Islamization and Arabization of Africa

INTRODUCTION

Islam is a religion inseparable from trade, which by means of its trade have travelled far and near, around the globe transmitting its religion and culture to the people it encounters. Africa is not an exemption. In this paper, we shall discuss Islamization and Arabization with its impact in Africa. To achieve this, we shall discuss in details who an Arab is, the term Arabization, Islam, Islamization, history of Islam in Africa, Islamization and Arabization of Africa, the African reform movements, and finally the impact of Islam in Africa.

WHO IS AN ARAB

Genealogically an Arab is someone who can trace his or her ancestry to the original inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Desert (tribes of Arabia). Arabs are a major panethnic group whose native language is Arabic, comprising the majority of the Arab world. They primarily inhabit Western Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. Before the spread of Islam, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic tribes inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula.

In modern usage An Arab is someone whose first language, and by extension cultural expression, is Arabic, including any of its varieties.

Arab is not a race, some have blue eyes and red hair; others are dark skinned; many are somewhere in between. Arabs are united by culture and by history. Most Arabs are Muslims but there are also millions of Christian Arabs and thousands of Jewish Arabs, just as there are Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Americans.[1]

Arab World consists of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, this include: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Iran and Turkey are not Arab countries and their primary languages are Farsi and Turkish respectively. There are over 300 million Arabs.[2] It is equally good to note that there are pure Arabs and Arabized Arab.

Arabization

According to the Webstar dictionary, Arabization comes from the verb Arabize. It means to cause to acquire Arabic customs, manner, speech or outlook. It also involves the modifying of a population by intermarriage with Arabs.

It could also be seen as a growing Arab influence on non-Arab populations. These processes metamorphose or trigger a new approach in a gradual adoption of Arabic language and or incorporation of Arab culture and Arab identity.[3]

Islam

In a more specific way, the word Islam is derived from the Arabic word Salam which means ‘Peace’.[4] But in the real sense of it, it means submission. The word Muslim means “one who submits to Allah.”[5]

Islamic religion was begun in the seventh century by prophet Muhammad(saw).[6]  Followers of Islam, known as Muslims, believe that Allah revealed his direct word for mankind to prophet Muhammad (saw) and other prophets, including Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims follow the teachings of the Qur’an and strive to keep the Five Pillars of Islam. they assert that the main written record of revelation to mankind is the Qur'an, which they believe to be flawless, immutable and the final revelation of God.[7]

The fundamental concept in Islam is the oneness of God (tawhid). This monotheism is absolute, not relative or pluralistic in any sense of the word. Allah is described in Sura al-Ikhlas, (chapter 112) as follows: Say "He is God, the one, the Self-Sufficient master. He never begot, nor was begotten. There is none comparable to Him."[8]

The doctrine of Islam can be summarized in 6 articles of faith

1.      Belief in one Allah: the one and only one worthy of all worship.[9] Muslims believe Allah is one, eternal, creator, and sovereign.

2.      Belief in the angels

3.      Belief in the prophets: The prophets include the biblical prophets but end with Muhammad as Allah’s final prophet.

4.      Belief in the revelations of Allah: Muslims accept certain portions of the Bible, such as the Torah and the Gospels. They believe the Qur'an is the preexistent, perfect word of Allah.

5.      Belief in the last day of judgment and the hereafter: Everyone will be resurrected for judgment into either paradise or hell.

6.      Belief in predestination: Muslims believe Allah has decreed everything that will happen. Muslims testify to Allah’s sovereignty with their frequent phrase, inshallah, meaning, “if God wills.”[10]

The five tenets compose the framework of obedience for Muslims:

1.      The testimony of faith (shahada): “la ilaha illa allah. Muhammad rasul Allah.” This means, “There is no deity but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” A person can convert to Islam by stating this creed. The shahada shows that a Muslim believes in Allah alone as deity and believes that Muhammad reveals Allah.

2.      Prayer (salat): Five ritual prayers must be performed every day.

3.      Giving (zakat): This almsgiving is a certain percentage given once a year.

4.      Fasting (sawm): Muslims fast during Ramadan in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. They must not eat or drink from dawn until sunset.

5.      Pilgrimage (hajj): If physically and financially possible, a Muslim must make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once. The hajj is performed in the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar.[11]

A Muslim's entrance into paradise hinges on obedience to these Five Pillars. Still, Allah may reject them.[12]

Islamize

The term to Islamize means to convert to Islam, thereby conforming to Islamic laws and precept. [13] It can equally mean to convert and bring one under the influence of Islam.[14] Or to bring into a state of harmony or conformity with the principles and teachings of Islam.[15]

History Of Islam In Africa

The presence of Islam in Africa can be traced to the 7th century when Muhammad advised a number of his early disciples, who were facing persecution by the pre-Islamic inhabitants of the Mecca, to seek refuge across the Red Sea in Axum. In the Muslim tradition, this event is known as the first hijrah, or migration. The coastline of The Horn of Africa became the first safe haven for Muslims and the first place Islam would be practiced outside of the Arabian Peninsula. Seven years after the death of Muhammad (in 639 AD), the Arabs advanced toward Africa and within two generations, Islam had expanded across the Horn of Africa and North Africa.[16]

ISLAMIZATION AND ARABIZATION OF AFRICA

In time, teachers and imams relocated to African towns and became responsible for the spread of Islam. The role of the merchant was the introduction of Islam and a precursor of Arabization. It was, however, the scholarly community, the teachers and imams, who became the agents of Islamization. Merchants certainly inspired an intellectual curiosity about Islam, and on return to their homelands, they reported, as mentioned previously, the eagerness of the Africans to learn more about Islam. Typically, local West African rulers embraced Islam first and became the indigenous progenitors of the process of Islamization. Traveling scholars and imams, as long as they posed no threat to the existing socio-political order, completed the process of Islamization in both East and West Africa.[17]

Even as early as the ninth century, slow commercial expansion of Takrur territories found receptive African converts. Among the newly converted, Islam signaled the religion of transactions, literacy, and recording and documentation, all hallmarks of development and progress. Despite tactical religious conversions and the admiration for Islam’s literacy and administrative expertise, religion had little impact in the countryside. Only by the late twelfth century did religious conversions in West Africa accelerate, marked by such conversions as the King of Gao in 1010 and the King of Kanem-Bornu in 1068.[18]

The major means for the spread of Islam in African was through the consolidation of Muslim trading networks. This equally enabled Muslims to wield tremendous political influence and power. During the reign of Umar II, the then governor of Africa, Ismail ibn Abdullah, was said to have won the Berbers to Islam by his just administration. Other early notable missionaries include Abdallah ibn Yasin, who started a movement which caused thousands of Berbers to accept Islam. [19]

Similarly, in the Swahili coast, Islam made its way inland - spreading at the expense of traditional African religions. This expansion of Islam in Africa not only led to the formation of new communities in Africa, but it also reconfigured existing African communities and empires to be based on Islamic models. Indeed, in the middle of the 11th century, the Kanem Empire, whose influence extended into Sudan, converted to Islam. At the same time but more toward West Africa, the reigning ruler of the Bornu Empire embraced Islam. As these kingdoms adopted Islam, their subjects thereafter followed suit. [20]

In the 16th century, the Ouaddai Empire and the Kingdom of Kano embraced Islam, and later toward the 18th century, the Nigeria based Sokoto Caliphate led by Usman dan Fodio exerted considerable effort in spreading Islam. [21]

Merchants were to a certain extent responsible for the spread of Islam in the Sahara, because, it was through their constant peddling of goods from both the Maghreb and the Sudan that they succeeded in impressing upon the Africans the beauty and simplicity of their faith. These merchant, however, were not primarily interested in the propagation of Islam; they came to the south mainly to make money and to buy Gold from one of the ancient empires of Western Sudan such as Ghana through the Middle men. The African goods of gold, olive, horses and camels were exchanged with the Arabian Syrian goods.[22]

It is good to note that Islamization and Arabization did not take place together in Africa, they are quite different and they took a gradual process. In some African countries, only Islamization took place, and in some African countries Islamization and Arabization took place. This include countries like Egypt and the Berbers.

African Reform Movements

Some African countries that accepted Islam at a point started mixing other fetish things which are not Islamic, things like masquerade dance and some traditional practices; Traveling from Andalusia, the fiery al-Maghili warned African chiefs about maintaining a religious duality in the Dar ul-Islam. The sixteenth century began to heed such warnings, and ultimately brought about the era of classic African reform movements in several regions. During the Songhay Empire, Askiya Muhammad initiated severe attacks on villages which tolerated non-Islamic practices, and battles were fought in Kano during the reign of Muhammad Rumfa, related to the famous Sokoto reformist, Uthman don Fodio. In the Bornu Empire, for a brief time Ali Ghaji cleared the way for Islam.[23]

Umar Ibn al-Khattab was adamant about his Arab Bedouin soldiers not disturbing the social order of conquered territories. He ordered his troops to ensure that churches, agriculture, and homes not be destroyed. In Umar’s decentralized form of governance, he sent signals about tolerance and keeping local cultures alive. In West Africa, the indigenous people were not invaded by foreign armies, so traditional customs persisted without a dramatic parting with the past. Through the Mali and the Songhay, the foundation of power depended upon the vibrancy of indigenous practices. By the end of the eighteenth century, classical forms of the new religion overrode the old parity between tradition and Islam, with Muslim reformers now considering a break with the traditional past a necessity demanded by Islam.[24]

The Impact of Islamization and Arabization of Africa.

Africans have benefited immensely from the religion of Islam. Through it, Africans acquired the skill of transactions, recording and documentation, writing and reading Arabic language, literacy etc. and all hallmarks of development and progress.

Islam equally inculcated high moral standards through the Sharia application and created an avenue through which the Africans could exchange commercial, administrative and cultural ideas with their Arabian colonizers.[25]

Islamization and Arabization brought the art of learning, (education) to Africa. The first universities was founded by African Muslims. It was called Sankore, Arabs and others came to Sankore which was built in Timbuktu to learn from the African erudite who lectured on Islamic belief, Islamic jurisprudence, astrology, science, and many other subjects. Timbuktu was reputed for African erudition where books and those who traded in books were the wealthiest elites of the merchant society.[26]

The advent of Islam in Africa was during the era of slave trade, where slaves were treated like animals. With the advent of Islam, Qur'anic legislation brought two major changes to ancient slavery which were: presumption of freedom, and the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly defined circumstances (Lewis).[27]

CONCLUSION

So far, we have been able to discuss the history of Islam and how it came and spread in the African continent by means of trade. it is evident that the Islamization and Arabization of Africa was a gradual process which was achieved peacefully, Unlike the believe people have, that is; seeing Muslims and Arabs on horseback with swords, cutting the head of those who refuse to accept Islam. The fact is just that many African nations accepted Islam for political and practical reasons. And finally, Islam brought learning, development and progress in Africa.

REFERENCE

Amadou Shakur, The History of Islam in Africa, https://www.whyislam.org/muslim-heritage/the-history-of-islam-in-africa/, accessed on 10^th December,2016.

American-Arab Anti-discrimination  Committee, facts about the arab world, http://www.adc.org/2009/11/facts-about-arabs-and-the-arab-world/ accessed on 10^th December 2016.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Islamization

British Dictionary

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/islamize

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Islamization

Got Questions Ministries, What is Islam, and what do Muslims believe? https://gotquestions.org/Islam.html

Accessed on 10^th December, 2016.

Joseph Eneh, The Sharia and Islamic Philosophy:The Nigerian Experience, (Enugu: Snaap Press, 2001) p.10

On Truth & Reality, The Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) in Space, Islam / Muslim, http://www.spaceandmotion.com/religion-islam-muslim-islamic-quran.htm

Rahman I.Doi, The Cardinal Principles of Islam (Zaria: Hadahuda Publishing Company, 1981), p.16

Suleyman S. Nayang Islam and Africa www.Immarezez.net

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Islam in Africa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Africa

 

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Arabization , https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabization&oldid=687191461, accessed on 10^th of December, 2016.

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[1] American-Arab Anti-discrimination  Committee, facts about the arab world, http://www.adc.org/2009/11/facts-about-arabs-and-the-arab-world/ accessed on 10^th December 2016.

[2] American-Arab Anti-discrimination  Committee, facts about the arab world, http://www.adc.org/2009/11/facts-about-arabs-and-the-arab-world/ accessed on 10^th December 2016.

[3] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Arabization , https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabization&oldid=687191461, accessed on 10^th of December, 2016.

[4] Cf Rahman I.Doi, The Cardinal Principles of Islam (Zaria: Hadahuda Publishing Company, 1981), p.16

[5]Got Questions Ministries, What is Islam, and what do Muslims believe? https://gotquestions.org/Islam.html

Accessed on 10^th December, 2016.

[6] Got Questions Ministries, What is Islam, and what do Muslims believe? https://gotquestions.org/Islam.html

Accessed on 10^th December, 2016.

[7] On Truth & Reality, The Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) in Space, Islam / Muslim, http://www.spaceandmotion.com/religion-islam-muslim-islamic-quran.htm

[8] ibid

[9] Ibid.

[10] Got Questions Ministries, What is Islam, and what do Muslims believe? https://gotquestions.org/Islam.html

Accessed on 10^th December, 2016.

[11] ibid

[12] On Truth & Reality, The Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) in Space, Islam / Muslim, http://www.spaceandmotion.com/religion-islam-muslim-islamic-quran.htm

[13] American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Islamization

[14] Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Islamization

[15] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/islamize

[16] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Islam in Africa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Africa

[17] Amadou Shakur, The History of Islam in Africa, https://www.whyislam.org/muslim-heritage/the-history-of-islam-in-africa/, accessed on 10^th December,2016.

[18] ibid

[19]  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Islam in Africa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Africa

[20]  ibid

[21]  ibid

[22] Suleyman S. Nayang Islam and Africa www.Immarezez.net

[23] Amadou Shakur, The History of Islam in Africa, https://www.whyislam.org/muslim-heritage/the-history-of-islam-in-africa/, accessed on 10^th December,2016.

[24] Amadou Shakur, The History of Islam in Africa, https://www.whyislam.org/muslim-heritage/the-history-of-islam-in-africa/, accessed on 10^th December,2016.

[25] Joseph Eneh, The Sharia and Islamic Philosophy:The Nigerian Experience, (Enugu: Snaap Press, 2001) p.10

[26]

[27]