Horn and Crescent
Cultural Change and Traditional Islam on the East African Coast, 800–1900

A major historical study of Islam among the Swahili.

Randall L. Pouwels (Author)

9780521523097, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 6 June 2002

288 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.474 kg

'… ranks as a major publication in the field.' The Muslim World Book Review

In this first major historical study of Islam among the Swahili, Randall Pouwels shows how Islam and other aspects of coastal civilization have evolved since about AD 1000 as an organic whole. Coastal Africans, he argues, simply adopted Islam as the spiritual vehicle best suited to their expanding intellectual needs and to meeting the opportunities presented by their physical and cultural environment. The culture and religion that developed were strong, rich, supple, self-assured. yet capable of accommodating change where it was unavoidable or preferable. All these characteristics were put to the test in the nineteenth century, when coastal peoples were subjected to intense Arabizing and Westernizing influences. Pouwels demonstrates how local people went on asserting their own traditions while assimilating what they chose from both worlds. East African Muslims, therefore faced the twentieth century divided on issues of local cultural autonomy and the need to conform to external cultural pressures.

List of illustrations and maps
Preface
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. The roots of a tradition, 800–1500
2. The emergence of a tradition, 900–1500
3. A northern metamorphosis, 1500–1800
Appendix
4. Town Islam and the umma ideal
5. Wealth, piety, justice, and learning
6. The Zanzibar Sultanate, 1812–88
7. New secularism and bureaucratic centralization
8. A new literacy
9. The early colonial era, 1885–1914
10. Currents of popularism and eddies of reform
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]