o:id
	12732
url
	https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item/12732
o:resource_template
	Journal article
o:resource_class
	bibo:AcademicArticle
dcterms:title
	Reinterpreting the Role of Muslims in the West African Middle Ages
dcterms:subject
	history of Africa
	Sahel
	Islamic cleric
	empire
dcterms:publisher
	https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item/25145
dcterms:date
	2020
dcterms:type
	https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item/8475
dcterms:identifier
	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q116295165 Q116295165
	iwac-reference-0000232
dcterms:language
	https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item/8322
dcterms:abstract
	Recent research points to a renewed scholarly interest in the West African Middle Ages and the Sahelian imperial tradition. However, in these works only tangential attention is paid to the role of Muslims, and especially to clerical communities. This essay tackles theoretical and historiographical insights on the role of African Muslims in the era of the medieval empires and argues that the study of Islam in this region during the Middle Ages still suffers from undertheorizing. On the contrary, by using a ‘discursive approach’ scholars can unravel access to fascinating aspects of the history of West African Muslims and in particular to the crucial role played by clerical communities, who represented one node of the web of diffused authority which is characteristic of precolonial West African social and political structures.
dcterms:spatial
	https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item/540
bibo:authorList
	https://islam.zmo.de/s/westafrica/item/1705
bibo:doi
	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853720000584 10.1017/S0021853720000584
bibo:issue
	3
bibo:pageEnd
	340
bibo:pageStart
	327
bibo:volume
	61

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