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The Islamic Reformist Movement in North Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Leon Carl Brown
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Extract

If my own experience is at all typical, probably most students concerned with the influence of Islam in the modern world occasionally experience total doubt about their approach to the subject. Can one still justify putting such emphasis on the role of Islam as a historical continuum? Rather, since the nineteenth century, the period of the intensive ‘impact of the west’, haven't there been so many institutional changes that we have reached a real watershed, a breaking point with past history and with past categories of thought designed to explain that history? Shouldn't we de-emphasise Islam as a vital factor in the equation of the modern Arab world and of North Africa? Isn't it a mistake to put so much emphasis on the Islamic heritage?

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 1964 , pp. 55 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

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References

Page 56 note 1 Of course, Islam had begun to filter out into the countryside from the time of the Kharijites early in the eighth century, and each great politico-religious movement in North Africa (Fatimid, Almurabit, Almuwahhid) served to extend Islam. Still, it remained for the sufi movement of the late medieval period to finish the process. Bel, Cf. A., Coup d'oeil sur l'Islam en Berbérie (Paris, 1917), pp. 15–16.Google Scholar

Page 56 note 2 On the role of Islam and sufism during this period, see Cour, A., L'Etablissement des dynasties des chérifs au Maroc (Paris, 1904),Google Scholar and Bel, A., La Religion musulmane en Berbérie (Paris, 1938), pp. 269–407.Google Scholar

Page 57 note 1 An interesting note in passing is that during the recent Algerian-Moroccan border dispute, Algeria immediately appealed to the Organisation of African Unity—neither side seriously considered an appeal to the Arab League.

Page 57 note 2 The Fatimid victory over the Aghlabids destroyed the last nominal link between North Africa and the eastern Abbasid caliphate. Later, after the Fatimids had moved their capital to Egypt, their Berber vassals, the Zirids, declared independence.

Page 57 note 3 The Turkish period in Algeria and Tunisia has been relatively ignored. A much-needed re-examination which will probably revise several earlier ideas now seems under way. However, the point of the loose political link between Constantinople and these two ‘Barbary States’ seems fairly well established.

Page 57 note 4 There is no study on modern Islamic reformism in North Africa, but this subject is given some consideration in almost all works on modern North African nationalism. Cf. especially Julien, Charles André, L'Afrique du nord en marche (Paris, 1953),Google Scholar and Le Tourneau, Roger, Evolution politique de l'Afrique du nord musulmane, 1920–1961 (Paris, 1962),Google Scholar and the useful bibliographies in these two books.

Page 58 note 1 E.g. Al Muntqid (‘The Critic’), the early weekly Al Shihab (‘The Meteor’), and Al Islah (‘Reform’).

Page 61 note 1 In addition to the books by Julien and Le Tourneau already cited, see Micaud, C. A., with Brown, L. C. and Moore, C. H., Tunisia: the politics of modernzation (New York, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 62 note 1 Bousquet, Georges, ‘Inscriptions funéraires en français sur des tombes musulmanes,’ in Revue africaine (Algiers), LXXXVIII, 3–4, 1944.Google Scholar

Page 62 note 2 Cited in Le Tourneau, op. cit.

Page 63 note 1 Al Shihab, April 1963.