Amir Syed is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is coauthor (with Rudolph Ware and Zachary Wright) of Jihad of the Pen: The Sufi Literature of West Africa (2018).
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Description
Acknowledgments Note on Translation and Spelling Introduction Part I The Making of an African Muslim Intellectual Authorship and Scholarly Authority Saintly Authority and the Tijaniyya Part II Vicegerency and the Poetics of Praise Religious Authority and Territorial Sovereignty Geography, Categories of Belief, and Contested Authority Part III Competing Political Theologies and Contested Sovereignties Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
"This is an excellent book and it will make a lasting impact on our understanding of al-ajj Umar Tall as a nineteenth-century West African historical figure and intellectual, on the development of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, especially in nineteenth-century West Africa, and on the broader history of political upheavals in nineteenth-century West Africa often labeled by the term 'jihads.'"-Bruce Hall, author of A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600-1960 "Amir Syed offers for the first time a detailed close reading of Umar Tall's writings and reconstructs his career to bring to the fore this multidimensional aspect of his life and thought. . . . In exploring this complex, multilayered dimension of Tall's career, political and religious thought, this book contributes to our understanding of how Islamic scholars engaged in political rule while explicitly conceptualizing authority at the intersection of religion, spirituality and power in 19th century Islamic Africa."-Zekeria Ahmed Salem, author of Precher dans le desert. Islam Politique et Changement Social