Shaykh Ahmad Tijāni (1737-1815) was one of the central figures of eighteenth-century Sufism, or Islamic mysticism.  The Sufi order that bears his name, the Tijāniyya, today claims millions of adherents all over the Muslim world, especially in West Africa.  Known by his followers as the Qutb al-Maktūm (The Hidden Pole), Shaykh Ahmad Tijāni has remained for many an enigmatic and sometimes controversial figure.  Here for the first time, in the English language is an exposition of his life and doctrine based on primary sources and interviews with prominent Tijāni leaders in Senegal, Morocco, and Egypt.  Through the lens of the Tarīqa Muhammadiyya—an intellectual movement emerging in the eighteenth century to express the essential connection between the Prophet Muhammad (S) and Islamic mysticism—the reader is provided a rare window into what appears to have been the principal impulse behind the Shaykh and the Tijāniyya order.  Such a coherent articulation of the synonymous nature of Islam and Sufism as provided by the Tijāni tradition is worth a closer look in a time where Islam is so often accused of promoting a dangerous mixture of political and religious fanaticism.

Zachary Wright currently teaches high school social studies in Brooklyn, New York.  Originally from New Hampshire, Zachary is a graduate from Sanford University (B.A. in African History) and the American University in Cairo (M.A. in Arabic Studies—Middle East History).  Zachary has visited Tijāni communities in Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Mauritania, the Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, South Africa, France and America.  Besides eighteenth and nineteenth century Sufism, his other research interests include Islam in West Africa, Islam in America, and modern movements in Islam.


Contact Ihsan @ (678) 754-8192, or at ihsan.muhammad@gmail.com to purchase the book.

The African-American Islamic Institute
Atlanta, GA

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AAII