Includes bibliographical references and index.

Theoretical considerations -- Macrohistory -- Habitus -- Embodiment and subjectivity -- Literature review -- Narrative structure of the book -- Clerical communities in West African history -- Enduring learning practices -- Islamic jurisprudence of the Maliki School -- Qurʼan learning -- Esoteric sciences -- Sufism -- Muslim scholars in West African social history -- The Jihad of Ma Ba Diakhou -- The social appeal of the new Marabout communities -- A new Senegambian clerical community -- The Niassene: social and intellectual background -- Ibrahim Niasse and the "Community of the Flood" -- Honored disciples: the Cisse of the Saloum -- ʻAbdallah Niasse and the Cisse of Diossong -- ʻAli Cisse and paradigmatic discipleship -- Knowing God -- On spiritual training -- Being filled with God -- The Prophet Muḥammad, Mirror of God -- Aḥmad al-Tijani and divine cognizance -- Understanding sufi discipleship -- Assuring the aspirants -- Conduct of the disciple -- Qualities of the spiritual guide -- Disciple perspectives -- The Adaptation of traditional learning practices -- Maintaining the Sanad tradition -- Adopting the madrasa -- Maintaining the learning circles -- Strategies of structural adaptation -- Cognizance and the revival of the Islamic sciences -- Qurʼan learning and knowing God -- Sufism and Maliki jurisprudence in Medina-Baye -- The esoteric sciences and shaykh-disciple relations -- Divine cognizance and the Sufi orders in West Africa -- Islam and African decolonization: community solidarities and distinctions -- Islam and African liberation -- Islam and the postcolonial nation-state -- Pan-Africanism -- A vision of global Islamic solidarity.

Print version record.

Living Knowledge in West African Islam examines the actualization of religious identity in the Muslim community of Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975, Senegal). The realization of Islam was achieved through the enduring West African practice of learning in the physical presence of exemplary masters.