Summary

This volume is rich in historic surprises about the fortunes of Islam in Africa's experience. Islam first arrived in Africa while the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of the religion, was still alive. Ethiopia provided asylum to early Arab Muslims on the run from persecution by fellow Arabs in pre-Islamic Mecca. Today Nigeria has more Muslims than any Arab country, including Egypt. This volume explores not just Islam's impact upon Africa but also Africa's impact on Muslim history. The book explores the revival of ancient Muslim rituals, and the politicisation and radicalisation of Islam in both colonial and pre-colonial Africa. Is Islam compatible with democracy? Can African Islam peacefully coexist with Christianity? How has Islam in Africa influenced architecture, literature, race relations, gender relations, and cultural interpenetrations between Arabs and Black Africans? In this era of globalisation is Islam a positive vanguard force or a trigger for parochialism and backward-looking nostalgia? In this era of terrorism and counter-terrorism can Islam be mobilised as a force for stability or has the religion been irretrievably hijacked by its own worst radicals? This volume does not try to answer all the questions, but it helps to lay the basic groundwork for understanding Islam much better in this new age.