Update ijazas-in-the-saharan-west.mdx

Author: rshereikis

content/essays/ijazas-in-the-saharan-west.mdx

@@ -24,11 +24,11 @@ _Ijāza_ literally means "authorization," "permission," or "license," and normal
 
 In the Sufi context there are different types and "levels" of _ijāzas_. The most basic (_'āmma_) authorizes its holder to initiate disciples only into the fundamentals of the _ṭarīqa_: the set of _wirds_ and _ḥizbs_--spiritual formulas and specific prayers--that must be recited a certain number of times per day or per week, individually and/or collectively, and are intended for the masses (_'awam_). The absolute (_muṭlaqa_), or full (_tāmma_), gives the recipient the right to initiate, study, and transmit esoteric knowledge as well as the secrets and mysteries (_asrār_) of the _ṭarīqa_ and is intended for the elite (_khawāṣ_). Although there is no fixed "template" for an _ijāza_, it generally includes the following elements: the name of the person granting the _ijāza_, the name of the beneficiary, the type of _ijāza_, sometimes the reasons for choosing the beneficiary, and the details of what can or cannot be done in terms of transmission and teaching. Though typically written, an _ijāza_ can be transmitted orally too.
 
-The three documents presented here[^5] are examples of _ijāzas_ of the Qādiriyya, one of the most important Sufi brotherhoods in the Muslim world. The Qādiriyya is among the oldest Sufi brotherhoods in Islamic history and traces its origins to a Sufi scholar of twelfth-century Baghdad, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jilānī (d. 1166). After having spread in North Africa at an early stage, the Qādiriyya found its way into western Africa.[^6] Traditions that date the spread of the Qādiriyya to the sixteenth century are likely spurious.[^7] However, by the late eighteenth century the brotherhood started spreading in the region thanks to the peripatetic teaching of the foremost scholar of the Arabophone Kunta clan of the Saharan West, al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr (d. 1811).[^8] Al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr reformulated the brotherhood and became responsible for the unprecedented spread of the Qādiriyya in western Africa.
+The three documents presented here[^5] are examples of _ijāzas_ of the Qādiriyya, one of the most important Sufi brotherhoods in the Muslim world. The Qādiriyya is among the oldest Sufi brotherhoods in Islamic history and traces its origins to a Sufi scholar of twelfth-century Baghdad, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jilānī (d. 1166). After having spread in North Africa at an early stage, the Qādiriyya found its way into western Africa.[^6] Traditions that date the spread of the Qādiriyya to the sixteenth century are likely spurious.[^7] However, by the late eighteenth century the brotherhood started spreading in the region thanks to the peripatetic teaching of the foremost scholar of the Arabophone Kunta clan of the Saharan West, al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr (d. 1811).[^8] Al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr reformulated the brotherhood and became responsible for the unprecedented spread of the Qādiriyya in western Africa.[^9]
 
-The three _ijāzas_ presented here belonged to an influential Muslim scholar of the Saharan West, Shaykh Sīdiyyā (d. 1868).[^9] He was among the disciples of al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr, a member of the Awlād Abyayrī tribe from the northern shore of the middle course of the Senegal River in what is today's Mauritania. Born in 1775, he completed his study of the Qurʾan at the early age of thirteen with his mother, Maryama Barka. He then left his tribe to study with a famous teacher of the Idaw ʿAlī named Ḥurma b. ʿAbd al-Jalīl al-ʿAlawī. He spent seventeen years with this teacher, becoming an accomplished scholar and authoring his first work, a commentary on the didactic poem on grammar by Ibn Durayd (d. 933) called _al-Maqṣūra_. He then moved to study jurisprudence among the Djedjeba and specifically under Ḥabīb Allāh b. al-Qāḍī (d. c. 1815). At this stage of his career, at around thirty-five years of age, Shaykh Sīdiyyā finally moved to the Azawād, north of the Niger Bend, to study under al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr. Unfortunately, the Kunta scholar was close to death when Shaykh Sīdiyyā arrived; as a result he spent only five months with al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr before becoming mainly the student of his successor, Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826).[^10] With him, he furthered his studies in jurisprudence, which led him to become a prominent jurist and influential political figure once returned to the Gebla region after the death of Muḥammad al-Kuntī.
+The three _ijāzas_ presented here belonged to an influential Muslim scholar of the Saharan West, Shaykh Sīdiyyā (d. 1868).[^10] He was among the disciples of al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr, a member of the Awlād Abyayrī tribe from the northern shore of the middle course of the Senegal River in what is today's Mauritania. Born in 1775, he completed his study of the Qurʾan at the early age of thirteen with his mother, Maryama Barka. He then left his tribe to study with a famous teacher of the Idaw ʿAlī named Ḥurma b. ʿAbd al-Jalīl al-ʿAlawī. He spent seventeen years with this teacher, becoming an accomplished scholar and authoring his first work, a commentary on the didactic poem on grammar by Ibn Durayd (d. 933) called _al-Maqṣūra_. He then moved to study jurisprudence among the Djedjeba and specifically under Ḥabīb Allāh b. al-Qāḍī (d. c. 1815). At this stage of his career, at around thirty-five years of age, Shaykh Sīdiyyā finally moved to the Azawād, north of the Niger Bend, to study under al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr. Unfortunately, the Kunta scholar was close to death when Shaykh Sīdiyyā arrived; as a result he spent only five months with al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr before becoming mainly the student of his successor, Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826).[^11] With him, he furthered his studies in jurisprudence, which led him to become a prominent jurist and influential political figure once returned to the Gebla region after the death of Muḥammad al-Kuntī.
 
-In the Kunta camp, Shaykh Sīdiyyā also studied Sufism and became initiated into the Qādiriyya, as the three _ijāzas_ presented here demonstrate. The first[^11] was written by the son of Muḥammad al-Kuntī, al-Mukhtār al-Ṣaghīr (d. 1846), who would become the leader of the Kunta Qādiriyya in the region after his father's demise,[^12] and the other two[^13] by a rather obscure son of al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr, 'Umar. The three _ijāzas_ granted to Shaykh Sīdiyyā are absolute, general and full, the same as those received by al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī, according to their authors. As such, they grant him the right to initiate aspirants into the entirety of the _wird_, _ḥizb_, and other prayers, as well as the secrets and mysteries of the _ṭarīqa_.
+In the Kunta camp, Shaykh Sīdiyyā also studied Sufism and became initiated into the Qādiriyya, as the three _ijāzas_ presented here demonstrate. The first[^12] was written by the son of Muḥammad al-Kuntī, al-Mukhtār al-Ṣaghīr (d. 1846), who would become the leader of the Kunta Qādiriyya in the region after his father's demise,[^13] and the other two[^14] by a rather obscure son of al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr, 'Umar. The three _ijāzas_ granted to Shaykh Sīdiyyā are absolute, general and full, the same as those received by al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī, according to their authors. As such, they grant him the right to initiate aspirants into the entirety of the _wird_, _ḥizb_, and other prayers, as well as the secrets and mysteries of the _ṭarīqa_.
 
 [^1]: On this system, see William A. Graham, "Traditionalism in Islam: An Essay in Interpretation," _Journal of Interdisciplinary History_ 23, no. 3, (1993): 495-522.
 [^2]: Graham, "Traditionalism in Islam," 507.
@@ -38,10 +38,11 @@ In the Kunta camp, Shaykh Sīdiyyā also studied Sufism and became initiated int
 [^6]: R. G. Jenkins, "The Evolution of Religious Brotherhoods in North and Northwest Africa 1523-1900," in _Studies in West African Islamic History_, ed. John R. Willis (London: F. Cass, 1979); and Louis Brenner, "Concepts of Ṭarīqa in West Africa: The Case of the Qādiriyya," in _Charisma and Brotherhood in African Islam_, ed. Donal B. Cruise O'Brien and Christian Coulon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 33-52.
 [^7]: Jenkins, "The Evolution of Religious Brotherhoods," 44.
 [^8]: Aziz A. Batran, "Sīdī al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī and the Recrudescence of Islam in the Western Sahara and the Middle Niger, c. 1750-1811" (PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 1971), 341. On al-Mukhtār al-Kabīr, see John O. Hunwick, _Arabic Literature of Africa_, vol. 4, _The Writings of Western Sudanic Africa_ (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 68-94 (henceforth _ALA_ 4). The full version of his name, as found in _ALA_ 4, is al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Kuntī al-Wāfi, Abū Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn.
-[^9]: For a study on Shaykh Sīdiyyā, see Charles C. Stewart, _Islam and Social Order in Mauritania: A Case Study from the Nineteenth Century_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973) and Charles C. Stewart with Sidi Ahmed Wuld Ahmed Salim, _Arabic Literature of Africa,_ vol. 5, pt. 1, _The Writings of Mauritania and the Western Sahara_ (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 133-45  (henceforth _ALA_ 5). The full version of his name, as found in _ALA_ 5, is Shaykh Sīdiyyā b. al-Mukhtār b. al-Hayba al Abyayrī al-Intashāʾī.
-[^10]: For a study of Muḥammad al-Kuntī, see Abdallah Ould Daddah, "Šayh Sîdi Muhammed Wuld Sîd Al-Muḫtar al-Kunti (1183H/1769-70-2 Šawwâl 1241/12 Mars 1826). Contribution à l'histoire politique et religieuse de Bilâd Šinqîṭ et des régions voisines, notamment d'après les sources arabes inédites" (PhD diss., Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1977); and _ALA_ 4, 94-115. The full version of his name as it appears in _ALA_ 4 is Sīdī Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Kunti al-Wāfī.
-[^11]: _Ijāza to Sīdiyyā b. al-Mukhtār b. al-Hayba al-Abyarī al-Intashāʾī  from al-Mukhtār b. Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Kunti al-Wāfi_ (title of work assigned by the _Maktaba_ project), MS 95/4/1059, Stewart Papers. [Link to this work in *Maktaba*](https://nulib-ds.github.io/maktaba/works/ijaza-to-shaykh-sidiyya-from-al-mukhtar-al-saghir-c-1820).
-[^12]: On al-Mukhtār al-Ṣaghīr, see Boubacar Sissoko, "Le cheikh al-Muḫtār aṣ-Ṣaġīr al-Kuntī (1790-1847): médiation entre l'état peul du Macina et les Touaregs de Tombouctou de 1826 à 1847" (PhD diss., Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2019); and _ALA_ 4, 115-18. The full version of his name as it appears in _ALA_ 4 is al-Mukhtār al-Ṣaghīr b. Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Kuntī.
+[^9]: For a text revealing the importance of the Qādiriyya in another West Africa context, see the *Maktaba* translation of Usuman dan Fodio's [*Book of the Litany*](https://nulib-ds.github.io/maktaba/works/book-of-the-litany-usuman-dan-fodio-d-1817) and its accompanying essay "Sufism and Spiritual Unveiling" (link to essay when posted). 
+[^10]: For a study on Shaykh Sīdiyyā, see Charles C. Stewart, _Islam and Social Order in Mauritania: A Case Study from the Nineteenth Century_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973) and Charles C. Stewart with Sidi Ahmed Wuld Ahmed Salim, _Arabic Literature of Africa,_ vol. 5, pt. 1, _The Writings of Mauritania and the Western Sahara_ (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 133-45  (henceforth _ALA_ 5). The full version of his name, as found in _ALA_ 5, is Shaykh Sīdiyyā b. al-Mukhtār b. al-Hayba al Abyayrī al-Intashāʾī.
+[^11]: For a study of Muḥammad al-Kuntī, see Abdallah Ould Daddah, "Šayh Sîdi Muhammed Wuld Sîd Al-Muḫtar al-Kunti (1183H/1769-70-2 Šawwâl 1241/12 Mars 1826). Contribution à l'histoire politique et religieuse de Bilâd Šinqîṭ et des régions voisines, notamment d'après les sources arabes inédites" (PhD diss., Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1977); and _ALA_ 4, 94-115. The full version of his name as it appears in _ALA_ 4 is Sīdī Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Kunti al-Wāfī.
+[^1w]: _Ijāza to Sīdiyyā b. al-Mukhtār b. al-Hayba al-Abyarī al-Intashāʾī  from al-Mukhtār b. Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Kunti al-Wāfi_ (title of work assigned by the _Maktaba_ project), MS 95/4/1059, Stewart Papers. [Link to this work in *Maktaba*](https://nulib-ds.github.io/maktaba/works/ijaza-to-shaykh-sidiyya-from-al-mukhtar-al-saghir-c-1820).
+[^13]: On al-Mukhtār al-Ṣaghīr, see Boubacar Sissoko, "Le cheikh al-Muḫtār aṣ-Ṣaġīr al-Kuntī (1790-1847): médiation entre l'état peul du Macina et les Touaregs de Tombouctou de 1826 à 1847" (PhD diss., Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2019); and _ALA_ 4, 115-18. The full version of his name as it appears in _ALA_ 4 is al-Mukhtār al-Ṣaghīr b. Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Kuntī.
 [^13]: _Ijāzas to Sīdiyyā b. al-Mukhtār b. al-Hayba al-Intashāʾī from \[ʿUmar\] b. al-Shaykh al-Mukhtār b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Wāfī al-Kuntī_  (title of works assigned by the _Maktaba_ project), MS 95/4/1057 and MS 94/4/1058, Stewart Papers. [Link to this work in *Maktaba*](https://nulib-ds.github.io/maktaba/works/ijazas-to-shaykh-sidiyya-from-umar-b-al-shaykh-al-mukhtar-al-kunti-c-1820).
 
 ## Referenced Manuscripts