Islam in Africa

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Islam in Africa

Introduction

Africans are among the first group of people who accepted the new religion brought by Prophet Muhammad. It is said that when Bilal the Ethiopian, one of the most legendary and revered Muslim, first heard about Islam, I call the "old religion." The call to prayer that resonates today in the Muslim lands was first broadcast by African voice (that of Bilal). The Afro-Arab-Persian African's who for centuries traded with the Arabs since the eighth century. The Swahili culture is both the result of interbreeding and the Islamization of the region. Islam became a constant feature of Africa when, in 612, Prophet Muhammad (PYB) sent a first group of Muslims to Ethiopia to receive protection of the Negus against the persecution of the Arabs. Thus, Islam spread to Africa even before it did for Medina.

It is important to note that while generally, Islam spread through Africa in a peaceful manner; it also had to win some battles, wars riddah to force the Arabs to remain faithful to Islam. Muslims of African origin sailed westward from the Spanish port of Delba (Palos), deep into the "ocean of darkness and fog”. After a long absence, returned with much booty from a "strange and curious land. Recent linguistic research, cultural, and archaeological carried out in Brazil and Peru provides documentary evidence that West African Mandinka Muslims have explored the pre-Columbian America.Discussion

Islam spread through West Africa from the hand of African traders and Fulani people, from as early as the eighth century, and was already firmly established in the eleventh century. African indigenous, religions also had much in common with Islam, such as animal sacrifice, communal prayer, respect for ancestors, circumcision, polygamy, dowry gifts of the bride and the world spirits. In Africa, the world of spirits and Tsar Boris served as a bridge to the Islamic world of gins, who like the African spirits; they could be friends or enemies.

Another example in relation to it that shows how Islam has definitely helped in shaping and impacting the African cultures as exclusively the African culture and African traditional Sufi Islam in Africa was shaped over the centuries through Islam. The beliefs of having gins were initially not evident in the African culture but after Islam starting spreading this belief was adopted by Africa. Another prime example of how process of Islamization in African culture and Africanization of Islamic traditions affect each other can be derived from the fact that how Africans adopted certain standard of Islamic trade in their business especially adopted by Ethiopia. 

This occurred after a few Arabs and Berbers came in to some notable black kings and then spread Islam in a peaceful manner among those under their jurisdiction. The African started implementing the religion of Islam's rules and standards for norms such as trade of gold, merchandise. When Islam proliferated in Africa around the ninth century, one of the first universities was founded by African Muslims. Sankoré called and was built in Timbuktu. Arabs and others came to Sankoré to learn from African scholars lectured on Islamic belief and jurisprudence, astrology, science and other subjects. Timbuktu was known for his erudition, and there were booksellers for the wealthiest elite to consider among the group of traders. Hence both of them were affected by each other. (Cambridge University Press, page 150)

Further example with respect to how process of Islamization in African culture and Africanization of Islamic ...