Imamate

Abstract: The tradition of religious revolution directed against partially Muslim rulers is traced to the religious reform movement among the zwāya of Mauritania in the 1660s, and to the jihad that brought them briefly into control of Futa Toro, Cayor, Walo, and Jolof in the 1670s. In spite of the reconquest of these states by their secular rulers and the re-establishment of Hassānī control in southwestern Mauritania, the tradition of religious revolt and the aim of establishing an imamate under religious leadership lived on, to reappear in other Fulbe states. It came a generation later, with the jihad of Malik Sy in Bundu during the 1690s, and direct connexions can be traced between the leadership in Bundu and the leadership in the later jihad in Futa Jallon. The jihad in Futa the 1770s and 1780s followed in the same tradition. This evidence suggests that the external influence of the mid-eighteenth-century revival of Islam in Arabia and the Middle East has been overemphasized in West African religious history. Forces working for the reform of Islam based in Africa itself were already at work.

Abstract: 1. Charismatic authority: the Qasimi Imamate in the seventeenth century 2. Becoming a dynasty: the Qasimimi Imamate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 3. The absolute interpreter and 'Renewer' of the thirteenth century H 4. The triumph of Sunni traditionism and the re-ordering of Yemeni society 5. Clashing with the Zaydis: the question of cursing the Prophet's Companions (sabb al-sahaba) 6. Riots in Sanaa: the response of the strict Hadawis 7. Shawkani's legacy.

Abstract: Part I. Geopolitical Structures: 1. Regional identity 2. Regional divisions I: Muscat and Oman 3. Regional divisions II: core and periphery Part II. Tribal Structures: 4. Clan patterns: lore or law? 5. Property, territory and shaikhs 6. Territory and tribal state formation Part III. Imamate Structures: 7. The Imamate community 8. Laws of the community 9. Tribe, state and dynasties: a historical overview 10. The Al Bu Said and the Ibadi renaissance Part IV. The Twentieth Century Imamate: 11. The traditional opening: the Imamate restored 12. The oil game 13. The end game: the overthrow of the Imamate 14. Conclusion: the spoilt game.

Abstract: In this book, Dr. Jafri has reconstructed and presented the development of an Islamic ideal in the form of Shi'ism that of a particular vision of religious leadership which derives its authority directly from the person of the Prophet, and which therefore enjoys divine sanction in deciding all issues of conscience. He traces the Shi'a response to this ideal, from its origins among a group of the Prophet's Companions until the Imamate of Ja'far as-Sadiq, by which time all the fundamental elements of Shi'ism had appeared.