Fallou Ngom - The Palgrave Handbook of Islam in Africa

Contributor: Chuck Bigger / Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

The Palgrave Handbook of Islam in Africa builds on the existing knowledge on Islam in Africa, including Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels edited volume, The History of Islam in Africa, published in 2000. It generates new insights that enriches our understanding of the history of Islam in Africa and the diverse experiences and expressions of the faith in the continent. The volume covers key themes that reflects the preoccupations and realities of many African Muslims. It provides readers access to a comprehensive treatment of the past and current traditions of Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, offering insights on different forms of Islamization that took place in several regions, local responses to Islamization, Islam in colonial and post-colonial Africa, and the various forms of Jihd movements that occurred in the continent. It provides updated knowledge on various social, cultural, linguistic, political, artistic, educational, and intellectual aspects of the encounter between Islam and African cultures reflected in the varied lived experiences and the corpus of African Islamic texts.

The volume required working with multiple language materials. We opted for the EI3 transliteration system for Islamic concepts and names of Arab scholars. For African actors, if the name is partly of Arabic origin but is commonly presented in French or English historical materials without diacritics (such as Usman Dan Fodio), we have applied EI3 transcription rules in the first part of the names and kept the name the way it is pronounced locally. Thus, Usman Dan Fodio is rendered as Uthmn an Fodio, Omar Tall is rendered as Umar Taal, and Amadou Bamba Mback is rendered as Amadu Bamba Mbkke, etc. Names of Sufi orders such as the Murdiyya, Tijniyya, Qdiriyya, and others are transcribed following the EI3 system. Arabic words such Al-jj and Q, whether they are titles or parts of first names, are transcribed following EI3 rules with initial letters always capitalized. For names such as Muammad al-Kabr, we have applied the EI3 rules, but use Al-Kabr with the first letters capitalized when it is used alone to refer to the same person. Names of people and places in published materials in French, English, and Portuguese are generally kept as they appear in published materials. We have used Fuuta Jalon and Fuuta Tooro as they are pronounced by native speakers, rather than their various French or English spellings. Finally, mixed words like Ajamization lose their final long vowel diacritic ().