Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa
Reviewed by Abdul Hai
“O Amir!! When did you start enslaving people, when their mothers gave birth to them free?” Umar ibn Khattab (RA)
“We missed the bus for industrial revolution, true but we missed the bus because the British Empire threw us under its wheels”. Dr Shashi Tharoor
In a world often hostile to religion, particularly Islam, discussing Islam’s intellectual contributions in Africa can be seen as exacerbating an already contentious issue. Afrocentric scholars frequently blame Islam for Africa’s misfortunes and readily join the chorus of anti-Islamic sentiment. Conversely, Muslims argue that Islam has profoundly shaped Africa’s identity and contemporary geopolitical landscape. For example, the renowned legacy of Mansa Musa I as the ruler of the Mali Empire is widely recognized. Classical Muslim scholars, such as the great Baghdadi Imam Ibn Jawzi, also acknowledged the virtues of Africa and its people. His work, Tanwir al-Ghabash fi Fadl al-Sudan wa al-Habash (The Illumination of the Darkness on the Merits of the Blacks and Ethiopians), stands as testament to this recognition. This ongoing debate has engaged African scholars for decades. Dr. Ousmane Oumar Kane’s Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa makes a significant contribution to resolving this discourse.
Published in 2016, Beyond Timbuktu comprises a prologue, an epilogue, and nine detailed chapters. The book argues that the Islamic intellectual heritage is not confined to the Arabian Peninsula but extends globally, with Africa playing a pivotal role in this narrative. The author meticulously traces West Africa’s intellectual timeline, documenting the stages of its historical development. To map the Islamic heritage of West Africa, Kane employs what he refers to as a “textual history” (2016, p. 18), analyzing data collection, archiving, categorization, translation, and digitization of Islamic works. This approach enables readers to appreciate the unique Islamic epistemology of West Africa.
Islamic West Africa has enjoyed a rich tradition of learning since its earliest encounters with Islam. Kane (2016, p. 18) “traces the development of Islamic education” in the chapter titled The Growth and Political Economy of Islamic Scholarship in Bilad al-Sudan. This section highlights how African scholars established educational institutions comparable to other universities in the Muslim world. Kane references numerous writers, historians, travelers, geographers, and poets, including Abd Allah Abd al-Aziz al-Bakri (d. 1094), author of Kitab al-Masalik wa’l-Mamalik (The Book of Routes and Realms). He also mentions the Muslim African poet Al-Kanami, who composed the following lines in praise of the Almohad ruler Ya’qub al-Mansur:
“He removed his veil but my eyes, out of awe,
Saw him through a veil; his favour drew me near but being near, out of awe, I found myself distant…”
The book explores the rise of the clerical class and delves into ethnology, examining how Muslim groups of various ethnicities influenced public and private institutions in pre-colonial Africa. These influences spanned politics, social culture, philosophy, and the linguistic development of native languages. Kane demonstrates that these groups transmitted and systematized classical Islamic texts, including primary sources such as the Quran and Sunnah, into native West African languages. Among the Sunni Maliki legal texts studied and commented upon, the author notes works like Mukhtasar fi-Ibada (Abridged Treatise on Worship) by Abdarrahman al-Akdari (d. 1585) (2016, p. 82). The book also examines the development of higher Islamic education as a counterbalance to the proliferation of Western-style institutions, which, as the Congolese philosopher Valentin-Yves Mudimbe observed, primarily served to perpetuate “the colonial library.”
In later chapters, Kane examines Islam’s role in the public sphere during the post-colonial era and the present day. He notes that Muslim students proficient in Arabophone traditions have often (2016, p. 160) “remained outside of decision-making circles.” This exclusion stems from the fact that governmental structures are predominantly based on Europhone principles and traditions, which restrict the participation of Muslim students in high-ranking positions.
The book also discusses the relationships between various Islamic movements, ranging from pacifist Sufi orders to militant radical groups. Through its comprehensive analysis, Beyond Timbuktu reveals the diverse stages of Africa’s religious, political, and cultural development. It emphasizes that Africa has consistently contributed to global knowledge and culture, offering something valuable to everyone. Africa’s multicultural and multidimensional character ensures that all who engage with it will find opportunities for learning and growth.
