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Nana Asma’u (1793–1864) was a prolific Muslim scholar, poet, historian, and educator whose legacy in Nigeria and America continues today.
List of contents
Preface Introduction 1 Hijra and Jihad 2 Asma'u's role in the Caliphate 3 Origins of the Yan Taru 4 Poetic works 5 Caliphate culture and ethics during colonialism: an example involving Asma'u 6 Muslim women scholars in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries Appendix Bibliography Index
About the author
Beverley Mack: Beverley Mack is Associate Professor of African Studies at the University of Kansas. She is co-editor (with Catherine Coles) of Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century and co-author (with Jean Boyd) of The Collected Works of Nana Asma'u, 1793-1864 and One Woman's Jihad: Nana Asma'u Scholar and Scribe.
Jean Boyd: Jean Boyd is former Principal Research Fellow of the Sokoto History Bureau and Research Associate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She is the author of The Caliph's Sister and Sultan Siddiq Abubakar III.
Summary
Nana Asma'u was a devout, learned Muslim who was able to observe, record, interpret, and influence the major public events that happened around her.
Daughters are still named after her, her poems still move people profoundly, and the memory of her remains a vital source of inspiration and hope. Her example as an educator is still followed: the system she set up in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, for the education of rural women, has not only survived in its homelandthrough the traumas of the colonization of West Africa and the establishment of the modern state of Nigeriabut is also being revived and adapted elsewhere, notably among Muslim women in the United States.
This book, richly illustrated with maps and photographs, recounts Asma'u's upbringing and critical junctures in her life from several sources, mostly unpublished: her own firsthand experiences presented in her writings, the accounts of contemporaries who witnessed her endeavors, and the memoirs of European travelers. For the account of her legacy the authors have depended on extensive field studies in Nigeria, and documents pertaining to the efforts of women in Nigeria and the United States, to develop a collective voice and establish their rights as women and Muslims in today's societies.
Beverley Mack is an associate professor of African studies at the University of Kansas. She is co-editor (with Catherine Coles) of Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century and co-author (with Jean Boyd) of The Collected Works of Nana Asma'u, 1793–1864 and One Woman's Jihad: Nana Asma'u Scholar and Scribe.
Jean Boyd is former principal research fellow of the Sokoto History Bureau and research associate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She is the author
Foreword
Kube Publishing Ltd.
Additional text
"Educating Muslim Women is a unique study of Muslim women told through the story of Nana Asma’u, a nineteenth-century Fulani woman from Northern Nigeria who became a renowned scholar and greatly impacted Muslim women in Nigeria and beyond. Drawing on history, literary analysis, and ethnography, the volume’s slimness belies a wealth of material that will interest historians, applied linguists, and even sociologists of contemporary Muslim communities." – American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
