Islamization of Africa II: Sept. 24 North Africa: conversion and conquest

Transcription

1 Islamization of Africa II: Sept. 24 North Africa: conversion and conquest

2 Spread of Islam Into Africa: North Africa and the Sahara Almoravids 11 th C. 7 th -15 th centuries Arab and Swahili traders spread Islam: 8th- 19th centuries C.E.

3 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Story of spread of Islam into North Africa: - narrative of armies sweeping across land, establishing Caliphates - took the names of family leaders (eg Umayyads, Abbassids, Fatimids, Almoravids ) -- dynasties falling like dominos to more powerful armies - mostly about movement of Arabs, not of Islam per se - conquest is not conversion: describes government not people

4 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Complicating Robinson s gateway approach (again): - North Africa combination conquest and integration with Berber economics, culture, religion - Sahara combination conquest and rooting of religious movement/network: the Almoravids

5 Islam in North Africa

6 Islam and North Africa Across North Africa, what unifies historical study is agreement on: - early Arab conquest ( by the sword ) - gradual attraction of Berbers to Arab military power and Islamic religion/culture - unevenness of sources (creating biases, gaps): combination archaeology (local), texts (mostly Arab)

7 Islam and North Africa Archaeological work limited: - few excavations - emphasis on Roman rather than Islamic era - predominance of French academic influence/politics (determines what projects receive funding)

8 Islam and North Africa Work (to date) shaped by interest in: - Trans-Saharan trade (commodities, markets, changeover-time) - patterns Arab settlement (not always shaped by trade, also by agricultural interests) - where trade is major interest, settlement oriented to major commercial markets - otherwise scattered in hinterland

9 Islam and North Africa Market orientation: -markets, trade in hands of indigenous animist Berbers - archaeology can trace where Arabs settled vis-à-vis Berber quarters: architecture, tools, household utensils etc) - can trace cultural exchange, with respect to material culture (eg. burial sites)

10 Islam and North Africa Islamization: - can trace process of Islamization into Berber areas through building mosques [as we saw in East Africa] - limited evidence to date shows process mixed - archaeology does not explain why

11 Islam and North Africa Findings: - Non-muslim Berbers continued to co-exist with Muslims, especially in interior (Mountains, desert) - Even converts (Muslim Berbers) did not always adapt fully to religion: - retained some animist gods - often transposed ritual of worship onto Islamic saints

12 Islam and North Africa Muslim Berbers accepted religion but resisted cultural conversion: - continued local shrine architecture/worship - incorporated tombs, shifted worship to Muslim saints - retained Berber as language - retained Berber dress, custom, culture (music, literature, crafts etc)

13 Islam and North Africa Tunisia Local Berber Shrine (above) Shrine of Sidi Mhammed (right)

14 Islam and North Africa Ibn Battuta (Moroccan): Berber by ethnicity ; qadi (jurist) by training; major source for historians: - experienced many forms of Islam in his travels across North Africa: - formal official Islam of cities - ascetics, marabouts of countryside - witnessed centrality of tombs and associated medersas (Qur anic schools) [see Ibn Battuta North Africa, Additional Readings]

15 Islam and North Africa In the Wake of Conquest: - Morocco, Algeria: several sites where Arab settlers following in wake of conquest ) colonized hinterland and interior - introduced new agriculture: replaced Berber/coastal treeculture (olives, citrus fruits) with grain growing, pastoralism sheep, goats - invited gradual integration: Berberization of Arab communities and Islamization of Berber neighbours

16 Islam and North Africa Archaeological work only suggests alternative understanding of spread of Islam but is more consistent than conquest/conflict theory with other known factors: - apart from initial moves of Arabs from Arabian peninsula into North Africa, most so-called Islamic conquest was carried out, physically, by Berber warriors

17 Islam and North Africa - Berbers attracted by rewards of Arab armies and hierarchy - not required to totally relinquish aspects of culture while benefitting from new political masters - emergence of Almoravids is itself example of this process in context of Saharan tribes [case study, below]

18 Islam and North Africa Typical example North African warrior: Arab? Or Berber?

19 Warriors of the Faith (North Africa) Berbers not Arabs

20 Tariq ibn Ziyad Berber Muslim and Umayyad General who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania (Spain) in 711 under orders of the Umayyad Caliph

21 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Story of the Almoravids: - well known to European, African history - in Europe: succeeded Umayyid dynasty in Spain (11 th C.), - Moors, left scholarly and architectural legacy - in North Africa (Morocco): created capital out of Marrakesh - made it centre of scholarship, Koutoubia Mosque world renown - in Africa, understood as origin of Islamization of West Africa ( Conquest of Ghana, see next day Sahara, West Africa )

22 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Koutoubia Mosque, Marrakesh (Morocco)

23 Islam in North Africa and Sahara 11 th Century: - leader of Saharan Berber Sanhaja tribe made the hajj - on return, visited with Islamic scholar in Ifriqiyya (Tunisia origine of name Africa ) - convinced that his people were Muslim but not good Muslims - returned to Sahara with cleric from Morocco: Abd Allah ibn Yasin

24 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Goal: - to help his people turn from pre-islamic habits and fully embrace Islam - first articulation of issue that continues to be central to Muslim communities in Africa: what does fully embracing Islam mean?

25 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Result: - some fractions of the Sanhaja followed him but - the important Lamtuna clan (family) resisted: rejected him and his message -Yasin returned to North Africa for advice

26 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Advice: return to the Sahara, launch jihad [ holy war ] - offered resisters opportunity to convert, recognize him as legitimate religious leader - retreated with followers (similar to the Prohpet s hijra to Medina; here called ribat blurs physical location, still debated, with physical process ) - After: returned to desert and successfully defeated opposing tribes - ultimately, continued holy war into West Africa and into Spain

27 Almoravids: Spain, Morocco, Sahara

28 Almoravid Leader Yusuf ibn Tashfin Cousin of initial Almoravid Leader, third Emir of Almoravid empire in North Africa and Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia/Spain).

29 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Narrative seems to fit with idea of spread of Islam into North/West Africa by the sword : - not challenged until 1992 article What s in a Name? The Almoravids of the 11 th century [see Additional Readings ] - H J Fisher (and subsequently others) argued convincingly against paradigm

30 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Key Issue: idea of ribat as physical place and/or holy war - disagreement derives different uses/mis-uses textual documentation - sources not local chronicles (as elsewhere East, West Africa) - accounts by Arab geographers, most never visiting places described -Ibn Battuta being the exception!

31 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Arab sources compiled : reading back through archives of accounts - as problematic as archaeological sites where evidence has been spread through several layers of time - scholar in 12 th century will read texts from earlier centuries differently from scholar writing in 14 th or 15 th centuries

32 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Fisher s critique of existing scholarly interpretations rests largely on this point: - that contemporary interpretations have not adequately differentiated between these chronologically specific understandings - critical argument: ribat was neither a place nor a war it was a religious network - as such, suggests different process by which Islam became entrenched in Sahara (and by extension), West Africa

33 Islam in North Africa and Sahara His argument is largely linguistic (that is, he looks at how earlier Arab writers, writing at time of Almoravids, use the term ribat): - concludes that it is only later writers who interpret term as place or war - these interpretations reflect who they are and political situation when they re writing NOT what 11 th century writers were saying

34 Islam in North Africa and Sahara - if right, this is earliest suggestion that Islam is spread through religious network (leader, scholarly legitimacy, followers, centres of learning) that will later become the norm : tariqa - such networks later carry the name of their leader: in this case, those of the ribat indirectly did exactly that -- Almoravids [ those of the ribat ]

35 Islam in North Africa and Sahara Fisher does not deny a role to conflict: - argues it was primarily about leadership: competing for power between Saharan clans - in this case Sanhaja against Zenata - under Ibn al-yasin, one of those tribes claimed the right to be truly Muslim

36 Conclusions (1) For those who were of the centre (Mecca, Cairo perhaps even Ifriqiyya), Sahara and regions beyond were both physically and conceptually distant - caution about what remains major source of information about North and West Africa texts produced in the centre -- needs to be heeded.

37 Conclusions (2) - Hajj used to integrate centre and periphery : - travels of Ibn al-yasin, direct consequences for Western Sahara and West Africa - also information : literary integration (published accounts of travels)

38 Conclusions (3) Prototypes in Islamic History: - Fisher draws attention to both the physical reenactment of Islamic history and motif - real history of birth of Islam became enshrined in ritual of being Muslim: eg. the hijra

39 Conclusions In all subsequent histories of societies becoming Muslim we see both: - real attempts to re-enact birth of Islam (eg Usman dan Fodio, Case Study of Sokoto Caliphate) - and literary motifs : those who wish to present history in acceptable Islamic terms to their audience - both endeavours pose problems for historians

40 Conclusions Almoravids: - paradigm of Islamic conquest by sword (born of history of early Islam) has long shaped unquestioning acceptance of Almoravid narrative - Fisher addressed one aspect of that story -- the ribat, arguing for its derivation from the hijra part of the traditional story of Islam Point: we need to keep both observations (real, literary) in mind when interpreting all sources about Islamization in North and West Africa

41 Conclusions (4) Tendency to overemphasize military action in story of Islamization: - arguably overemphasized even in narrative of birth of Islam [our discussion of video Islam: empire of Faith] - recent archaeological work allowed us to extend critique to North African narratives - Fisher s argument underscores tendency in context of Almoravids in West Africa

42 Conclusions (5) Fisher identifies another factor shaping modern historiography: politics - as in real past, profession reflects contemporary politics - eg. Nigerian scholar who (recently) argued for complete dismissal of Arabic sources (and all subsequent scholarship based on them) - earlier references to French dominance in North African history, obsession with the Roman (rather than Muslim) era

43 Conclusions Final Conclusion: The pattern of events described in this paper [article on Almoravids] is, if stripped to the bare essentials, a prototypical model of innumerable such interventions in the history of Black Africa, up to and including today. If true, this is a concept we need to keep in mind throughout the course: - what does Fisher mean? - why is it so significant?