The best of guides

Sufi poetry and alternate discourses of reform in early twentieth-century Somalia

Bibliographic Data

ID2172839
AuthorsScott S Reese
Year2001
Volume14
Issue1
Pages49-68
Publication date2001-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-6815 • E-ISSN: 1469-9346
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/136968101750333969
OpenAlexW1984598388
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited5

The Qadiriyya Sufi order has long been regarded as the largest and most successful Sufi tariqa in East Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapters of the order were found from Somalia in the north to Mozambique in the south and as far inland as the eastern Congo. However, little research has been done to explain how an order with a reputation for literate learning as well as spirituality could gain such a broad following amongst Muslim populations who were largely non-literate. This article is divided into two parts. The first provides a brief discussion of the emergence of the Qadiriyya in Somalia during the late nineteenth century and provides an overview of the order's diffusion during this period, and its rise as a popular movement that crossed lines of clan and ethnicity as well as town and country. The second examines the teachings of the Qadiriyya shaykhs and the place of popular devotional poetry as the principle means of disseminating their message to their widespread, diverse and largely nonliterate constituency

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Clan · Literature · Order (exchange · Period (music · Poetry · Reputation · Social science · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Anthropology · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub