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Dreaming Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate: Dreams and Knowledge between Natural Philosophy, Theology, and Sufism in the works of Shaykh Dan Tafa

September 14, 2023

4:30 pm

Uris Hall, G08

Talk by Oludamini Ogunnaike

This talk explores four remarkable works (currently in unpublished manuscript form) by ‘abd al-Qādir ibn Muṣtafā (known as “Dan Tafa”) (1804-1864), a 19th-century West African Sufi scholar of the Sokoto Caliphate, to examine the ways in which dreams were theorized in the unique synthesis of Sufi, occult, philosophical/medical, theological, and exegetical disciplines that characterized discourse about dreams and dream interpretation in Muslim West Africa on the eve of colonial conquest, and what this can tell us about the distinct conceptions and practices of the human self and knowledge current in the region. The talk will conclude with a brief discussion of the importance and onto-epistemological status of dreams in contemporary West African Sufi communities and attempt to consider why dreams have been and remain so important in these traditions, but not in others.

Additional Information

Program

Einaudi Center for International Studies

Comparative Muslim Societies Program

Institute for African Development