Embodying the Mahdi: Islamic Messianism and the Body in Colonial Senegal
This study explores modern Islamic messianism as a mode of tajdid, or religious renewal, during the colonial era. It analyzes the case of a nineteenth-century religious movement among the Lebou people of the Cap-Vert peninsula in French West Africa, now Senegal, known as the Layene Brotherhood (La C...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
The Pennsylvania State University Press
[2020]
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In: |
Journal of Africana religions
Year: 2020, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 37-61 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Laye, Seydina Mouhamadou Limâmou 1845-1909
/ Layennes
/ Mahdi
/ Bodiliness
/ Colonialism
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RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BJ Islam FD Contextual theology KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KCD Hagiography; saints NBF Christology NBK Soteriology TJ Modern history |
Further subjects: | B
Messianism
B Islam B Senegal B Colonialism B Body |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | This study explores modern Islamic messianism as a mode of tajdid, or religious renewal, during the colonial era. It analyzes the case of a nineteenth-century religious movement among the Lebou people of the Cap-Vert peninsula in French West Africa, now Senegal, known as the Layene Brotherhood (La Confrérie Layenne). The sect began when Libasse Thiaw (d. 1909), known as Mouhammadou Limamou Laye, proclaimed himself the awaited Mahdi, and his eldest son, Issa Thiaw (d. 1949), the second coming of Jesus. Most distinctively, Thiaw taught that he was the reincarnation of the Prophet Muhammad—the Black African embodiment of his soul. Through embodiment, Thiaw elided existing epistemological conflicts in modern Islam and asserted prophetic authority. In the process, he accelerated the process of tajdid for his community and nullified his lack of scholarly or ancestral credentials to join the revered ranks of the marabouts of Senegal. |
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ISSN: | 2165-5413 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Africana religions
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.8.1.0037 |