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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Islam and the Construction of Social Identity in the Nineteenth-Century Sahara |
Author: | Cleaveland, Timothy |
Year: | 1998 |
Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
Volume: | 39 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 365-388 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | West Africa |
Subjects: | Islam animal husbandry History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/183359 |
Abstract: | During the last quarter century anthropologists and historians have radically revised the old, static models of African pastoral societies that were produced during the colonial period. They have argued that although pastoralists generally defined themselves in terms of descent, their societies were nevertheless quite dynamic. This essay draws on 19th-century Arabic sources from the western Sahara to argue that pastoral societies in this area were dynamic long before the colonial period, and that many Saharans perceived their society in this way. The sources presented describe economic and social changes in the western Sahara that are associated with migration. In particular, the essay focuses on genealogical histories written by Mu.hammad .SŻali.h al-NŻa.sirŻi (d. 1854), a Saharan Arab of nomad origin. The genealogies he recorded constitute a social model of Saharan society, a model that linked social transformations with economic changes, such as the transition from camel nomadism to cattle husbandry or commerce. These changes generally required emigration from the open desert to oases or towns, and they often coincided with the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle. This model was explicitly Islamic, based on the socially constructed relationships of the Prophet Muhammad's diverse community in Medina. Notes, ref., sum. |