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Islam in Hausaland: scholars, scripts and brotherhoods
Islam came to Hausaland slowly, by merchants and books rather than by armies, and it shaped the way Hausa people write, teach, govern and name their children.
Quiet teachers with chalk boards and wooden slates, poets writing in Arabic letters, and brotherhoods that gather at night to chant: this chapter explores how Islam became part of Hausa life and how the Hausa made it their own.
In this chapter
01How Islam arrived
Merchants, Wangara scholars and a king who asked for advice on government.
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02The mallams: teachers, judges and healers
Teachers, judges, writers of amulets and healers: what a malam does all day.
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03Ajami and Boko: two ways of writing Hausa
Arabic letters for Hausa words, then a Latin alphabet: the story of two scripts.
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04Sufi brotherhoods and reform movements
Qadiriyya, Tijaniyya, Izala and the long conversation about how to be Muslim.
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