![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
This article revisits aspects of knowledge transmission within the 20th century Islamic scholarly community in Zanzibar. It particularly adresses the rituals and texts connected to death and commemoration, and views these as mechanisms for knowledge transmission. Finally, the article discusses the transition of these texts into the realm of cultural heritage, and discusses how this affects knowledge transmission.
Notes
1. See instead An-nuur, March 9–15, 2012, or Bang 2012.
2. On the life of Aḥmad b. Sumayṭ (1861–1925), see Bang Citation2003.
3. Burhān Mkelle (18841949) was a poet, teacher and intellectual of Comorian origin and the author of textbooks for teaching Arabic in the Zanzibar Government Schools. He was also the author of several works, most of which remain unpublished. On his life, see Bang Citation2007, Citation2010, Citation2011; Loimeier Citation2009, 582; Farsy Citation1989], 168–170.
4. Burhāniyāt. Collected poems by Burhān Mkelle, in his own hand. Undated, bound manuscript in the possession of the late Maalim Idris Muhammad Saleh. The elegy for Aḥmad b. Sumayṭ consists of 35 lines on pages 56–57.
5. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Jamal al-Layl (1885–1959) was born in Madagascar, but came to Zanzibar as a child. There, he studied with the scholars of the city, mastering fiqh, but excelling particularly in the Arabic language and poetry. He then started teaching in various mosques as well as in his home. Interestingly, he also started teaching in the Zanzibar Government Schools (opened in 1905), and he is stated to have been the one to recruit Burhān Mkelle and the Egyptian teacher Shaykh ʿAbd al-Bārī. The image of a “public intellectual” is projected also by his other activities: He was among the founding members of the Jamʿiyyat al-Sunna established in Zanzibar in 1927, which was a daʿwa (missionary)-oriented society promoting Islamic learning both on the Tanganyika mainland and in Mozambique (Farsy Citation1989, 164–166; Loimeier Citation2009, 575). See also obituary printed in Mwongozi, August 14, 1959).
6. Some years before his death (the poem is undated), Abū al-Ḥasan had written a more general lament, this time on the changing nature of Zanzibari society, on the emergence of a Westernised modernity and on the loss of “culture.” Echoing the voice of older men from all times and all cultures (from Socrates to Churchill), the poem bemoans the decline of ethics and morals among Zanzibar youth. They wear the Egyptian tarbush, walk in public with their wives, eat with knives and forks, and watch football. They even go to the movies. In a final plea, the poet begs God to rectify the situation (Jamal al-Layl n.d., 37).
7. The printed diwān of Abū ʾl-Ḥasan has no date. However, judging by its binding and font, it is likely to have been published some time in the 1980s or even 1990s.
8. Sumayṭ, ʿUmar b. Aḥmad b. Al-nafḥat al-shadhiyya ilā al-diyār al-Ḥaḍramiyya wa-talbiyyat al-sawt min al-Ḥijāz wa Ḥaḍramawt. Privately printed Tarim/Aden (?) 1955. Second, revised and annotated edition, privately printed, Jiddah, 1988. The 1955 publication has the ijāza reproduced on page 129 onwards. The 1988 edition has the ijāza reproduced on page 112 onwards.
9. This passage marks the end of the ijāza and the beginning of the more personal waṣiyya from father to son.
10. al-Ḥibshī, ʿAydarūs b. ʿUmar, no date.
11. Sumayṭ, Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr b. 1332/1913/14.
12. On the concept of yaqīn, see Hoffman Citation1995, 221–222. Yaqīn is often understood as almost synonymous to kashf the “illumination” or “unveiling” that is the ultimate goal of the Sufi’s journey. The term itself refers to the Sufi’s ability to see and experience “with certainty” the power and unity of God, and to the peace which follows such spiritual insight. One definition, quoted by Hoffman, gives yaqīn as the unveiling of “the secrets of the unseen and the signs of God and of God’s power and wisdom, making the heart tranquil, untroubled by any doubts...”
13. Al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn.
14. Supplement to the Zanzibar Gazette, May 11, 1925.
15. Interview with Maalim Idris, October 2011. Taped, 26 minutes. In the possession of A. K. Bang.
16. Ally Saleh, SMZ ipanie kuanzisha makumbosho ya Kiislamu, March 14, 2012. http://www.mzalendo.net/habari/smz-ipanie-kuanzisha-makumbusho-ya-kiislamu.