Paths Of Accommodation: Muslim Societies & French Colonial Authorities (Western African Studies) [Paperback]

David Robinson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 377 pages
• Publisher: Ohio University Press; 1 edition (December 31, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821413546
• ISBN-13: 978-0821413548
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,688,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Senegal Mauritania Muslim Socieities 1880-1920, December 3, 2009

By 

William Garrison Jr. (Bellevue, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paths Of Accommodation: Muslim Societies & French Colonial Authorities (Western African Studies) (Hardcover)

(From another's review): Between 1880 and 1920, Muslim Sufi orders became pillars of the colonial regimes and economies of Senegal and Mauritania. In this 361-page, 2000 paperback book, author David Robinson examines the ways in which the leaders of the orders negotiated relations with the Federation of French West Africa in order to preserve autonomy within the religious, social, and economic realms while abandoning the political sphere to their non-Muslim rulers. This was a striking development because the local inhabitants had a strong sense of belonging to the Dar al-Islam, the "world of Islam" in which Muslims ruled themselves. Drawing from a wide variety of archival, oral, and Arabic sources, Robinson describes the important roles played by Muslim merchants and the mulatto community of St. Louis, Senegal. He also examines the impact of the electoral institutions established by the Third Republic, and the French effort to develop a reputation as a "Muslim power"--a European imperial nation with a capacity for ruling over Islamic subjects. By charting the similarities and differences of the trajectories followed by leading groups within the region as they responded to the colonial regimes, Robinson provides an understanding of the relationship between knowledge and power, the concepts of civil society and hegemony, and the transferability of symbolic, economic, and social capital. Topics covered include: Part 1 - The Framework: Space, time, and structure. Part 2 - Bases of Accommodation: Sources, discourses, and mediators of knowledge; Conquest and colonial rule; France as a "Muslim Power"; Civil society: Saint-Louis in the French imperial sphere; The sons of Ndar: The Muslim merchants of Saint-Louis. Part 3 - Patterns of Accommodation; The obstacles to accommodation for the Umarians; Saad Buh and the Fadiliyya way; Sidiyya Baba: Co-architect of Colonial Mauritania; Malik Sy: Teacher in the New Colonial Order; Amadu Bamba: A complex path to accommodation.