Enslaved Muslim Sufi Saints in the Nineteenth-Century Sahara: The Life of Bilal Ould Mahmoud

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Khaled Esseissah
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
Sufi Order

Abstract This article centers on the life of Bilal Ould Mahmoud, an enslaved man who became a spiritual authority in the nineteenth-century Sahara. It examines how Bilal's piety allowed him to rise to prominence in a hierarchical context that subjugated him to an inferior position. Yet what makes him so fascinating to study is his ability to achieve the highest station as a Sufi saint without being attached to a Sufi order. Using Bilal's case, this article makes two important contributions to the historiographies of Sufism and slavery. First, it brings fresh perspectives to the studies of Sufism outside of ṭarīqa (Sufi orders). Second, it contributes to the studies of Saharan slavery by exploring enslaved Muslims’ experiences beyond the practice of illicit magic, and also as part of how they exercised their saintly authority as empowered agents. In the process, it analyzes the interplay among Islam, race, and slavery in the nineteenth-century Sahara.

The Controversial Ecstasy of Sor María Teresa Aycinena

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Spiritual Authority

Chapter 5 explores the devotion and controversy surrounding Sor María Teresa Aycinena, a Carmelite nun, who in 1816 in the midst of the Independence wars, reportedly began to experience the stigmata, visions, mystical crucifixions, and miraculous images formed with the blood of her wounds. The powerful archbishop, priests, and lay devotees, many of them women, supported the Carmelite nun as a holy woman, but her divine revelations fueled controversy and political conflicts. Modern scholars treat the case only in passing, accepting the liberal nineteenth-century view that Sor María Teresa and her lay devotees were conservative political pawns. This case certainly highlights the early politicization of networks between priests and laywomen, but it also reveals how religious motivations significantly shaped clerical support of the mystic nun, while the Church’s weakened position created openings for assertive female claims to spiritual authority and a renewal of devotions long popular with laywomen.

Roman Catholic Polemicists, Russian Orthodox Publicists, and the Tsar-Pope Myth in France, 1842–1862

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-285
Author(s):  
Heather Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
National Unification

Abstract In the mid-nineteenth century it was typical for French Roman Catholic publicists to allege that the tsar was the supreme head or “pope” of the Russian Church and that consequently, the Russian Church was completely enslaved to the state. While this idea was largely created by Catholic publicists, some Russian Orthodox individuals contributed intentionally or unintentionally to exaggerated notions of the Russian emperor’s spiritual authority, demonstrating that the Orthodox publicists who wanted to defend Russian interests did not always agree about what those interests really were or about how best to defend them. Following Italy’s national unification (1859–1860), French public figures used these narratives about the Russian tsar-pope to promote specific policies towards Rome and the papacy. For French Roman Catholic publicists, the tsar-pope myth proved that it was vital to preserve unity between the French Church and Rome and to defend the papacy’s temporal power as a guarantor of the Roman Catholic Church’s independence.

A Brief History of Indigenous Religious Authority in Mexico, 1519–1900

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-25
Author(s):  
Elisa Eastwood Pulido
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Indigenous Identity ◽  
Catholic Clergy ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spiritual Voice

This brief history of indigenous spiritual authority in Mexico begins in 1513 with the arrival of the Spaniards and includes the argument that the conquest of Mexico resulted in the loss of indigenous spiritual authority through the defrocking of the Aztec priests and four centuries of indigenous exclusion from the Catholic clergy. The chapter contextualizes the search for indigenous identity and spiritual voice by recounting native responses to religious subjugation, including Indian rebellions, native prophets, bloody conflicts, and combinative religious practices through the nineteenth century. The arrival of Protestant and Mormon missionaries after the Civil War offered indigenous Mexican converts new avenues to ordination, education, and the development of leadership skills.

Religious Culture Contested: The Sufi Ritual of Dawsa in Nineteenth-Century Cairo

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meir Hatina
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Government Official ◽  
Muslim Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sufi Order ◽  
Modern Era

AbstractWith the entry of Muslim society into the modern era in the nineteenth century, Sufi beliefs and rituals became the focus of systematic debate and denunciation by local and foreign observers alike. An illuminating example is the dawsa ritual—a ceremony involving the shaykh of the Sa'diyya order riding his horse over the backs of his prostrate disciple s, which was particularly widespread in the Cairene milieu. This practice, intended to prove that true believers are protected from all harm, was officially abolished in 1881 in the name of enlightenment and human dignity. The present article traces the history of the dawsa and, more broadly, sheds light on the Sufi encounter with the challenges of modernity. It reveals a diverse picture of the anti-Sufi campaign carried out by various elements in Egypt—foreign consul s, government official s, modernists and nationalists—which resulted in a loss of influence by Sufi order s, yet fostered a capacity for survival and ideological rejuvenation.

‘The Chronicle of the Succession’: an Important Document for the Umarian State

1990 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Arabic Text ◽  
Spiritual Authority

The Arabic text which is translated here describes a ceremony in which al-ḥājj Umar Tal, founder of a jihād and state in the Western Sudan in the mid-nineteenth century, sought to transmit his temporal and spiritual authority to his oldest son, Ahmad al-Kabīr. The ceremony occurred in 1860, just as the Umarian armies were about to embark upon a campaign against the ‘pagan’ Bambara kingdom of Segu. While the transfer of power to Aḥmad is very clearly stated in the text, the ceremony did not resolve the issue nor the conflict among the sons of Umar, which continued until the French conquest at the end of the century. The explanation for the continuing conflict lies partly in the loose structure of the original Umarian jihād against ‘paganism’ and partly in divisions among the faithful over the jihād against alleged ‘apostasy’ which Umar undertook at the end of his life against the Muslim Fulbe of Masina. The text also shows the close links between the Umarian movement and the Tijaniyya order and the ways in which important political statements can be couched in Sufi language.

scholarly journals The Rise of the Ni‘matullāhī Order. Shi'ite Sufi Masters against Islamic Fundamentalism in 19th-Century Persia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Tabandeh
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Large Mass ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Revival Movement ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
Sufi Order

How were the Ni‘matullāhī masters successful in reviving Ni‘matullāhī Sufism in Shi‘ite Persia? This book investigates the revival of Ni‘matullāhī Sufi order after the death of the last Indian Ni‘matullāhī master, Riḍā ‘Alī Shāh (d. 1214/1799) in the Deccan. After the fall of Safavids, the revival movement of the Ni‘matullāhī order began with the arrival in Persia of the enthusiastic Indian Sufi master, Ma‘ṣūm ‘Alī Shāh, during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Later, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Persian masters of the Ni‘matullāhī Order were able to solidify the order’s place in the mystical and theological milieu of Persia. Ma‘ṣūm ‘Alī Shāh and his disciples soon spread their mystical and ecstatic beliefs all over Persia. They succeeded in converting a large mass of Persians to Sufi teachings, despite the opposition and persecution they faced from Shi‘ite clerics, who were politically and socially the most influential class in Persia. The book demonstrates that Ḥusayn ‘Alī Shāh, Majdhūb ‘Alī Shāh, and Mast ‘Alī Shāh were able to consolidate the social and theological role of the Ni‘matullāhī order by reinterpreting and articulating classical Sufi teachings in the light of Persian Shi‎‘ite mystical theology.

scholarly journals Between Heterodox and Sunni Orthodox Islam: The Bektaşi Order in the Nineteenth Century and Its Opponents

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-218
Author(s):  
Butrus Abu-Manneh
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sufi Order ◽  
The One ◽  
High Level

In the first quarter of the nineteenth century Ottoman society, especially in cities suffered from a dichotomy. On the one hand there existed for several centuries the Bektaşi which was heterodox order. But in the eighteenth century there started to expand from India a new sufi order: the Naqshbandi – Mujaddidi order known to have been a shari’a minded and highly orthodox order. The result was a dichotomy between religious trends the clash between which reached a high level in 1826. Following the destruction of the janissaries, the Bektaşi order lost its traditional protector and few weeks later was abolished. But a generation later it started to experience a beginning of a revival and by the mid 1860s it started to practice unhindered. But after the rise of Sultan Abdülhamid ii (in 1876) the Bektaşis were again forced to practice clandestinely. However, they supported Mustafa Kemal in the national struggle.

Literature on Church History, 1914–1920. IV. The Church in Modern Times (Part Two: The Nineteenth Century and the Beginnings of the Twentieth)

1925 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-185
Author(s):  
Gustav Krüger
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church History ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Italian Law ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

The so-called Roman question — that is, the question whether the situation caused by the Italian occupation of Rome in 1870, whereby the Pope was deprived of his territorial possessions, is compatible with the freedom required for the exercise of his high office by the head of the Catholic Church — was a matter of deep concern, in particular to German Catholics, during the World War. It was hoped in all seriousness that the victory of the Central Powers would bring about a positive solution to this question and restore the political independence of the Pope. Such works, among others, as those of Hoeber and Sägmüller, and especially Bastgen's three thick volumes, bear witness to this feeling. But the last-named work is a disappointment. The author has, to be sure, assembled a vast amount of material in contemporary documents, covering the whole period from the rise of the Papal temporal power until to-day. He is also to be commended for devoting but few pages to the period before the French Revolution and laying his main stress on the restoration of the Papal State in the nineteenth century and its development down to the present, so that the second half of the second volume is entirely devoted to the years of the World War. But he has been criticized on all hands for giving his documents and extracts from periodicals and newspapers with no such fullness as the size of his work and his own announcements gave reason to expect. He has also taken his task too easily — for instance, merely copying out the articles of the “Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung” (important as that organ is for ecclesiastical questions), instead of going to original sources or citing other journals, as he ought to have done. And his reproduction of the material does not conform to the standards of scholarship. Taking the work, however, for what it is, it is not to be denied that, especially in the last parts, it brings together a great deal that cannot be so conveniently found elsewhere; and in spite of the defects named the book is well worth buying and deserves a place in every considerable library. — That the problem of the status of the Pope in international law has also been under consideration by the Catholics of Holland, is shown by Schneider's discussion. He views the temporal sovereignty of the Pope as inseparable from his spiritual authority; and consequently sees in the Italian law of guaranty a mere act of violence, and in the exclusion of the Pope from the Peace Conference and the League of Nations not only a gross injustice but a bad blunder.

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