|
|
 الإسلام الشعبي: دين الرجرجة كتبه عبد الله علي إبراهيم
|
02:10 PM August, 28 2025 سودانيز اون لاين
عبدالله علي إبراهيم-Missouri-USA
مكتبتى
رابط مختصر
كنت نشرت في نحو 1988 مقالي "الأفروعروبية: تحالف الهاربين" في مجلة "المستقبل العربي" ثم في كتابي "الثقافة والديمقراطية (1996 وهو بسبيله إلى طبعة ثانية على يد دار المصورات). وانتقدت فيه مفهوم الأفروعربية، عماد مدرسة الغابة والصحراء، القائل بأن السودان في هويته مزيج صحيح المقادير بين العرب والأفارقة تجسد في "إنسان سنار الممتاز".
ونقضت في مقالي هذه "الخلطة" لا لأنها لم تحدث كما هو مشاهد في شمال السودان (لا جنوبه بالطبع) بل لأنها كما أخذنا بها صنيعة خالصة لهارولد ماكمايكل، السكرتير الإداري للحاكم العام ومؤلف "العرب في السودان (1922) والقس المبشر ج سبنسر ترمنغهام مؤلف "الإسلام في السودان" (1945).
وخلصت إلى صنائع الرجلين في ثقافتنا في أبحاث قدمتها خلال زمالة بحثية بجامعة نوروسترن الأمريكية لعامي 1990 و1991. وكانت انعقدت لتتدارس نهجاً شغل في وقته وهو تمثيل الثقافات (الغالبة) للثقافات دونها (representation) مما فتح الباب لتفكيك المعرفة الاستعمارية عن من خضعوا للاستعمار. وكانت مساهمتي ورقتين عن ماكمايل وترمنغهام خلصت فيهما إلى أن كل معرفتنا بأنفسنا مثل الأفروعربية هي من صنع يد الرجلين.
وعربت المقالين لاحقاً وصدرا في كتاب "كسار قلم مكميك: مقالان في علم الهوية" (دار مدارات 2016) بعد نشر المقال عن ترمنغهام في كتاب صدر عن معهد الدراسات الأفريقية بجامعة الخرطوم.
وأنشر أدناه الفقرات الأولى من مقالي عن الإسلام الشعبي الذي قعده ترمنغهام لأغري شباب الجيل السوداني الأول في مثل أمريكا أن يطالعه عسى يجد فيه نفعاً.
POPULAR ISLAM: THE RELIGION OF THE BARBAROUS THRONG
Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim
University of Khartoum
Northeast African Studies, 1989, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1989), pp. 21-40
The currently accepted view of northern Sudanese ethnicity and religion is essentially the work of Harold A. MacMichael (1922) and J. Spencer Trimingham (1949). 1 MacMichael describes the admixture of the indigenous Nubians and the Arabs, who settled along the Nile from the ninth to the fourteenth century, as an Afro-Arab hybrid "whose homogeneity consists in the common Berberine or Nubian strain that exists in a very varying proportion in all its component parts" (1922, p. 235). Trimingham designated the religion of this hybrid population "popular Islam," namely, an anti-orthodox or, to say the least, unorthodox paganized and Africanized syncretism (1949, p. 108). These ethnic and religious characterizations have been widely accepted by subsequent scholars (Barclay 1964, pp. 136-37; Hasan 1967, p. 152; Hurriez 1977 pp. xi, 22; Adams 1977, pp. 557, 574, 577; Al-Shahi and Moore 1978, p. 32; Ibrahim 1979, pp. 15, 126; Nasr 1980, pp. 88-91; Abdelsalaam 1983, pp. 5, 10, 43) .2 However, the descriptions of MacMichael and Trimingham share a de generative premise. This derives from the observed fact of Arab-African miscegenation in the Sudan and the pejorative connotations of miscegenation in Anglo-Saxon culture. To white Anglo-Saxons, the term miscegenation implied a sense of disapproval of racial mixing (Mazrui 1973, pp. 58, 79). Thus, MacMichael described the process and end product of miscegenation in terms of "debasement," "degradation," "racial purity," "original stock," and "contamination" (1922, pp. 233, 195, 336, 208, 318). He characterized a particular ethnic group whose African blood exceeds Arab blood as debased. By that he meant simply and innocently: "Writing as I am of Arab and not primarily of the older Sudanese stock, I use the phrase 'more debased' as the #####alent of less Arab"' (1922, p. 223). Notwithstanding this disclaimer, MacMichael's work sometimes implies that he found "Arab blood" superior to "African blood." For example, he indicated that the sallow-complexioned chiefly families, which had a strong infusion of Arab blood, were averse to being contaminated with purely a Sudanese admixture (1922, pp. 199, 318). Similarly, the superiority of the Kungara, the lords of the Fur of Western Sudan, is attributed by MacMichael and Trimingham to the Arab strain which they have acquired (MacMichael 1922, p. 91; Trimingham 1949, p. 32). Apparently, there is more to MacMichael's "debasement" argument than sheer writing convenience. The cultural degeneration argument, which resulted from the ethnic one, was more explicitly expressed. MacMichael described the Islam of the north ern Sudanese "Arabs" as "tainted by the customs and superstitions of the various autochthonous inhabitants among whom they have settled" (1922, p. 195). The "Arab-Negroid" and the "Arab-Hamites" of the Sudan, according to Trimingham, paganized Islam a good deal (1949, pp. 149, x). He felt that Sudanese Islam was imbued with elements of African "paganism," which he viewed in Western stereotypical light as consisting of superstition, emotional ism, and susceptibility to mass suggestion (1949, pp. 108, 149). In a similar vein, he traced the "fanaticism" of the Baqqarah, the staunch supporters of the Sudanese Mahdi, to their "negro blood" (1949, p. 30). Evidently, the ethnic and cultural degeneration arguments reinforce each other in this discussion about the identity of the northern Sudanese. The barbarous throng and its superstitions, of course, are inextricably bound (Trimingham 1949, p. 195). However, this paper will deal with the cultural degeneration argument embodied in Trimingham's popular Islam. It will challenge the conceptual and methodological notions that went into its construction. In addition, the general, uncritical acceptance of the concept in Sudanese ethnography will be discussed. This acceptance goes against the best judgments of Trimingham himself, who cautioned against some of his statements until detailed studies of regional Islam in the Sudan were undertaken (1949, pp. 166, 171). This acceptance goes against the better insights offered by these ethnographies. This paper stems from the conviction that understanding Islam in the Sudan at a time when it has become the dominant ####phor in Sudanese politics will be incomplete without a critical look at the Triminghamian text and tradition.
|
|
  
|
|
|
|
عبدالله علي إبراهيم
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست