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The spread of Islam into West Africa started with the Ibāḍīs, a branch of the Khārijīs, who had rejected both the proto-Sunnī caliphate and the proto-Shīʿī imamate (I. Hrbeck (ed.) Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century (London: James Currey Ltd., 1992), pp. 32–39 and 120–127). Those that belonged to a group that came to be called “Khārijī” (the one that goes out from the religion) had assassinated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in 40 AH/661 CE. They had their own theory of leadership, often interpreted by scholars as “egalitarian,” but at the same time, they had a more stringent definition of apostasy, leading them to execute a number of well-known early Muslims. Then, under the ʿAbbāsids, who came to power in 750 CE after overthrowing the Umayyads, the Mālikī school, named after its eponymous founder, Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH/795 CE), spread. Mālikism was not immediately associated with the Sufi tradition (See footnote 25). North and East Africa were originally areas where the ʿAlawīs (descendants of Imam ʿAlī and their supporters), who had escaped reprisals by the ʿAbbāsids for attempted uprisings, had settled. The Amazigh tribes that tried to resist Umayyad rule often allied themselves with the ʿAlawīs (Hrbeck (ed.) Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, p. 36.). Sufism as a recognized practice did not start to take shape until approximately the ninth century CE, or 250 AH. It developed in Basrah, Baghdad, and Khorasan and spread both East and West from those regions. As the Sufi orders became established around the eleventh and twelfth centuries, their adherents took their teachings across Africa, along with either the Mālikī or Shafiʿī legal schools, eventually adding a layer of belief on top of what had been the Shīʿī tendencies of the ʿAlawīs that had settled previously. These Shīʿī tendencies remained only in fragmented form and were integrated into the expanding Sufi movements. This chapter discusses certain Sufi doctrines in Africa that bear similarities to those of Shīʿī doctrines. Such doctrines include that the saint was created as such prior to coming into existence, that the saint was initiated by the Prophet, and that the doctrines of the order must be kept secret.

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Shiʿi Tendencies in Islamic Spirituality in Africa

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Rebecca Masterton

摘要

The spread of Islam into West Africa started with the Ibāḍīs, a branch of the Khārijīs, who had rejected both the proto-Sunnī caliphate and the proto-Shīʿī imamate (I. Hrbeck (ed.) Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century (London: James Currey Ltd., 1992), pp. 32–39 and 120–127). Those that belonged to a group that came to be called “Khārijī” (the one that goes out from the religion) had assassinated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in 40 AH/661 CE. They had their own theory of leadership, often interpreted by scholars as “egalitarian,” but at the same time, they had a more stringent definition of apostasy, leading them to execute a number of well-known early Muslims. Then, under the ʿAbbāsids, who came to power in 750 CE after overthrowing the Umayyads, the Mālikī school, named after its eponymous founder, Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH/795 CE), spread. Mālikism was not immediately associated with the Sufi tradition (See footnote 25). North and East Africa were originally areas where the ʿAlawīs (descendants of Imam ʿAlī and their supporters), who had escaped reprisals by the ʿAbbāsids for attempted uprisings, had settled. The Amazigh tribes that tried to resist Umayyad rule often allied themselves with the ʿAlawīs (Hrbeck (ed.) Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, p. 36.). Sufism as a recognized practice did not start to take shape until approximately the ninth century CE, or 250 AH. It developed in Basrah, Baghdad, and Khorasan and spread both East and West from those regions. As the Sufi orders became established around the eleventh and twelfth centuries, their adherents took their teachings across Africa, along with either the Mālikī or Shafiʿī legal schools, eventually adding a layer of belief on top of what had been the Shīʿī tendencies of the ʿAlawīs that had settled previously. These Shīʿī tendencies remained only in fragmented form and were integrated into the expanding Sufi movements. This chapter discusses certain Sufi doctrines in Africa that bear similarities to those of Shīʿī doctrines. Such doctrines include that the saint was created as such prior to coming into existence, that the saint was initiated by the Prophet, and that the doctrines of the order must be kept secret.