A tradition of oral poetry also arose in Somalia,
through which poets discussed themes ranging
from moral lessons to failed romance. The Somali
“praise-singing” tradition provided an avenue
through which women could participate, singing
songs of praise dedicated to female saints. Other
praise songs venerated holy men in languages
such as Oromo and Amharic. Epic stories, praise
songs, and poetry all combine Islamic and Afri-
can cultural themes and contain examples of the
different elements that create a uniquely African
Islamic style.
A larger number of works have been composed
in the indigenous languages of African Islam dur-
ing the modern era. Many languages were first
written down during the 19th century, often in
the Arabic script. The 19th-century Jihad states
of West Africa produced a considerable amount
of literature, much of it in the Fulfide and Hausa
tongues, and 19th-century poetry frequently
combined religious imagery with anticolonialist
themes, as seen in the writings of the great Somali
poet Mahammad Abdullah Hasan (d. 1921). Some
oral works took longer to find written expression.
For instance, Somali epic poems were first written
down only in the 1970s.
During the 20th century, African literature
expanded in variety and scope, as the short
story and the novel gained in popularity. Some
of this literature was written in the languages
of the colonizers (English and French) but nev-
ertheless expressed anticolonial messages. One
popular theme highlighted the tensions in Afri-
can societies between secUlarism, mysticism, and
scripturalism. Allegorical tales contrasted expres-
sions of pure Islam (often as practiced by simple
characters) with the hypocrisy of stern religious
figures. Other literature expressed mystical, secu-
larist, socialist, and a variety of other perspectives
within the African Muslim community.
See also alphabet; arabic langUage and lit-
eratUre; east aFrica; West aFrica.
Stephen CoryFurther reading: Albert Gérard, African Language Lit-
eratures (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents, 1981);
Kenneth W. Harrow, “Islamic Literature in Africa.”
In The History of Islam in Africa, edited by Nehemia
Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels (Athens: Ohio Uni-
versity Press, 2000); Kenneth W. Harrow, ed., Faces of
Islam in African Literature (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heine-
mann, 1991); John William Johnson, Thomas A. Hale,
and Stephen Belcher, Oral Epics from Africa (Blooming-
ton: Indiana University Press, 1997).afterlife (Arabic: al-akhira)
Afterlife beliefs are concerned with the question
of what happens to a person after physical death.
This is one of the enduring subjects of Islamic
belief and religious thought, which first devel-
oped in the seventh century under the influence
of native Arabian religion, Judaism, Christianity,
and other Middle Eastern religions. On the basis
of the qUran, hadith, and the teachings of reli-
gious scholars, most Muslims believe that God
determines when each person will be born and
die and that on JUdgment day he will resurrect
everyone in the body and judge each according to
that person’s beliefs and actions. He will reward
good people with eternal life in paradise, where
they will enjoy heavenly comforts and happiness.
Evil people will be sent to the Fire, where they
will endure horrible tortures and punishments.
Eventually, many of the people of the Fire will be
allowed to join the blessed in paradise.
During the later Middle Ages, people specu-
lated more about what happens in the time
between death and resurrection. Popular beliefs
about spirits of the dead combined with Muslim
theological ideas, which resulted in the develop-
ment of doctrines about an intermediate stage
in the afterlife known as the barzakh, where the
dead experience a preliminary judgment at the
hands of the angels Munkar and Nakir and a
preview of their rewards and punishments. The
souls of martyrs who died in battle were believed
to go directly to paradise during this time. Manyafterlife 19 J