Chanfi Ahmed has been trained in Islamic studies and received his PhD in Social History at the EHESS in Paris. Until 2013 he was a Research Fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) in Berlin. His books include Islam et politique aux Comores, Paris, 2000, Ngoma et mission islamique (Daʿwa) aux Comores et en Afrique orientale. Une approche anthropologique, Paris, 2002; Les conversions à l’Islam fondamentaliste en Afrique au sud du Sahara. Le cas de la Tanzanie et du Kenya, Paris, 2008.

'Chanfi Ahmed’s West African Ulama and Salafism in Mecca and Medina. Jawāb al-Ifrῑqῑ - The Response of the African presents a critical approach into the study of what could be termed as the encroachment of Wahabbism in present West Africa in general and Nigeria, Mali, and Mauritania in particular. [...] Chanfi therefore, gives detailed information on the first set of migrants to Mecca and Medina, their interpretation of Hijra, and Jihad, and a description of the routes they followed in the cause of the migration and the factors that led to it.' - Yusuf Abdullahi Yusuf, University of Jos, in: African Studies Quarterly Volume 16, Issue 2 (March, 2016)'It is more likely than not, that students of Islam in Africa, Arabists as well as Africanists will find Chanfi's work rich, engaging and, at the same time, stimulating. His scholarly horizons as well as his wit reading of Arabic texts bring excitement to observers of the African condition who are interested in finding today's questions in yesterday's answers. West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina evokes what is achievable in the task of retrieving Africa's reservoir of history when multidimensional linguistic skills are summoned to exhume the corpus of the African past.' - Mbaye Lo, Duke University, in: Research Africa Review Vol. 1 No. 1 pp.18-21, June 2017 [https://sites.duke.edu/researchafrica/ra-reviews/vol-1-no-1/]

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1Hijra on the Sudan Road (Ṭarīq al-Sūdān)Hijra in Islam and West Africa: A Movement of People, Ideas, and Hope Hijra, Jihād, the Mahdī, and Ḥajj in Islam and in West African IslamThe Hijra Related to the Mahdī The Reaction of the Colonizers to the Muhājirīn2The ʿUlamāʾ Forerunners of the Hijra and Teachers in the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina Shaykh Alfā Hāshim al-Fūtī (1866–1931): A Genius for SurvivalMuḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Maḥmūd al-Madanī (Ag Maḥmūd Abdullahi): The “Intransigent” Salafī Missionary 3The ʿUlamāʾ of the Second Generation, Heirs of the Hijra and Teachers in the First Islamic Institutes in Saudi Arabia Ḥammād al-Anṣārī (1344–1418/1925–97) “Riḥlat min Ifrīqyā ilā bilād al-ḥaramayn” [Traveling from Africa to the two holy cities]The Anṣār al-Sunna in Sudan The Legacy of Shaykh Ḥammād al-Anṣārī in West AfricaʿAbd al-Raḥmān Yūsuf al-IfrīqīJawāb al-Ifrīqī [Response of the African]Tawḍīḥ al-ḥajj wa-l-ʿumra kamā jāʾa fī l-kitāb wa-l-sunna [Explanation of ḥajj and ʿumra according to the Qurʾān and the Sunna]4The Dār al-Ḥadīth in Medina and the Ahl al-ḤadīthThe Dār al-Ḥadīth in MeccaThe Establishment and Expansion of the Ahl al-Ḥadīth Movement in the Eighteenth CenturyMuḥammad Ḥayāt al-Sindī (d. 1163/1750)Walī Allāh Dihlawī (1703–63)Ṣāliḥ al-Fullānī (1752–3/1803) Muḥammad b. ʿAlī l-Shawkānī (1173–1250/1760–1832)Nadhīr Ḥusayn Dihlawī (1805–1902) Ṣādiq Ḥasan Khān (1834–90) Ṣanāʿullāh Amristari (1868–1948)The Doctrine of Ahl al-Ḥadīth as Reflected by these ʿUlamāʾA Brief Political History of the Hijaz in the Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesEducational Institutions Founded in the Hijaz by the Ottomans and the AshrāfNation-State or Umma-State: ʿUlamāʾ Support of the Saudi StateMaʿhad al-Riyāḍ al-ʿIlmi (Riyadh Institute of Islamic Religious Sciences)5The ʿUlamāʾ of the Third Generation: Teachers and Administrators in the First Islamic Universities of Saudi Arabia Shaykh ʿUmar b. Muḥammad Fallāta (1345–1419/1926–98)Writings, Lectures, and Teaching of ʿUmar FallātaMuḥammad al-Amīn al-Jakanī l-Shinqīṭī (Āb Wuld Ukhtūr) (1325–93/1907–73)The Writings of Shaykh Shinqīṭī6Africa in the Islamic University of MedinaHistory of the Foundation of the UniversityAfrica in the Daʿwa Policy of the Islamic University of Medina and of the Saudi State as Reflected in the Statutes and Other Texts of the UniversityDaʿwa in Africa By and With the Africans Shaykh Taqī l-Dīn al-Hilālī (d. 1407/1987)7Biography (Tarjama) in the Islamic Tradition according to the ʿUlamāʾThe Concept and Tradition of Tarjama (Biography) according to ʿUmar Fallāta and ʿAṭiyya SālimʿAṭiyya Muḥammad Sālim with al-Ifrīqī and al-ShinqīṭīThe Teaching Method of al-Ifrīqī (Manhaj al-Ifrīqī)ʿAṭiyya Muḥammad Sālim with Shaykh al-Amīn al-Shinqīṭī (Āb Wuld Ukhtūr)The Tarjama according to Shaykh ʿUmar Fallāta in his Conference Paper on Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-IfrīqīAn InterpretationConclusionBibliographyWorks and Primary Sources in Arabic Works in Other LanguagesIndex