¹ The Bruce, compiled by Master, John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, 1375, ed. Skeat, W. W. (London 1896), 301.Google Scholar I have modernized the English. The Chronicle of Lanercost (tr. SirHerbert, Maxwell, Glasgow 1913, 207)Google Scholar gives a briefer account of the same incident: ‘Now when the two armies had approached very near each other, all the Scots fell on their knees to repeat Pater noster, commending themselves to God and seeking help from heaven; after which they advanced boldly against the English.’ Barbour refers more than once to the Scots army attending mass before the battle, and fasting. Robert Bastin, an English Carmelite, contrasted this Scots piety with English debauchery: Dum se sic iactant, cum Baccho nocte iocando, Scotia, te mactant, verbis vanis reprobando. (See the fragment of Bastin published by Macray, W. D. in Eng. Hist. Rev., XIX (1904). 507–8.) Bastin had been taken with the English army—not altogether unlike the Muslim clerics accompanying some armies in Africa—to celebrate in verse the expected victory. Falling instead into Scottish hands, he had to tune his supple song to their success. I am indebted to Duncan Fisher (aged 8) for first drawing my attention, in a storybook, to these details of Bannockburn.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

² He wrote in the sixth chapter of his Memoirs: ‘Finally, I do not believe that today a commander can inspire great armies, or single units, or even individual men, and lead them to achieve great victories, unless he has a proper sense of religious truth; he must be prepared to acknowledge it, and to lead his troops in the light of that truth. He must always keep his finger on the spiritual pulse of his armies; he must be sure that the spiritual purpose which inspires them is right and true, and is clearly expounded to one and all.’

³ Fisher, H. J., ‘Independency arid Islam: the Nigerian Aladuras and some Muslim parallels’, J. Afr. Hist. XI, 2 (1970), 274–5.Google Scholar

⁴ I am grateful to Dr P. Hardy of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and to Dr A. Reid of the Australian National University, for help in finding these references.

⁵ Winstedt, R., The Malay Magician (London 1951), 72–3;Google Scholar and his Shaman, Saiva and Sufi… (London 1925), 166–7.Google Scholar

⁶ The 皕hikr prayer of the Qādirīya brotherhood had a quasi-military significance in Indonesia, where 皕hikr gatherings provided cover for meetings to plan the Banten up-rising of 1888 against the Dutch (Kartodirdjo, S., The Peasants' Revolt of Banten in 1888 (The Hague, 1966), 177). Kartodirdjo does not give much detail of the way in which the 皕hikr and other prayers were used, though religio-magical rituals and ceremonies, magical practices, mystical exercises, etc., figure prominently in the conclusion. Authorities cited differ as to whether the Banten revolt was a ‘magical, revivalistic nativistic movement’, or an ‘eschatological-nativistic movement against foreign domination’. The uninitiated historian may be pardoned for suspecting that this is illuminating ignotum per ignotiis.Google Scholar

⁷ Ibn, Baṭṭūta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354, selections by Gibb, H. A. R. (London, 1929), 10.Google Scholar

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⁹ Mohammedou, Aliou Tyam, La vie d'el Hadj Omar, tr. Gaden, H. (Paris, 1935), 13.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Willis, J. R., ‘The jihād of al-Ḥājj ‘Umar al-Fūtī: the doctrinal basis’, Univ. of London Ph.D. thesis, 1970, 59–60, quoting from the Rimāḥ of al-Ḥajj 'Umar.Google Scholar

¹¹ Ibn, Abī Zayd, La risâla… selon le rite mâlikite, ed. and tr. Bercher, L. (Alger, 1945), ch. xxiv.Google Scholar

¹² Ibn, Abī Zayd, 79.Google Scholar

¹³ Ba, A. J. and Daget, J., L'empire peul du Maçna (The Hague, 1962), 122–4 and n.Google Scholar

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¹⁵ Marty, P., L'Islam et les tribus du Soudan (Paris, 1920), II, 228.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ Ibn, Abī Zayd, 251.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Le, Cheykh Mohammed Ibn-Omar el-Tounsy, Voyage au Ouaday (Paris, 1851), 295;Google Scholar cf. 196.

¹⁹ Cerulli, E., ‘Folk literature of the Galla of southern Abyssirua’, Harvard African Studies (1962), 34, 38, 45, 100–1, 129, 142–3.Google Scholar

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²³ Farias, P., ‘The Almoravids: some questions concerning the character of the movement during its periods of closest contact with the western Sudan’, Bull. de l'Institut français d'Afrique noire, series B (1967), P. 103.Google Scholar But see also Norris, H. T. ‘New evidence on the life of ‘Abdullah b. Yāsīn and the origins of the Almoravid movement’, J. Afr. Hist., XII, 2 (1971).Google Scholar

²⁴ Aḥmad, bin al-Amīn al-Shinqītī, Al-Wasīt fi tarājim ‘udabä Shinqīt (Cairo, 1911), 472;Google Scholar translated in part by Teffahi, M., as Ahmed, Lamine ech-Chenguiti, El Wasit (St Louis (Senegal) 1953), 83–4. It may be, however, that ṣaff here means simply that they fought as a body, rather than individually, thus avoiding personal vendettas.Google Scholar

²⁵ Joly, A., ‘Remarques sur la poésie moderne chez les nomades algériens’, Revue africaine (1900), 288–9.Google Scholar

²⁶ …to die as a sjhid [martyr] is nothing. It is like being tickled until we fall and roll over… Then comes a heavenly princess, Who cradles you in her lap and wipes away the blood, Her heart all yours. And there are others who stand there, aligned as in war. They do not go home, but await the fall of their husbands— They see their husbands fall and rush off— And with a wave of spicy scent they become visible. If the heavenly princesses were visible, everyone would go to fight the Dutch. This passage, cited in Siegel, J. T., The Rope of God (Univ. of Calif. Press 1969), 76, is from a popular epic poem describing the war against the Dutch in Atjeh, in northern Sumatra, during the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

²⁷ Siré-Abbâs-Soh, , Chroniques du Foûta Sénégalais, tr. Delafosse, M. and Gaden, H. (Paris, 1933), 38–9.Google Scholar

²⁸ Soh, , Chroniques, 143–4.Google Scholar

²⁹ Fremantle, J. M., ‘A history of the region comprising the Katagum Division of Kano Province’, Journal of the African Society (04 1911), 307.Google Scholar

³⁰ Ba, and Daget, , 191 and n.Google Scholar

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³² Mukoshy, I. and Arnott, D. W., ‘Aspects of Fulani poetry’, mimeographed seminar paper, School of Oriental and African Studies (London, 1968), 10.Google Scholar

³³ Marty, P., études sur l'Islam au Dahomey (Paris, 1926), 109.Google Scholar

³⁴ Trimingharn, J. S., The Influence of Islam upon Africa (London, 1968), 84.Google Scholar He here translates ṣalāt al-isti-眳hāra as ‘the dream method’, but dreams were only one way in which the guidance so solicited might be vouchsafed. The Mughal Bābur prayed for a sign of victory in Hindustan, and the sign, a gift of mangoes or betel from India, was given (Beveridge, A., Bābur-Nāma in English (London, 1969), 440).Google Scholar

³⁵ Hurgronje, C. Snouck, The Achehnese (Leyden, 1906), I, 181–2, 187.Google Scholar

³⁶ Documents scientifiques de la Mission Tilho (1906–1909) (Paris, 1911), II, 359.Google Scholar It was because his prayers were always effective that the Maj of Bornu then asked him to stay permanently lest the Fulani again attack. El-Tounsy, (Ouaday, 304) also speaks of prayers made throughout al-Kanemi's army before marching against the Fulani.Google Scholar

³⁷ Njeuma, M. Z., ‘The rise and fall of Fulani rule in Adamawa: 1809–1901,’ Univ. of London Ph.D. thesis, 1969, 147–8.Google Scholar

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³⁹ Ibn, Faḍl Allāh al-‘Umarī, L'Afrique moms l'égypte, tr. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, M. (Paris, 1927), 352 and n.Google Scholar

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⁴¹ al-Bakri, 34–5, Arabic 13–14.

⁴² Ibn, Abī Zar’ al-Gharnati, Roudh el-Kartas, tr. Beaumier, A. (Paris, 1860), 184. The Delhi sultan, Fīrüz Shäh, offered effective prayers for water for his distressed army crossing the Rann of Kutch in 1366; Shams al-dīn Sirāj ‘Afīf, Tarīkh-i Fīrūz Shāhi (Calcutta, 1890), 217.Google Scholar

⁴³ Haj, Said, Histoire de Sokoto, attached to Tedzkiret en-Nisian, tr. Houdas, O. (Paris, 1901), 310, Arabic 192.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Haj, Said, 310, Arabic 192.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Haj, Said, 328–9 and n.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Tyam, , 142–3.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Kano Chronicle, 105–6Google Scholar, in Palmer, H. R., Sudanese Memoirs (Lagos, 1928, reprinted 1967), III.Google Scholar

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⁵⁰ Willis, (1970), 156.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Governor of Gambia to Secretary of State for Colonies, 8 August 1862, quoted in Klein, M. A., Islam and Imperialism in Senegal: Sine Saloum 1874–1914 (Edinburgh, 1968), 74.Google Scholar

⁵² Amīr, 眲husrau, 眲hazāin al-Futüḥ, ed. Wahid, Mirza (Calcutta, 1953), 76, 92.Google Scholar

⁵³ Abdullahi, dan Fodio, Tazyīn al-waraqāt, ed. and tr. Hiskett, M. (Ibadan, 1963), 110.Google Scholar

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⁵⁸ The Adāb al-ḥarb of Muḥammad bin Manṣūr, a work presented to the Delhi sultan Iltutmish not earlier than 1228, spells out such instructions in still more detail, adding other Quranic references; ed. Aḥmad, Suhaylī 眲hwansāī (Teheran, 1968–1969), 360–2.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Tyam, , 79, 181.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Farias, (1967), 853.Google Scholar A Ḥassänīya poem from the same area, the western Sahara, praised a prince of the Awlād Mubārak, saying that at a certain battle he was an imdm, his words infallible, his foes fleeing like ostriches; Norris, H. T., Shinqiti folk literature and song (Oxford, 1968), 86.Google Scholar But it is not clear to me from the passage whether in this case the prince was praying or himself fighting. In the case of Shaykh Mā al-‘Aynayn, in the western Sahara in the nineteenth century, it is clear that the cleric had a military reputation: poems speak of him, for example, confronting the enemy amidst the smoke of gunpowder (Norris, H. T., ‘Shaykh Mā al-‘Aynayn al-Qaiqamī in the folk-literature of the Spanish Sahara’, part 2, Bull. SOAS, XXXI (2) (1968), 358. And it is also clear that his curse was effective against those who wronged him (371). But the poems and stories in Norris's excellent article do not provide any explicit illustrations of the association between prayer and war.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Haj, Said, 313.Google Scholar

⁶² Denham, and Clapperton, , 250.Google Scholar On more than one occasion prayer was invoked as a counterweight to the new firearms. The sultan of Pate, for instance, on the East African coast in the sixteenth century, enlisted the prayers of sharīfs and other holy men against the Portuguese. Thus Pate was preserved, the cannon shot of the Europeans passing overhead; and the Portuguese had finally to come to a compromise agreement with the sultan. Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P., The East African Coast: Select Documents… (Oxford, 1962), 257–8.Google Scholar

⁶³ Backwell, H. F., The Occupation of Hausaland… (Lagos, 1927, reprinted 1969), 60.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Njeuma, (1969), 185.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibn, Abī Zar’, 211–12; he then had the Christian dead decapitated, and sent their heads to various towns in Spain and Morocco, that men might give thanks to God.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ 'Abbā, 眲hān Sarwānī, Tarī眳hī-iShīr Shāhī ed. ud-din, S. M. Imam (Dacca, 1964), 139; trans. by same (Dacca, 1964), 100.Google Scholar

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⁷³ Ibn, Abī Zayd, ch. xvi, 97. This prayer is wājib, i.e. recommended, an act which maintained the mrits of the community, faḍl al-jamā'ah;Google ScholarIbid. 289.

⁷⁴ Ibn, Abī Zayd, 83, 289.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Tyam, , 77.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Maḥmūd, Ka‘ti, Tarī眳h al-fanttāsh, ed. and tr. Houdas, O. and Delafosse, M. (Paris, 1913–1914, reprinted 1964), 333–4, Arabic 69–70.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Rouch, J., ‘Contribution à l'histoire des Songhay’, Mémoires de l'Institut français d'Afrique noire (1953), 396–7.Google Scholar

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⁷⁹ Johnston, H. A. S., The Fulani Empire of Sokoto (London, 1967), 127–8, 193.Google Scholar

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⁸² Monteil, V., ‘Lat Dyor… et l'Islamisation des Wolofs du Sénégal’, in Lewis, I. M., ed., Islam in Tropical Africa (London, 1966), 347; the evening prayer is here called takkusaan.Google Scholar

⁸³ Njeuma, (1969), 459.Google Scholar Funeral prayers for a living person were employed in various non-military circumstances. Muslims in Ethiopia, compelled once a year to surrender a Muslim girl as tribute to a Christian overlord, performed funeral prayers for her. Slave-traders, driven by storms on a portion of the East African coast where they might expect no mercy, performed the funeral prayers for each other; Freeman-Grenville, (1962), 9–10. A Temne minister of the Assemblies of God in Freetown, formerly a Muslim, told me that his family had performed the funeral rites for him after he became a Christian.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Fremantle, (1911), 309;Google Scholar this tradition says that Amadu's successor, Dunama, offered to make al-Kanemi his wazīr should his efforts and prayers for the liberation of the capital prove successful. But other reports say that Amadu did not die until two years later, or that he was deposed. To pray for one's own death was not unknown. An illustrious prince, Bako, son of a seventeenth-century ruler in Kano, fearful of a disputed succession and civil war after his father's death, prayed accordingly that he might himself die before his father, and his prayer was heard; Kano chronicle, 118.Google Scholar In the Arabian Nights (the 468th night), a pious black slave, whose prayer was powerful enough to bring rain, prayed successfully for his own death when he discovered that his piety was likely to win him acclaim in this world. ‘Abd al-Qādir of Futa Toro, already mentioned in this article, later entertained doubts about his own salvation. Consulting other clerics, he was advised that it would be better for him to die on his own land, killed by his own people. So he asked a particularly renowned cleric to pray for this, and it came to pass; Sob, , 57–9.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ al-Bakrī, , 316–17, Arabic 168.Google Scholar