the mystic way, although this is not common be-
cause of the role women play in the family sphere.
The jihàd-e akbar is understood as the control of
the nafsand it is not necessarily conducted in a Sufi
group. But given the difficulty of this inner fight,
the conditions of the Sufi life are more convenient
for attaining the goal. Some women who are on the
way of the jihàd-e akbarcan even choose the qalan-
darìway (that is, free of any Sufi order). If the
qalandars do not form a real congregation or even
a group, the jihàd-e akbarcan be realized through
their participation in different kinds of Sufi rituals,
such as piyàlo(initiation), dhikr (meditation),
dhammàl(ecstatic dance), and so forth. It is note-
worthy that in the Sufi context no gender discrimi-
nation is generally observed. The sajjadànashìn
can be the spiritual guide of a woman, and she can
be his murid, although it is nevertheless difficult to
find women saints. Moreover, the traditional guise
of the qalandaris the dress of a woman, with ban-
gles, earrings, long hair, and ostentatious jewels
and it is hard to distinguish a man from a woman.
Literature gives another view of the jihàd-e akbar
as it relates to women. In folk poetry of Sindh, for
example, the figure of the bride is a polysemical
symbol. The heroine always plays the most impor-
tant role in the narrative proper, and she is also the
symbol of the divinity such that the union of her
bridegroom with her is understood as his union
with God. The seeker must therefore attain immer-
sion in God through the mediation of the female.
The ultimate goal of the jihàd-e akbaris the fanà±fì
Allàh. There are many allusions to the virahinì, the
woman who longs for her beloved, namely God or
the Prophet. In his Shàh-jo Risàlo, the great poet
Shàh ≠Abd al-Làtif (d. 1757) gives a detailed de-
scription of the jihàd-e akbarperformed by the
heroine Sùhnì: “Do not encumber yourself with
self-consciousness or ego in your journey to the
beloved” (1985, iii, 1675). Many references to
marriage can also be found in other Muslim devo-
tional literature in South Asia. In the hymns
(ginàns) sung by the Khojàs, who are Aghàkhànì
Ismà≠ìlìs, Pìr £asan Kabìr al-Dìn uttered: “O
Master, how long can I remain alone, while my
days pass in lack of love? Banish this lack of love,
Master, and turn it into a married bliss” (cited in
Shackle and Moir 1992, 99). In another ginàn, Pìr
Mìra Sayyid Khàn addresses God with the follow-
ing verse: “Listen, my Consort, and do as I say. Do
not remain so aloof from me, your wife” (ibid., 95).
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Oxford 2002^2.Michel BoivinSub-Saharan Africa: West AfricaJihad in West Africa is a complex phenomenon,
initially expressed in a series of reform movements
in the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries and cul-
minating in the creation of a number of Islamic
states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
These progressive revolutions impacted a region
stretching from present-day Senegal and Gambia in
the east to Cameroon in the west. Although there
had been African Muslims in the region since the
eleventh century, their connections and allegiances
to the faith were through North Africa and across
the Mediterranean. The leaders of the jihads cre-
ated Islamic authorities where none had existed
before and brought West Africa fully into the Dàr
al-Islàm. They accomplished this by combining the
religious goal of returning to a purer form of Islam
with military action, territorial expansion, and
state building.
There were a number of key “links” in the jihadic
chain, starting with late seventeenth-century schol-
arly reformist traditions. Important eighteenth-
century developments were the Futa Jallon jihad
and the Futa Toro jihad, providing the ideological
blueprint for the Sokoto jihad of Usman dan Fodio,
which became the model – and at times legitimiza-
tion – for subsequent nineteenth-century jihads.
The imposition of European colonial rule in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought to
an end this period of West African jihads. Yet, as
elsewhere in Sub-Saharan African, Western colo-
nialism itself provided the impetus for later calls to
jihad, albeit with limited military success, as have
post-independence reformist movements that evoke
their great predecessors.
There were many shared features among the
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century jihads. These