Shi'i Cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese Migration and Religious Conversion in Senegal (Public Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa)

"Mara A. Leichtman offers an in-depth study of Shi‘i Islam in two very different communities in Senegal: the well-established Lebanese diaspora and Senegalese "converts" from Sunni to Shi‘i Islam of recent decades. Sharing a minority religious status in a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, each group is cosmopolitan in its own way. Leichtman provides new insights into the everyday lives of Shi‘i Muslims in Africa and the dynamics of local and global Islam. She explores the influence of Hizbullah and Islamic reformist movements, and offers a corrective to prevailing views of Sunni-Shi‘i hostility, demonstrating that religious coexistence is possible in a context such as Senegal."--Publisher Cover 1 Contents 8 Preface: Islam and Politics 10 Acknowledgments 14 Note on Transliteration 18 Introduction: Locating Cosmopolitan Shi’i Islamic Movements in Senegal 22 Part 1. The Making of a Lebanese Community in Senegal 42 Introduction to Part 1 44 1 French Colonial Manipulation and Lebanese Survival 60 2 Senegalese Independence and the Question of Belonging 84 3 Shi’i Islam Comes to Town: A Biography of Shaykh al-Zayn 115 4 Bringing Lebanese “Back” to Shi’i Islam 133 Part 2. Senegalese Conversion to Shi’i Islam 164 5 The Vernacularization of Shi’i Islam: Competition and Conflict 166 6 Migrating from One’s Parents’ Traditions: Narrating Conversion Experiences 187 Interlude: ’Umar: Converting to an “Intellectual Islam” 216 7 The Creation of a Senegalese Shi’i Islam 222 Coda: On Shi’i Islam, Anthropology, and Cosmopolitanism 256 Glossary 264 A 264 B 264 C 264 F 264 G 264 H 264 I 264 J 264 K 265 M 265 N 265 P 265 Q 265 S 265 T 265 U 266 W 266 Z 266 Notes 268 References 280 Index 302 A 302 B 303 C 303 D 304 E 305 F 305 G 306 H 306 I 307 J 307 K 308 L 308 M 308 N 310 O 310 P 311 Q 311 R 311 S 312 T 313 U 314 V 314 W 314 X 315 Y 315 Z 315