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Zekeria Ahmed Salem, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa, Northwestern University presents his research titled, “Beyond Shinqit: How a Saharan Islamic tradition went global (19th-21st century)” on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at the Africa Hall, Sharjah.

Professor Salem investigates how Mauritania has become in less than two centuries a label of excellence in Islamic knowledge and religious authority with an astonishing global reach. Set in the longue durée (19th-21st century), his research examines the outsized influence of Mauritanian Islamic scholars (‘ulama), religious texts and institutions of learning to document transnational flows of ideas and people and subsequently the ways in which the so-called Muslim/Arab peripheries assert their intellectual and spiritual relevance over time.

“The ubiquity of Mauritanian Islamic scholars in global circuits of Islamic authority is no longer going unnoticed,” shares Professor Salem, who is also a Humanities Research Senior Fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi.

Shinqiti scholarly influence reached unprecedented levels in the second half of the nineteenth century as its scholars increasingly moved around the Muslim world.

Known in the Middle East simply as Bilād Shinqīṭ, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is often portrayed today as a major centre of classical Islamic learning supposedly untouched by modernity. Today, Mauritanian scholars are known throughout the Muslim world and beyond for their mastery of the main components of classical Islamic knowledge such as memorization of classical Islamic texts, mastery of the Arabic language, especially poetry, and Sunni jurisprudence. Despite their modest demography and the negligible weight of their country, Shinqīṭī/Mauritanian scholars have been able to ensure a continuing regional and global presence through mobility, global outreach, high productivity, and connectivity. The Shinqīṭi/Mauritanian label and nisba empowered generations of self-styled Shinqīṭi-educated individuals and, more recently, contributed to attracting students from all over the world to Bilād-Shinqīṭ/Mauritania in search of a traditional form of Islamic knowledge.

The faculty seminar was moderated by Professor Abdourahmane Idrissa, Senior Researcher, African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Netherlands and Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow at The Africa Institute, Sharjah.

Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.

Zekeria Ahmed Salem, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa, Northwestern University presents his research titled, “Beyond Shinqit: How a Saharan Islamic tradition went global (19th-21st century)” on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at the Africa Hall, Sharjah.

Zekeria Ahmed Salem, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa, Northwestern University presents his research titled, “Beyond Shinqit: How a Saharan Islamic tradition went global (19th-21st century)” on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at the Africa Hall, Sharjah.

Professor Salem investigates how Mauritania has become in less than two centuries a label of excellence in Islamic knowledge and religious authority with an astonishing global reach. Set in the longue durée (19th-21st century), his research examines the outsized influence of Mauritanian Islamic scholars (‘ulama), religious texts and institutions of learning to document transnational flows of ideas and people and subsequently the ways in which the so-called Muslim/Arab peripheries assert their intellectual and spiritual relevance over time.

“The ubiquity of Mauritanian Islamic scholars in global circuits of Islamic authority is no longer going unnoticed,” shares Professor Salem, who is also a Humanities Research Senior Fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi.

Shinqiti scholarly influence reached unprecedented levels in the second half of the nineteenth century as its scholars increasingly moved around the Muslim world.

Known in the Middle East simply as Bilād Shinqīṭ, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is often portrayed today as a major centre of classical Islamic learning supposedly untouched by modernity. Today, Mauritanian scholars are known throughout the Muslim world and beyond for their mastery of the main components of classical Islamic knowledge such as memorization of classical Islamic texts, mastery of the Arabic language, especially poetry, and Sunni jurisprudence. Despite their modest demography and the negligible weight of their country, Shinqīṭī/Mauritanian scholars have been able to ensure a continuing regional and global presence through mobility, global outreach, high productivity, and connectivity. The Shinqīṭi/Mauritanian label and nisba empowered generations of self-styled Shinqīṭi-educated individuals and, more recently, contributed to attracting students from all over the world to Bilād-Shinqīṭ/Mauritania in search of a traditional form of Islamic knowledge.

The faculty seminar was moderated by Professor Abdourahmane Idrissa, Senior Researcher, African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Netherlands and Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow at The Africa Institute, Sharjah.

Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.

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