ENGLISH

Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam on the East African Coast, 800-1900 (African Studies)

By Randall L. Pouwels

Book information

Year
1987
ISBN
9780521323086, 9780511523885, 9780521523097, 0521523095
Open Library ID
OL7744292M
Language
english
Format
DJVU
Filesize
2 MB (2390690 bytes)
Pages
288\287
Topic
Education
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

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.

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