On his book Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa
Cover Interview of February 14, 2017
In a nutshell
Beyond Timbuktu is
about the literary cultures of West Africa. The old West African city of
Timbuktu is famous as a great center of Muslim learning from Islam’s Golden
Age. It is renowned for its madrassas and archives of rare Arabic manuscripts.
Yet Timbuktu is not unique. It was one among many scholarly centers to exist in
precolonial West Africa. Beyond Timbuktu charts the rise of Muslim
learning in West Africa from the beginning of Islam to the present day,
examining the shifting contexts that have influenced the production and dissemination
of Islamic knowledge—and shaped the sometime conflicting interpretations of
Muslim intellectuals—over the course of centuries.
Highlighting the significant breadth and
versatility of the Muslim intellectual tradition in sub-Saharan Africa, Beyond
Timbuktu corrects lingering misconceptions in both the West and the Middle
East that Sub-Saharan Africa’s Muslim heritage represents a minor thread in
Islam’s larger tapestry. West African Muslims have never been isolated. To the
contrary, their connection with Muslims worldwide is robust and longstanding.
The Sahara was not an insurmountable barrier but a bridge that allowed the Arabo-Berbers
of the North to sustain relations with West African Muslims through trade,
diplomacy, and intellectual and spiritual exchange.
The West African tradition of Islamic learning
has grown in tandem with the spread of Arabic literacy, making Arabic the most
widely spoken language in Africa today. In the postcolonial period, dramatic
transformations in West African education, together with the rise of media
technologies and the ever-evolving public roles of African Muslim
intellectuals, continue to spread knowledge of Islam throughout the continent.
Unfortunately, the Western public and academy
have been largely ignorant of this vibrant intellectual and religious tradition.
Beyond Timbuktu provides an accessible account of the development of
this tradition from the earliest stages through its complex interactions with
colonialism and present fascinating engagements with modernity. I hope Western
readers will enjoy discovering a rich scholarly tradition that is likely to be
new to them, and that those who are already familiar with the tradition will
appreciate the historical perspective and analysis of the various dynamics that
have shaped West Africa’s impressive Islamic tradition.
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
In a nutshell
Beyond Timbuktu is about the literary cultures of West Africa. The old West African city of Timbuktu is famous as a great center of Muslim learning from Islam’s Golden Age. It is renowned for its madrassas and archives of rare Arabic manuscripts. Yet Timbuktu is not unique. It was one among many scholarly centers to exist in precolonial West Africa. Beyond Timbuktu charts the rise of Muslim learning in West Africa from the beginning of Islam to the present day, examining the shifting contexts that have influenced the production and dissemination of Islamic knowledge—and shaped the sometime conflicting interpretations of Muslim intellectuals—over the course of centuries.
Highlighting the significant breadth and versatility of the Muslim intellectual tradition in sub-Saharan Africa, Beyond Timbuktu corrects lingering misconceptions in both the West and the Middle East that Sub-Saharan Africa’s Muslim heritage represents a minor thread in Islam’s larger tapestry. West African Muslims have never been isolated. To the contrary, their connection with Muslims worldwide is robust and longstanding. The Sahara was not an insurmountable barrier but a bridge that allowed the Arabo-Berbers of the North to sustain relations with West African Muslims through trade, diplomacy, and intellectual and spiritual exchange.
The West African tradition of Islamic learning has grown in tandem with the spread of Arabic literacy, making Arabic the most widely spoken language in Africa today. In the postcolonial period, dramatic transformations in West African education, together with the rise of media technologies and the ever-evolving public roles of African Muslim intellectuals, continue to spread knowledge of Islam throughout the continent.
Unfortunately, the Western public and academy have been largely ignorant of this vibrant intellectual and religious tradition. Beyond Timbuktu provides an accessible account of the development of this tradition from the earliest stages through its complex interactions with colonialism and present fascinating engagements with modernity. I hope Western readers will enjoy discovering a rich scholarly tradition that is likely to be new to them, and that those who are already familiar with the tradition will appreciate the historical perspective and analysis of the various dynamics that have shaped West Africa’s impressive Islamic tradition.