REL 305. Black Skin, Divine Realities? Exploring Islam in Africa

Credits 3.00 PeopleSoft Course ID 014675 Grading Basis GRD

Legal savants and Sufi sages, jinn wranglers and revolutionaries, African Muslims past and present have developed rich traditions of religious learning, community and practice. This course will explore a few of these traditions, focusing primarily on Islam in sub-Saharan Africa from the medieval period to today. Through a critical attention to both primary and secondary sources, a plurality of African Muslim perspectives will be analyzed while grappling with the thorny theoretical questions they provoke (e.g., Can we speak of a distinctly African Islam? If so, what do we mean? And what are the stakes of asking this question?)