Sorcery or Science?

Sorcery or Science? examines how two Sufi Muslim theologians who rose to prominence in the western Sahara Desert in the late eighteenth century, Sīdi al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī (d. 1811) and his son and successor, Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826), decisively influenced the development of Sufi Muslim though...

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Автор: Marcus-Sells, Ariela
Формат: Online
Мова:Англійська
Опубліковано: Penn State University Press 2025
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Онлайн доступ:ONIX_20250417_9780271093079_60
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author Marcus-Sells, Ariela
author_browse Marcus-Sells, Ariela
author_facet Marcus-Sells, Ariela
author_sort Marcus-Sells, Ariela
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Sorcery or Science? examines how two Sufi Muslim theologians who rose to prominence in the western Sahara Desert in the late eighteenth century, Sīdi al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī (d. 1811) and his son and successor, Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826), decisively influenced the development of Sufi Muslim thought in West Africa. Known as the Kunta scholars, Mukhtār al-Kuntī and Muḥammad al-Kuntī were influential teachers who developed a pedagogical network of students across the Sahara. In exploring their understanding of “the realm of the unseen”—a vast, invisible world that is both surrounded and interpenetrated by the visible world—Ariela Marcus-Sells reveals how these theologians developed a set of practices that depended on knowledge of this unseen world and that allowed practitioners to manipulate the visible and invisible realms. They called these practices “the sciences of the unseen.” While they acknowledged that some Muslims—particularly self-identified “white” Muslim elites—might consider these practices to be “sorcery,” the Kunta scholars argued that these were legitimate Islamic practices. Marcus-Sells situates their ideas and beliefs within the historical and cultural context of the Sahara Desert, surveying the cosmology and metaphysics of the realm of the unseen and the history of magical discourses within the Hellenistic and Arabo-Islamic worlds. Erudite and innovative, this volume connects the Islamic sciences of the unseen with the reception of Hellenistic discourses of magic and proposes a new methodology for reading written devotional aids in historical context. It will be welcomed by scholars of magic and specialists in Africana religious studies, Islamic occultism, and Islamic manuscript culture.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1586122025-04-18T04:24:38Z Sorcery or Science? Marcus-Sells, Ariela African history Islamic groups: Sufis Mysticism Religion and science General and world history Sorcery or Science? examines how two Sufi Muslim theologians who rose to prominence in the western Sahara Desert in the late eighteenth century, Sīdi al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī (d. 1811) and his son and successor, Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826), decisively influenced the development of Sufi Muslim thought in West Africa. Known as the Kunta scholars, Mukhtār al-Kuntī and Muḥammad al-Kuntī were influential teachers who developed a pedagogical network of students across the Sahara. In exploring their understanding of “the realm of the unseen”—a vast, invisible world that is both surrounded and interpenetrated by the visible world—Ariela Marcus-Sells reveals how these theologians developed a set of practices that depended on knowledge of this unseen world and that allowed practitioners to manipulate the visible and invisible realms. They called these practices “the sciences of the unseen.” While they acknowledged that some Muslims—particularly self-identified “white” Muslim elites—might consider these practices to be “sorcery,” the Kunta scholars argued that these were legitimate Islamic practices. Marcus-Sells situates their ideas and beliefs within the historical and cultural context of the Sahara Desert, surveying the cosmology and metaphysics of the realm of the unseen and the history of magical discourses within the Hellenistic and Arabo-Islamic worlds. Erudite and innovative, this volume connects the Islamic sciences of the unseen with the reception of Hellenistic discourses of magic and proposes a new methodology for reading written devotional aids in historical context. It will be welcomed by scholars of magic and specialists in Africana religious studies, Islamic occultism, and Islamic manuscript culture. 2025-04-18T04:24:37Z 2025-04-18T04:24:37Z 2025-04-17T09:49:49Z 2022 book ONIX_20250417_9780271093079_60 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/100950 9780271093079 9780271092294 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/158612 eng Magic in History open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/100950/1/9780271093079.pdf Penn State University Press Penn State University Press e4e05b94-0f85-49a1-ba66-543b1dd40087 dcf50849-b837-420d-ac46-64995a7bf0d4 0314e571-4102-4526-b014-3ed8f2d6750a 9780271093079 9780271092294 Penn State University Press 232 University Park [...] National Endowment for the Humanities U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities 10.13039/100000103 open access
spellingShingle African history
Islamic groups: Sufis
Mysticism
Religion and science
General and world history
Marcus-Sells, Ariela
Sorcery or Science?
title Sorcery or Science?
title_full Sorcery or Science?
title_fullStr Sorcery or Science?
title_full_unstemmed Sorcery or Science?
title_short Sorcery or Science?
title_sort sorcery or science
topic African history
Islamic groups: Sufis
Mysticism
Religion and science
General and world history
topic_facet African history
Islamic groups: Sufis
Mysticism
Religion and science
General and world history
url ONIX_20250417_9780271093079_60
work_keys_str_mv AT marcussellsariela sorceryorscience