TY - BOOK AU - Pettigrew,Erin TI - Invoking the invisible in the Sahara: Islam, spiritual mediation, and social change T2 - ASS African studies SN - 9781009224567 AV - BF1773.2.M38 P48 2022 U1 - 133.309648 23/eng/20220824 PY - 2022/// CY - New York PB - Cambridge University Press KW - Islamic occultism KW - Mauritania KW - Western Sahara KW - Supernatural KW - Religious aspects KW - Islam KW - HISTORY / Africa / General KW - bisacsh KW - History, Local N1 - Includes bibliographical references and index; Introduction: A Saharan Ontology of the Invisible -- Part I. 1. Principles of Provenance: Origins, Debates, and Social Structures of l'ḥjāb in the Saharan West -- 2. Local Wisdom: Contestations over l'ḥjāb in the 18th-19th centuries -- Part II. 3. Colonial Logics of Islam: Colonial Logics of Islam: Managing the threat of l'ḥjāb -- 4. Postcolonial Transfigurations: Contesting l'ḥjāb in the Era of Social Media -- Part III. 5. Desert Panic: Bloodsucking Accusations and the Terror of Social Change -- 6. Sui Generis: Genealogical claims to the past and the transmission of l'ḥjāb -- Epilogue -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index N2 - "In this innovative new history, Erin Pettigrew utilizes invisible forces and entities - esoteric knowledge and spirits - to show how these forms of knowledge and unseen forces have shaped social structures, religious norms, and political power in the Saharan West. Situating this ethnographic history in what became la Mauritanie under French colonial rule and, later the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Pettigrew traces the changing roles of Muslim spiritual mediators and their Islamic esoteric sciences - known locally as l'ḥjāb - over the long-term history of the region. By exploring the impact of the immaterial in the material world and demonstrating the importance of Islamic esoteric sciences in Saharan societies, she illuminates peoples' enduring reliance upon these sciences in their daily lives and argues for a new approach to historical research that takes the immaterial seriously"-- ER -