islamic character of the jihad movements began to be gradually, if grudgingly, conceded. This liberation, as it were, has already revealed the link between the 19th century jihads, and the previous reform movements in the region. This has raised hopes that the real history of this astonishing phenomenon of tajdid in West Africa will eventually be known. To be sure, it was Professor Abdullahi Smith, who exactly three decades ago, first discerned and boldly, then, stated that "the history of the West African Savannah in the 19th century has its own independent theme and this consists in a series of revolutionary movements which radically changed the social and political complexion of the whole zone during the hundred years 7 or so before the establishment of European government"0 In his submission Smith called for special efforts to be expended in the collection of the large body of written materials and oral traditions relating to these jihad movements. Nearly two years later, M. Hiskett, who along with A.D.H. Bivar, had been collecting and working on manuscripts relating to these jihads, realised that these works "illustrate the development of a tradition of reform which, having remote origins in the Almoravid movement of the eleventh century A. D., achieved literary expression in the Muslim empire of Songhay in the sixteenth century and which was continued in the Habe (i.e. Hausa) Kingdoms almost three centuries later."1 About a decade later, P.D. Curtin noted that while the jihads have come into focus, the emerging details of the individual movements call for a broader synthesis. "While it is no longer possible" Curtin observed, "to write sensibly about the Soninke marabout wars of the Gambia without some understanding of what sheikh 'Uthman Danfodio had already accomplished a half-century earlier and two thousand miles away, the wave of influence linking these revolts remain cloudy.”2 Thus it was increasingly felt that there was a common Islamic tradition from whence these various jihad movements drew both their inspiration as well as example. And until we can fathom this tradition and discern the nature of the linkages of the various 0 H.F.C. Smith, 'A Neglected Theme of West African History: The Islamic Revolutions of the 19th Century: in J.H.S.N. vol. 2, no. 2, December, 1961. p. 170. 1 M. Hiskett, 'An Islamic, Tradition of Reform in the Western Sudan From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century in B.S.O.A.S.