Realm of the unseen : devotional practice and sufi authority in the Kunta community
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation investigates the relationship between Sufi friendship with God and devotional religious practice as it emerges from the works of the first two leaders of the Kunta community, Sīdi al-Mukhtār and Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī. These two scholars rose to prominence in the Southern Saharan desert in the late eighteenth century and came to exert considerable influence over the development of Sufi and Islamic culture in the region. This study argues that the Kunta argued for their authority as Sufi friends of God based on their privileged interaction with what they called "the realm of the unseen, " and their resulting access to powerful practices. These practices, which they called "the sciences of the unseen, " included the creation of amulets, communication with the jinn, the recitation of litanies, and the use of magical charts and tables to effect tangible, material changes in the world. The Kunta leaders were aware that other Muslim scholars might consider these practices to be acts of sorcery, but they argued strenuously that they should be considered legitimate Muslim practices. Moreover, they not only argued in favor of these practices but provided explicit prescriptive instructions for how to perform them. This study seeks to situation this discussion of the sciences of secrets relative to both the devotional religious landscape of the Southern Sahara desert and the larger Sufi and Islamic intellectual framework developed by the Kunta scholars. In the process, I argue that any understanding of West African Islamic history must consider the changing relationship between Sufi friendship with God and devotional religious practice.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Marcus-Sells, Ariela |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies. |
| Primary advisor | Bashir, Shahzad, 1968- |
| Thesis advisor | Bashir, Shahzad, 1968- |
| Thesis advisor | Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva |
| Thesis advisor | Hanretta, Sean, 1972- |
| Advisor | Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva |
| Advisor | Hanretta, Sean, 1972- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Ariela Marcus-Sells. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Religious Studies. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Ariela Marcus-Sells
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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