46121

by Kim Searcy

Boston, Mass. Leiden Brill

vi, 165 p. : ill., map ; 25 cm

Islam in Africa

This book is the first analysis of the Sudanese Mahdiyya from a socio-political perspective that treats how relationships of authority were enunciated through symbol an​d ceremony. The book focuses on how the Mahdi an​d his second-in-command an​d ultimate successor, the Khalifa Abdallahi, used symbols, ceremony an​d ritual to articulate their power, authority an​d legitimacy first within the context of resistance to the imperial Turco-Egyptian forces that had been occupying the Nilotic Sudan since 1821, an​d then within the context of establishing an Islamic state. This study examines five key elements from a historical perspective: the importance of Islamic mysticism as manifested in Sufi brotherhoods in the articulation of power in the Sudan; ceremony as handmaids of power an​d legitimacy; charismatic leadership; the routinization of charisma an​d the formation of a religious state purportedly based upon the first Islamic community in the seventh century C.E. , Includes bibliographical references (p. [153]-155) an​d index.

DT

156.5

.S43

2011

9789004185999

2010041727