Jihād in West Africa during the Age of Revolutions / Paul E. Lovejoy

Object Details

Contents: Introduction -- The age of revolutions and the Atlantic world -- The origins of jihād in West Africa -- The jihād of 'Uthmān dan Fodio in the central Bilād al-Sūdān -- The economic impact of jihād in West Africa -- Jihād and the slave trade -- The repercussions of jihād in the Americas -- Sokoto, the jihād states, and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade -- Empowering history : trajectories across the cultural and religious divide -- Appendix : population estimates for the Sokoto caliphate, ca. 1905-15
Summary: "In Jihād in West Africa during the Age of Revolutions, Paul E. Lovejoy argues that scholars have not given Africa its due consideration as part of either the Atlantic world or the age of revolutions, which is commonly associated with the erosion of European imperialist powers from the 1770s through the 1840s. At the same time, Lovejoy reconceptualizes slavery, showing that during the decades in question, it expanded extensively not only in the United States and Latin America but also in West Africa. Lovejoy provides unprecedented context for the political and cultural role of Islam in Africa from the eighteenth century into the present. Understanding that there is a long tradition of jih̄ad in West Africa, he argues, helps correct the current distortion in understanding the contemporary jihād movement in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Africa."--Page 4 of cover.

Topic: Islam--History; Jihad; Sokoto Jihad, 1803-1830; Islam and state; War--Religious aspects--Islam