Marabout
A marabout is a Muslim religious leader and teacher in West Africa, in the Maghreb. The marabout is a scholar of the Qur'an, or religious teacher. Others may be wandering holy men who survive on alms, Sufi Murshids, or leaders of religious communities. Muslim religious brotherhoods are one of the main organizing forms of West African Islam, with the spread of Sufi ideas into the area, the marabout's role combined with local practices throughout Senegambia, the Niger river valley, the Futa Jallon. Here, Sufi believers follow a marabout, elsewhere known as a Murshid. Marabout was adopted by French colonial officials, applied to most any imam, Muslim teacher, or secular leader who appealed to Islamic tradition. Today marabouts can be traveling holy men who survive on alms, religious teachers who take in young talibes at Qur'anic schools, or distinguished religious leaders and scholars, both in and out of the Sufi brotherhoods which dominate spiritual life in Senegambia. In the Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal, marabouts are organized in elaborate hierarchies.
Older, North African based traditions such as the Tijaniyyah and the Qadiriyyah base their structures on respect for teachers and religious leaders who, south of the Sahara are called marabouts. Those who devote themselves to prayer or study, either based in communities, religious centers, or wandering in the larger society, are named marabouts. In Senegal and Mali, these Marabouts rely on donations to live. There is a traditional bond to support a specific marabout that has accumulated over generations within a family. Marabouts dress in traditional West African robes and live a simple, ascetic life; the spread in sub-Saharan Africa of the marabout's role from the 8th through 13th centuries created in some places a mixture of roles with pre-Islamic priests and divines. Thus many fortune tellers and self-styled spiritual guides take the name "marabout"; the recent diaspora of West Africans has brought this tradition to Europe and North America, where some marabouts advertise their services as fortune tellers.
An Exu of Quimbanda, Marabô, is believed to have carried this esoteric and shamanic role into Brazil. Contemporary marabouts in Senegal have hot lines. Liliane Kuczynski. Les marabouts africains à Paris. CNRS Editions, Paris ISBN 978-2-271-06087-7 Magopinaciophilie: An article discussing Europeans who collect calling card like advertisements by "marabouts". L'officiel du Marabout: Parisian advertisement collection. Magopinaciophiles: A collection of French flyers; the term Marabout appears during the Muslim conquest of North Africa. It is derived from the Arabic word "Mourabit" or "mrabet": religious students and military volunteers who manned the Ribats at the time of the conquest. Today marabout means "Saint" in the Berber language, refers to Sufi Muslim teachers who head a lodge or school called a zaouïa, associated with a specific school or tradition, called a Tariqah; the pronunciation of that word varies according to the spoken Berber dialect. For example, it is pronounced "Amrabadh" in the Riff dialect.
The "marabout" is known as "Sayyed" to Arabic speaking Maghribians. Many cities in Morocco got their names from local marabouts, the name of those cities begins with "Sidi" followed by the name of the local marabout; the standard Arabic for "saint" is "Waliy". A marabout may refer to a tomb of a venerated saint, such places have become holy centers and places of pious reflection; the roots of this tradition can be traced back to ancient times when the Berbers believed in the polytheistic religions. Herodotus mentioned the tradition too, when he has spoke of the Nasamones bringing animal sacrifices to the tombs of holy men. Note that these are not places of formal pilgrimage, but are rather places of reflection and inspiration for the pious. Morocco Sidi Ali el Goumi Sidi Rhaj Amar Sidi Allal el Behraoui Sidi Abdelah ben Hassoun Sidi Moulay Idriss Sidi fath Sidi el Arbi ben sayyeh Sidi Ahmed Tijani Sidi Moulay Ali sherif Sidi Hajj Hamza Qadiri Boutchichi Sidi Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani Sidi Abdel Kader el Alami Sidi Moulay Ibrahim Sidi Mohammed Ben Aissa Sidi Ahmed Ben Idris Al-Fassi Sidi Abu Lhcen Shadili Sidi Moulay Abdeslam ibn Mchich Alami Sidi Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi Sidi Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli al-Simlali Sidi Abu Abdallah Mohammed Amghar Sidi Abu Abdallah al-Qaim bi Amrillah Sidi Muhammad ben Issa al-Barnusi al-Fasi Zarruq Sidi Moulay Outman,Morocco Sidi Mbarek, Morocco Sidi Heddi Morocco Or zawiyas: Zaouïa Naciria Zaouïa Cherqaouia Zaouia Aïssaouia Zaouia Tidjaniya Zaouia Idrissiya Zaouia Sanoussiya Zaouia Al Qadiriya Zaouia Al Alamiya Zaouia Jazouliya semlaliya Zaouia Hamdouchia Zaouia Sidi Outman,Morocco Algeria Sidi Ahmed Tidjani of'Ainou Mahdi, around Laguouate founder of Tidjaniya Sidi Ahmed ou Saïd du hameau Mestiga, village of Adeni in Kabylia Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine Founder of the Rahmaniya Sidi Abder Rahman El Thaelebi, founder of the Thaalibiya Sidi M'hend oumalek Sidi Moh'Ali oulhadj (Tifrit n'Aït el
Jihad
Jihad is an Arabic word which means striving or struggling with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to any effort to make personal and social life conform with God's guidance, such as struggle against one's evil inclinations, religious proselytizing, or efforts toward the moral betterment of the ummah, though it is most associated with war. In classical Islamic law, the term refers to armed struggle against unbelievers, while modernist Islamic scholars equate military jihad with defensive warfare. In Sufi and pious circles and moral jihad has been traditionally emphasized under the name of greater jihad; the term has gained additional attention in recent decades through its use by terrorist groups. The word jihad appears in the Quran with and without military connotations in the idiomatic expression "striving in the path of God". Islamic jurists and other ulema of the classical era understood the obligation of jihad predominantly in a military sense, they developed an elaborate set of rules pertaining to jihad, including prohibitions on harming those who are not engaged in combat.
In the modern era, the notion of jihad has lost its jurisprudential relevance and instead given rise to an ideological and political discourse. While modernist Islamic scholars have emphasized defensive and non-military aspects of jihad, some Islamists have advanced aggressive interpretations that go beyond the classical theory. Jihad is classified into inner jihad, which involves a struggle against one's own base impulses, external jihad, further subdivided into jihad of the pen/tongue and jihad of the sword. Most Western writers consider external jihad to have primacy over inner jihad in the Islamic tradition, while much of contemporary Muslim opinion favors the opposite view. Gallup analysis of a large survey reveals considerable nuance in the conceptions of jihad held by Muslims around the world. Jihad is sometimes referred to as the sixth pillar of Islam, though this designation is not recognized. In Twelver Shi'a Islam jihad is one of the ten Practices of the Religion. A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid.
The term jihad is rendered in English as "Holy War", although this translation is controversial. Today, the word jihad is used without religious connotations, like the English crusade. In Modern Standard Arabic, the term jihad is used for a struggle for causes, both religious and secular; the Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines the term as "battle. Nonetheless, it is used in the religious sense and its beginnings are traced back to the Qur'an and the words and actions of Muhammad. In the Qur'an and in Muslim usage, jihad is followed by the expression fi sabil illah, "in the path of God." Muhammad Abdel-Haleem states that it indicates "the way of truth and justice, including all the teachings it gives on the justifications and the conditions for the conduct of war and peace." It is sometimes used without religious connotation, with a meaning similar to the English word "crusade". According to Ahmed al-Dawoody, seventeen derivatives of jihād occur altogether forty-one times in eleven Meccan texts and thirty Medinan ones, with the following five meanings: striving because of religious belief, non-Muslim parents exerting pressure, that is, jihād, to make their children abandon Islam, solemn oaths, physical strength.
The context of the Quran is elucidated by Hadith. Of the 199 references to jihad in the most standard collection of hadith—Bukhari—all assume that jihad means warfare. Among reported saying of the Islamic prophet Muhammad involving jihad are The best Jihad is the word of Justice in front of the oppressive sultan. and The Messenger of Allah was asked about the best jihad. He said: "The best jihad is the one in which your horse is slain and your blood is spilled." Ibn Nuhaas cited a hadith from Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, where Muhammad states that the highest kind of jihad is "The person, killed whilst spilling the last of his blood". According to another hadith, supporting one's parents is an example of jihad, it has been reported that Muhammad considered well-performing hajj to be the best jihad for Muslim women. The practice of periodic raids by Bedouins against enemy tribes and settlements to collect spoils predates the revelations of the Quran. According to some scholars, while Islamic leaders "instilled into the hearts of the warriors the belief" in jihad "holy war" and ghaza, the "fundamental structure" of this bedouin warfare "remained... raiding to collect booty".
According to Jonathan Berkey, the Quran's statements in support of jihad may have been directed against Muhammad's local enemies, the pagans of Mecca or the Jews of Medina, but these same statements could be redirected once new enemies appeared. According to another scholar, it was the shift in focus to the conquest and spoils collecting of non-Bedouin unbelievers and away from traditional inter-bedouin tribal raids, that may have made it possible for Islam not only to expand but to avoid self-destruction. "From an early date Muslim law laid down" jihad in the military sense as "one of the principal obligations" of both "the head of the Muslim state", who declared the jihad, the Muslim community. According to legal historian Sadakat Kadri, Islamic jurists first developed classical doctrine of jihad "towards th
Sine-Saloum
Sine-Saloum is a region in Senegal located north of the Gambia and south of the Petite Côte. It encompasses an area of 24,000 square kilometers, about 12% of Senegal, with a population in the 1990s of 1,060,000; the western portion contains the Saloum Delta, a river delta at the junction of the Saloum and the North Atlantic. It is in this region. 145,811 hectares of the Delta were designated a UNESCO Heritage Site in 2011. Because it flows so this delta allows saltwater to travel deep inland. Long ago, the Serer kingdoms of Sine and Saloum were rivals. In 1984, the area was divided into two administrative regions: Fatick. Primary economic activities in the 2000s consisted of fishing, salt production, peanut farming, millet farming. Transportation is difficult because of the many islands. A secondary economy is the construction of fishing boats. Much of the region consists of mangrove swamps; the upper reaches of the rivers are affected by its desertification. The salinity of the water increased during the 1970s instance of the Sahel drought and mismanagement of the rivers upstream has been described as a factor.
Mangroves are disappearing, freshwater fish are disappearing with them. The villagers have difficulty obtaining freshwater. Sometimes water pumps are donated by international organizations, but spare parts are difficult to find when the pumps fail; the change in water salinity is affecting the ecosystem as much as it is changing the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the region. Sine-Saloum has long been feared by Europe's most distinguished mariners because the sandbanks move in Sangomar; this danger to outsiders preserved its individual villages. Labour Party of Sine Saloum Tourism in Senegal M. Klein. Islam and Imperialism in Senegal. Sine-Saloum, 1847-1914. Stanford: Stanford University Press. P. 285. Mohamed Mbodj. Un exemple d’économie coloniale, le Sine-Saloum, de 1887 à 1940. Cultures arachidières. 2. Paris: Université de Paris VII. Frans J. Schepers. Oiseaux d'eau dans le Delta du Sine-Saloum et la Sénégal. Dakar: WIWO. p. 240. Sine-Saloum at Au-Senegal.com Sine-Saloum at Senegalaisement.com
Serer people
The Serer people are a West African ethnic group. They are the third largest ethnic group in Senegal making up 15% of the Senegalese population, they are found in northern Gambia and southern Mauritania. The Serer people originated in the Senegal River valley at the border of Senegal and Mauritania, moved south in the 11th and 12th century again in the 15th and 16th centuries as their villages were invaded and they were subjected to religious pressures, they have had a sedentary settled culture and have been known for their farming expertise and transhumant stock-raising. The Serer people have been noted as a matrilineal ethnic group that long resisted the expansion of Islam, fought against jihads in the 19th century opposed the French colonial rule. In the 20th century, most of them converted to Islam, but some are Christians or follow their traditional religion; the Serer society, like other ethnic groups in Senegal, has had social stratification featuring endogamous castes and slaves. The Serer people are referred to as Sérère, Serere, Kegueme and sometimes wrongly "Serre".
The Serer people are found in contemporary Senegal in the west-central part of the country, running from the southern edge of Dakar to the Gambian border. In The Gambia, they occupy parts of old "Nuimi" and "Baddibu" as well as the Gambian "Kombo"; the Serer-Noon occupy the ancient area of Thiès in modern-day Senegal. The Serer-Ndut are found in southern north west of ancient Thiès; the Serer-Njeghen occupy old Baol. The Serer people are diverse and though they spread throughout the Senegambia region, they are more numerous in places like old Baol, Saloum and in the Gambia, a colony of the Kingdom of Saloum. Senegal: 1.84 million The Gambia: 31,900 Mauritania: 3,500The Serer occupy the Sine and Saloum areas. The Serer people include the Seex, Serer-Noon, Serer-Ndut, Serer-Njeghene, Serer-Safene, Serer-Niominka, Serer-Palor, the Serer-Laalaa; each group speaks a Cangin language. "Serer" is the standard English spelling. "Seereer" or "Sereer" reflects the Serer pronunciation of the name and are used by Senegalese Serer historians or scholars.
The meaning of the word "Serer" is uncertain. Issa Laye Thiaw views it as pre-Islamic and suggests four possible derivations:1. From the Serer Wolof word reer meaning'misplaced', i.e. doubting the truth of Islam. 2. From the Serer Wolof expression seer reer meaning "to find something hidden or lost." 3. From "the Arabic word seereer meaning sahir magician or one who practices magic". 4. From a Pulaar word meaning separation, divorce, or break, again referring to rejecting Islam. Professor Cheikh Anta Diop citing the work of the 19th century French archeologist and Egyptologist, Paul Pierret, states that the word Serer means "he who traces the temple." Diop went on to write: "That would be consistent with their present religious position: they are one of the rare Senegalese populations who still reject Islam. Their route is marked by the upright stones found at about the same latitude from Ethiopia all the way to the Sine-Salum, their present habitat." Professor Dennis Galvan writes that "The oral historical record, written accounts by early Arab and European explorers, physical anthropological evidence suggest that the various Serer peoples migrated south from the Fuuta Tooro region beginning around the eleventh century, when Islam first came across the Sahara."
Over generations these people Pulaar speaking herders migrated through Wolof areas and entered the Siin and Saluum river valleys. This lengthy period of Wolof-Serer contact has left us unsure of the origins of shared "terminology, political structures, practices."Professor Étienne Van de Walle gave a later date, writing that "The formation of the Sereer ethnicity goes back to the thirteenth century, when a group came from the Senegal River valley in the north fleeing Islam, near Niakhar met another group of Mandinka origin, called the Gelwar, who were coming from the southeast. The actual Sereer ethnic group is a mixture of the two groups, this may explain their complex bilinear kinship system", their own oral traditions recite legends on they being part of, or related to the Toucouleur people in the Senegal River valley area. Serer people resisted Islamization and Wolofization from the 11th century during the Almoravid movement, migrated south where they intermixed with the Diola people, they violently resisted the 19th century jihads and Marabout movement to convert Senegambia to Islam.
After the Ghana Empire was sacked as certain kingdoms gained their independence, Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar, leader of the Almoravids launched a jihad into the region. According to Serer oral history, a Serer bowman named Amar Godomat shot and killed Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar with an arrow; the last kings of Sine and Saloum were Maad a Sinig Mahecor Joof and Maad Saloum Fode N'Gouye Joof respectively. They both died in 1969. After their deaths, the Serer Kingdoms of Sine and Saloum
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, a mound of stones built for various purposes, may originally have been a tumulus. Tumuli are categorised according to their external apparent shape. In this respect, a long barrow is a long tumulus constructed on top of several burials, such as passage graves. A round barrow is a round tumulus commonly constructed on top of burials; the internal structure and architecture of both long and round barrows has a broad range, the categorization only refers to the external apparent shape. The method of inhumation may involve a dolmen, a cist, a mortuary enclosure, a mortuary house, or a chamber tomb. Examples of barrows include Duggleby Maeshowe; the word tumulus is Latin for'mound' or'small hill', derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *teuh2- with extended zero grade *tum-,'to bulge, swell' found in tumor, thumb and thousand.
The funeral of Patroclus is described in book 23 of the Iliad. Patroclus is burned on a pyre, his bones are collected into a golden urn in two layers of fat; the barrow is built on the location of the pyre. Achilles sponsors funeral games, consisting of a chariot race, wrestling, running, a duel between two champions to the first blood, discus throwing and spear throwing. Beowulf's body is taken to Hronesness. During cremation, the Geats lament the death of their lord, a widow's lament being mentioned in particular, singing dirges as they circumambulate the barrow. Afterwards, a mound is built on top of a hill, overlooking the sea, filled with treasure. A band of twelve of the best warriors ride around the barrow, singing dirges in praise of their lord. Parallels have been drawn to the account of Attila's burial in Jordanes' Getica. Jordanes tells that as Attila's body was lying in state, the best horsemen of the Huns circled it, as in circus games. An Old Irish Life of Columcille reports that every funeral procession "halted at a mound called Eala, whereupon the corpse was laid, the mourners marched thrice solemnly round the spot."
Archaeologists classify tumuli according to their location and date of construction. Some British types are listed below: Bank barrow Bell barrow Bowl barrow D-shaped barrow – round barrow with a purposely flat edge at one side defined by stone slabs. Disc barrow Fancy barrow – generic term for any Bronze Age barrows more elaborate than a simple hemispherical shape. Long barrow Oval barrow – a Neolithic long barrow consisting of an elliptical, rather than rectangular or trapezoidal mound. Platform barrow – The least common of the recognised types of round barrow, consisting of a flat, wide circular mound that may be surrounded by a ditch, they occur across southern England with a marked concentration in East and West Sussex. Pond barrow – a barrow consisting of a shallow circular depression, surrounded by a bank running around the rim of the depression, from the Bronze Age. Ring barrow – a bank that encircles a number of burials. Round barrow – a circular feature created by the Bronze Age peoples of Britain and the Romans and Saxons.
Divided into subclasses such as saucer and bell barrow—the Six Hills are a rare Roman example. Saucer barrow – a circular Bronze Age barrow that features a low, wide mound surrounded by a ditch that may have an external bank. Square barrow – burial site of Iron Age date, consisting of a small, ditched enclosure surrounding a central burial, which may have been covered by a mound. In 2015, the first long barrow in thousands of years, inspired by those built in the Neolithic Period, was built near All Cannings in England; the project was steward of Stonehenge. The barrow was designed to have a large number of private niches within the stone and earth structure to receive cremation urns; the structure received significant media attention, with national press writing extensively about the revival of the structures, various episodes of filming, for example by BBC Countryfile as it was being built. It was subscribed within eighteen months; this was followed soon after by a new barrow near St Neots. Further plans to revive barrows are at Soulton in Shropshire.
The word kurgan is of Turkic origin, derives from Proto-Turkic *Kur-. In Ukraine and Russia, there are royal kurgans of Varangian chieftains, such as the Black Grave in Ukrainian Chernihiv, Oleg's Grave in Russian Staraya Ladoga, vast, intricate Rurik's Hill near Russian Novgorod. Other important kurgans are found in Ukraine and South Russia and are associated with much more ancient steppe peoples, notably the Scythians and early Indo-Europeans The steppe cultures found in Ukraine and South Russia continue into Central Asia, in particular Kazakhstan. Salweyn in northern Somalia contains a large field of cairns, which stretches for a distance of around 8 km. An excavation of one of these tumuli by Georges Révoil in 1881 uncovered a tomb, beside which were artefacts pointing to an ancient, advanced civilization; the interred objects included pottery shards from Samos, some well-crafted enamels, a mask of Ancient Greek design. Tumuli are one of the most prominent types of prehistoric monuments spread throughout northern and southern Albania.
Some well-known local tumuli are: Kamenica Tumulus Lofkënd Tumulus Pazhok Tumulus More than 50 burial mounds were found in Kupres. Man from Kupres- the skeleton found
Juju
Juju or ju-ju is a spiritual belief system incorporating objects, such as amulets, spells used in religious practice, as part of witchcraft in West Africa. The term has been applied to traditional African religions; the term "juju" and the practices associated with it, travelled to the Americas from West Africa with the influx of slaves via the Atlantic slave trade and still survives in some areas among the various groups of Maroons, who have preserved their African traditions. In a typical scenario, The witch doctor casting the spell requires a payment for this service. Contrary to common belief, Vodun is not related to juju, despite the linguistic and spiritual similarities. Juju has acquired some karmic attributes in more recent times: good juju can stem from any good deed; these ideas revolve around the fortune portions of juju. The use of juju to describe an object involves small items worn or carried; the term "juju" is used to refer to the juju bean native to West Africa. The poisonous bean grows on wild tree-dwelling vines.
The term "juju" is used to refer to the feeling of something. For example, if a person feels offset by an object or place, they would say that the object or place has "bad juju."
