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Publication Date

2025-5

First Advisor

Joshua Birk

Second Advisor

Suleiman Mourad

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Medieval Studies

Keywords

Islam, Africa, trans-regional history, knowledge, devotion, baraka

Abstract

This study reconsiders the conventional notions of “center” and “periphery” in the medieval Islamic world, which often give normative authority to the Arabo-Persian region while considering sub-Saharan Africa to be intellectually marginal. I highlight the agency of the sub-Saharan “periphery” by reconstructing the travel itinerary of Aḥmad Bābā al-Tinbuktī’s father, Aḥmad b. al-ḥājj Aḥmad (1522-1583). He sought knowledge and performed pilgrimage in Egypt and Hijaz around 1549. In his journey, Aḥmad b. al-ḥājj Aḥmad leveraged the long-established connections among West Africa, the Maghrib, and the Mashriq. His itinerary also reflects the intellectual and spiritual context of West Africa, particularly in the century leading up to his travel. I draw evidence from Aḥmad Bābā’s biographical dictionary Nayl al-ibtihāj and the Timbuktu historian ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī’s chronicle Tārīkh al-Sūdān, and I put these two West African sources in dialogue with Maghribi and Egyptian sources. By doing so, I demonstrate three intersecting forces that animated trans-regional intellectual exchange: knowledge, devotion, and baraka (“blessing”). I discuss Aḥmad b. al-ḥājj Aḥmad’s participation in the multi-vectored network of Maliki scholarship revolving around Cairo, his exploration of Sufi devotion in Mecca and Medina, and his pivotal role in sustaining intergenerational connections between West Africa and Egypt through the baraka he obtained from the saint Sīdī Muḥammad al-Bakrī (1524-1586).

Rights

©2025 Terra Yuqian Zhang. Access limited to the Smith College community and other researchers while on campus. Smith College community members also may access from off-campus using a Smith College log-in. Other off-campus researchers may request a copy through Interlibrary Loan for personal use.

Language

English

Comments

vi, 104 pages. Includes bibliographical references (pages 91-104).

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