Sufism is a major religious, social, and political force throughout much of the Muslim world, including in Africa. Unfortunately, “African Sufism” is often caricatured as a kind of barely Islamic veneer over “African religion” - as though African Muslims and particularly African Sufis aren’t really Muslim. That kind of take is common in a lot of Western journalism and even in some Western academia, and it’s insulting and wrong. To make matters worse, Sufism and “African Sufism” have also been securitized at various moments in Washington, trumpeted by policymakers and think tankers (and, yes, some academics) as supposed bulwarks against, or antidotes to, extremism. Yet another layer of distortion is the commercialization and Rumi-fication of Sufism in some quarters of the United States, as though Sufism were not a deep strand of Islamic thought but rather something you could purchase in a Barnes and Noble. Amid all those layers of distortion, it becomes hard to get a deep grasp on Sufism. The works below are ones that I think offer really serious insights into a quite complex phenomenon, and in doing so often also bring a lot of insights about politics, society, and religion in Africa more broadly. The list is in the order I’d recommend reading.
An introductory work on Sufism such as Martin Lings, What Is Sufism? (University of California, 1975); Nile Green, Sufism: A Global History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012); and/or Alexander Knysh, Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism (Princeton, 2017). Before plunging into the history and dynamics of Sufism in Africa, I would ground yourself with some kind of global and introductory work. Any of these three books would be a solid introduction - Lings was a British convert to Islam and so brings a kind of insider perspective; Green is a prolific historian of South Asia who has expanded into histories of global Islam; and Knysh has spent his long career working on Sufi thought.
A study of at least one major Sufi thinker such as Kenneth Garden, The First Islamic Reviver: Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali and His Revival of the Religious Sciences (Oxford, 2014) and/or Michael Chodkiewicz, An Ocean Without Shore
Ibn ʻArabî, the Book, and the Law (SUNY, 1993). As further preparation - bear with me! - I think it’s crucial not just to read about the overall arc of Sufism, but also to study the key thinkers in the tradition. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) are two particularly famous and influential Sufis, whose thought has resonated widely in Africa and beyond. Many works by these two figures have also been translated into English. They can make for difficult reading - but it’s worth getting a taste of some primary sources. In terms of additional secondary literature, Sa’diyya Shaikh’s Sufi Narratives of Intimacy (University of North Carolina, 2012) opens up a different perspective on Ibn ‘Arabi, as well as on Sufism and gender more broadly.
A book on pivotal Sufis of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Rex S. O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint: Ahmad Ibn Idris and the Idrisi Tradition (Northwestern, 1990) and/or Knut Vikør, Sufi and Scholar of the Desert Edge: Muḥammad B. ʻAlī Al-Sanūsī and His Brotherhood (Northwestern, 1995). Ahmad bin Idris (d. 1837) and Muhammad bin ‘Ali al-Sanusi (d. 1859) were key personalities in what has sometimes been called “neo-Sufism,” and they had tremendous religious and political influence - Ibn Idris’ followers went on to found multiple orders and were active from Libya to Sudan to Southeast Asia, and al-Sanusi’s order spread throughout eastern Libya into Chad and beyond (his grandson Idris became the first king of Libya roughly a century later). For more on the global influence of Ahmad bin Idris, see Mark Sedgwick, Saints and Sons (Brill, 2005). Also worth reading is Anne Bang’s Islamic Sufi Networks in the Western Indian Ocean (Brill, 2014), which looks at East Africa and the spread of Sufism there in the nineteenth century.
A book on the Tijaniyya Sufi order: The Tijaniyya, founded by Ahmad al-Tijani (b. 1735 in present-day Algeria, d. 1815 in present-day Morocco), is a key Sufi order in Africa. Important books about the Tijaniyya as a whole include Zachary Wright, On the Path of the Prophet (Fayda Books, 2015); Jamil Abun-Nasr, The Tijaniyya (Oxford, 1965); and, if you read French, Jean-Louis Triaud and David Robinson’s edited collection La Tijâniyya : une confrérie musulmane à la conquête de l'Afrique (Karthala, 2000). Wright’s account is that of an insider; Abun-Nasr’s book is dated but accessible and critical; Triaud and Robinson’s volume covers a lot of ground, geographically and thematically.
A book on nineteenth-century Sufi jihad leaders: In nineteenth-century Africa, shaykhs such as ‘Uthman dan Fodio (d. 1817) and ‘Umar Tall (d. 1864) led jihads against communities those shaykhs felt had strayed from Islam; Tall also clashed with the encroaching French colonialists. A good introduction to their thought is the anthology Jihad of the Pen by Rudolph Ware, Zachary Wright, and Amir Syed (American University in Cairo, 2018); this collection also includes writings from two key Sufis of later generations, namely Ahmadu Bamba (d. 1927) and Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975), both of Senegal.
Works on Sufism and colonialism, for example Silvia Bruzzi’s Islam and Gender in Colonial Northeast Africa (Brill, 2017), David Robinson’s Paths of Accommodation (Ohio, 2000) and/or Cheikh Anta Babou’s Fighting the Greater Jihad (Ohio, 2007). Bruzzi focuses on Eritrea and the surrounding region, Robinson on Mauritania and Senegal, and Babou on Senegal - and all of them touch on the complex interactions between Sufi leaders and European colonialists, interactions that could include some serious compromises. These colonial encounters are important not only as key historical episodes but also because of the deep implications they had for what came after.
A book on Ahmad al-Tijani’s spiritual successor Ibrahim Niasse and his network: Rüdiger Seesemann, The Divine Flood (Oxford, 2011) and/or John Paden, Religion and Political Culture in Kano (University of California, 1973). Niasse was the most influential African Sufi of the twentieth century, and built a following that extended well beyond Senegal and indeed well beyond Africa. Seesemann’s book reconstructs Niasse’s thought and his rise to prominence. Paden’s work addresses complex transformations in Sufi identity in northern Nigeria in the mid-twentieth century, including the impact of Niasse there. There is a lot of other excellent writing about Sufism (and anti-Sufism) in Nigeria - if you want to go further after reading Paden, I would turn next to Roman Loimeier’s Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria (Northwestern, 1997) and then to Ousmane Kane’s Muslim Modernity in Postcolonial Nigeria (Brill, 2003). Turning back to Senegal, key works on Niasse’s community there include Wright’s Living Knowledge in West African Islam (Brill, 2015) and Oludamini Ogunnaike’s Deep Knowledge (University of Pennsylvania, 2020), which compares two approaches to spiritual knowledge: the Tijaniyya and Ifa, a tradition/worldview from southwestern Nigeria. Finally, Seesemann’s article “Three Ibrāhīms” is not to be missed, connecting dots between Sudan, Nigeria, and Senegal.
An anthropological study of a Sufi community in Africa: Here I would start with Benjamin Soares, Islam and the Prayer Economy (University of Michigan, 2005), a portrait of Sufi leaders in the Malian religious center of Nioro du Sahel. Soares also reflects on Islam in Mali and West Africa more broadly. Other major anthropological works include Adeline Masquelier’s Women and Islamic Revival in a West African Town (Indiana, 2009), which discusses Sufism, anti-Sufism, and gender in Dogondoutchi, Niger.
An analysis of Sufis and the state: Leonardo Villalón’s Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal (Cambridge, 1995) and/or Noah Salomon’s For Love of the Prophet (Princeton, 2016). Villalón’s classic book looks at Senegalese Sufism - an often-mentioned but typically only superficially understood phenomenon - and provides a sophisticated historical-political argument about why and how the Sufi orders in Senegal function as key interlocutors of politicians and key vehicles for citizens’ needs. Salomon’s study of Sudan under the “Salvation” (Inqadh) regime looks at how amid official state Islamism, various other Muslims (including, prominently, Sufis) related to the state and elaborated their own Islamic discourses and counter-discourses. See also Ali Karrar’s The Sufi Brotherhoods in the Sudan (Hurst, 1992) for further background on that country.
A work on “global Sufism” such as Cheikh Anta Babou’s The Muridiyya on the Move (Ohio, 2021) or Ousmane Kane’s The Homeland Is the Arena (Oxford, 2011) or a collection such as Francesco Piraino and Mark Sedgwick’s Global Sufism (Hurst, 2019). Babou and Kane both examine Senegalese Muslims (and Sufis) in the global context, including in New York (both books) and in Babou’s case also France and Cote d’Ivoire. Only a few of the chapters in Global Sufism deal primarily with Africa, meanwhile, but the book could be an appropriate choice to close out your reading as it will help re-situate African Sufism within a broader context of parallels, overlaps, and interactions.
Hello, Thank you for your precious list :)
What do you think of "Practicing Sufism : Sufi Politics and Performance in Africa"
by Abdelmajid Hannoum ?