Drawing on research in two different Islamic religious centres and among three lineages of Islamic religious specialists in Mali, this article traces transformations in the nature of religious... Show moreDrawing on research in two different Islamic religious centres and among three lineages of Islamic religious specialists in Mali, this article traces transformations in the nature of religious authority that have accompanied the neoliberal reforms of the last two decades. The author examines some of the ways in which the world of commodities has come to permeate the largely ritualized 'visits' with or 'pilgrimages' to exceptional Muslim religious leaders considered saints. He argues that certain processes of commodification - the exchange of blessings and prayers for commodities, the proliferation of personal and impersonal Islamic religious commodities - have intensified around saints in the neoliberal era. He further argues that such saints have become more privatized religious figures - effectively free-floating sanctifiers - in a religious economy that has come to be more like a market. Not only have these saints been able to outlast secular political regimes, but they also seem to have overcome some of the uncertainties of the market and even appear to offer ordinary people the means of doing so. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
During his fieldwork in Mali in the 1990s, the author found that many discussions among Malian Muslims about Islam centred on general questions of piety and the "correct" ways of being a pious... Show moreDuring his fieldwork in Mali in the 1990s, the author found that many discussions among Malian Muslims about Islam centred on general questions of piety and the "correct" ways of being a pious Muslim. There seemed to be considerable concern with - and often debate about - the public signs of piety. One such sign was the 'seere', a dark, sometimes circular spot or mark on some Muslims' foreheads. Many Malians noted that such a mark indicates regular prayer and presumably appears from touching the forehead to the ground. The author focuses on these publicly visible signs of piety not only because they were the subject of considerable discussion in Mali but also because they are not limited to any one group of Muslims. Before doing so, he gives an outline of Islam in Malian history, Muslim preachers and the spread of public sermons during the colonial period, Muslim associations and Muslim intellectuals who began to enter the public arena in new ways in the 1950s, and the public sphere and standardization of Islamic practices in the postcolonial period. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
