Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Book chapter Book chapter Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Charisma and medicine in Northern Nigeria
Author:Last, MurrayISNI
Book title:Charisma and brotherhood in African Islam
Year:1988
Pages:183-204
Language:English
Geographic terms:Nigeria
Northern Nigeria
Subjects:ulema
traditional medicine
medicine
Sufism
Abstract:The science - or alchemy - of fusing the ingredients of power was, and still is, the speciality of Muslim scholars in northern Nigeria. It is to their role in creating confidence and fortifying the charisma - outstanding power - of leaders through the use of '.tibb' (as that science is often called, translated usually as 'medicine') that this chapter draws attention. It takes a single text, the Kano Chronicle, to illuminate from within a culture of power and the scepticism that characterizes it. The author suggests that charisma, along with force, is seen as an essential component of success. Given the role of scholars as counsellors, success was for them a matter of central concern, first in their competition with traditional, non-Muslim counsellors, and secondly in their relations with the military. The author further argues that the Kano Chronicler presents a history of how the scholars' inventory of techniques expanded as conditions required, how they not so much replaced old methods as supplemented and elaborated them. Notes, ref.
Views
Cover