Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-356) and indexes.

Preliminary Material / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- Introduction / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 1 Islam Prior to the Colonial Period / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 2 Managing the “Islamic Menace”: Islam under British and French Rule / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 3 From the Students of the Sheikh to the Followers of the Prophet: Genesis of Wahhabism in Burkina Faso / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 4 “Seeing” God: Tarbiya and the Beginning of Wahhabism in Ghana / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 5 Mouvement Sunnite of Burkina Faso, 1973–1988 / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 6 Promoting the Good and Forbidding the Reprehensible: Wahhabism in Ghana, 1970–1998 / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 7 The Triple Heritage of West African Wahhabism: Islamic Reform and Modernity from Within and from Without / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 8 From Rejection to Coexistence / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 9 “Conscripts” of Modernity and Wahhabi Reform / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- References / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- Appendix / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- Index of people / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- Index of Subjects / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- Index of Places / Ousman Murzik Kobo.

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In this book Ousman Kobo analyzes the origins of Wahhabi-inclined reform movements in two West African countries. Commonly associated with recent Middle Eastern influences, reform movements in Ghana and Burkina Faso actually began during the twilight of European colonial rule in the 1950s and developed from local doctrinal contests over Islamic orthodoxy. These early movements in turn gradually evolved in ways sympathetic to Wahhabi ideas. Kobo also illustrates the modernism of this style of Islamic reform. The decisive factor for most of the movements was the alliance of secularly educated Muslim elites with Islamic scholars to promote a self-consciously modern religiosity rooted in the Prophet Muhammad’s traditions. This book therefore provides a fresh understanding of the indigenous origins of “Wahhabism.”