- Islam in Chad
The earliest Islamic presence in Chad can be traced back to the legendary
Uqba ibn Nafi , whose descendants can be found settled in the Lake Chad region to this day. [ [http://san.beck.org/1-12-Africato1500.html Africa to 1500 by Sanderson Beck ] ] . By the timeArab migrants began arriving from the east in the fourteenth century in sizeable numbers, the creed was already well established. Instead of being the product of conquest or the imposition of political power, Islamization in Chad was gradual, the effect of the slow spread of Islamic civilization beyond its political frontiersFact|date=February 2007.Chadian Muslims have retained and combined pre-Islamic with Islamic rituals and beliefs. Moreover, Islam in Chad was not particularly influenced by the great mystical movements of the Islamic
Middle Ages or the fundamentalist upheavals that affected the faith in theMiddle East ,West Africa , andSudan . Perhaps as a result of prolonged contact withWest Africa n Muslim traders and pilgrims, most Chadian Muslims identify with theTijaniyya order, but the brotherhood has not served as a rallying point for unified action. Similarly, theSanusiyya , a brotherhood founded inLibya in the mid-nineteenth century, enjoyed substantial economic and political influence in theLake Chad Basin around 1900. Despite French fears of an Islamic revival movement led by "Sanusi fanatics," Chadian adherents, limited to the Awlad Sulayman Arabs and theToubou of easternTibesti , have never been numerous.Higher Islamic education in Chad is all but nonexistent; thus, serious Islamic students and scholars must go abroad. Popular destinations include
Khartoum andCairo , where numerous Chadians attendAl Azhar .Chadian observance of the five pillars of the faith differs somewhat from the orthodox tradition. For example, public and communal prayer occurs more often than the prescribed one time each week but often does not take place in a mosque. Moreover, Chadian Muslims probably make the pilgrimage less often than, for example, their Hausa counterparts in northern
Nigeria . As for theRamadan fast, the most fervent Muslims in Chad refuse to swallow their saliva during the day, a particularly stern interpretation of the injunction against eating or drinking between sunrise and sunset.ee also
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Islam by country References
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