culture, gave rise to sedentary rural communities
The JAMAcAT provided convenient facilities
for learning and living which, as a result, attracted
many disciples from among the nomads. Moreover, the rural
32.communities gave the novices access to religious literature
which in the circumstances of the nomadic environment
could only be obtained in their centres. In spite of the
rapid development of modern education in the rural areas,
in which religious instruction is included in the curriculum,
the Sufi communities continue to provide a high level of
religious teaching for the Somali pastoralists. They still
produce Islamic lawyers and theologians of good quality.
As a general rule, when some of the pupils acquire
the elements of Muslim theology and law, they return to
their nomadic life so as to preach Islam and attend to
the religious life of the nomadic communities. Otherscontinue to learn and receive advanced instruction in
Quranic exegesis, Muslim law, traditi~nal Islamic philo-
sophy and the doctrine and practice of the Sufis. In
other words, some pupils obtain a basic knowledge of theQuran and the Islamic custom and practice (SUNNAH) and
become satisfied with that, while other pupils receive
more advanced instruction in these two fields and as a
result reach higher levels of learning, thus becoming
fit to be initiated into a Sufi orde~. Both groups aregenerally regarded as men of religion (wadaaddo). How-
ever, those pupils who receive advanced instruction assume,
at the end of their studies, the title of shaikhs.
Some of the shaikhs after completing their studies athome, travel to other Muslim countries and to the Holy
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