Islam and the Prayer Economy: History and Authority in a Malian Town

by Benjamin F. Soares

At a time when so-called fundamentalism has become the privileged analytical frame for understanding Muslim societies past and present, this study offers another way of looking at Islam. In an innovative combination of anthropology, history, and social theory, Benjamin Soares explores Islam and Muslim practice in an important Islamic religious centre in West Africa from the late nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on extensive ethnography, archival research, and written sources, he provides a richly detailed discussion of Muslim religious practice―Sufism, Islamic reform, and other contemporary ways of being Muslim in western Mali and more broadly in the country. This book provides a major contribution to the study of Islam in Africa and will be welcomed by scholars and students in history, religion, and the social sciences, particularly those interested in anthropology, Islam, colonialism and the public sphere. Benjamin F. Soares is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the African Studies Center in Leiden, The Netherlands. He is the co-editor of Islam, Transnationalism, and the Public Sphere in Western Europe and the editor of Muslim/Christian Encounters in Africa .

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2005

Reviews

[Trey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adept historical ethnography of the Hammadiyya, Tijaniyya, and Reformist movements in Nioro de Sahel, Mali. Although indebted to Weber's concept of Charisma and religious authority, Soares focus primarily on the relationship between prayers/benefactions and commodities. Ultimately, I now realize why Greg always told me there are more Mercedes-Benz sedans per capita in Nioro than in the rest of West Africa...

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history of Nioro, a town in Western Mali near the border on Mauritania, the religious leader Hassane, used to illustrate the prayer economy.