Description

Journal article from Africa Today published by Indiana University press. Volume 46, Number 3/4. You can purchase this journal from IU Press at: http://inscribe.iupress.org/loi/aft

In the Benaadiri region of southern Somalia, saint stories
contained within locally compiled hagiographies provide
valuable insights into aspects of social history that would
otherwise remain unrecoverable. In this article I draw upon
these familiar but underused written sources to challenge
some commonly held assumptions about the relationship
between urban commercial life and Sufism in Somalia during
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First
I explore the complex linkages between urbanites and Sufi
organizations during this period. Then I examine the nature
of locally perceived social crises as they were understood
within the hagiographical works, particularly the Qadiri
work Jawhar al-Nafis and the Ahmadi collection Manaqib
Nurayn Ahmad Sabr, and their suggested paths of remedy.