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Islam and Trade in the Bilād AL-Sūdān, Tenth-Eleventh Century A.D.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Michael Brett
Michael Brett
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
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Extract

Two fatwā-s or legal opinions of the jurist al-Qābisī at Qayrawān about the year A.D. 1000 show the way in which the Law of Islam was used to protect the Muslim against the hazards of trans-Saharan trade with the Bilād al-Sūdan. Trade was to be conducted as far as possible in accordance with the Law, and approval was given to the establishment of Muslim communities in the Bilād al-Sūdān under the authority of a nāzir or ‘watchman’, with the consent of the pagan king of the country. The formation of Muslim communities on this legal basis, and their incorporation into the pattern of West African society, were important for the subsequent character of Islam in West Africa. Meanwhile, among the ‘stateless’ Berber peoples of the Western Sahara, the doctrines of the Malikite school were subject to a different interpretation by Ibn Yasln, which came into open conflict with the views of al-Qābisī when the Almoravids sacked the Muslim city of Awdaghast for submitting to the pagan king of Ghana. This conflict of attitudes to paganism remained a feature of West African Islam down to the twentieth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 431 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

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