1. Sanneh 1979 argues for an earlier, thirteenth-century date for al-Hajj Salim Suware. [BACK]

2. The phrase is that of Ivor Wilks (1984), to whom I am heavily indebted for his discussion of al-Hajj Salim and the Suwarian tradition. [BACK]

3. For the career of al-Hajj Mahmud Karantaw, see Levtzion 1968: 147-51, Hiskett 1984: 168-70, and Wilks 1989: 100-103. [BACK]

4. For a history of the "Wahhabi" movement in West Africa, see Kaba 1974 and Amselle 1988; see also Niezen 1990 for a description of a rural "Wahhabi" community in Mali. [BACK]

5. See, e.g., Kaba 1974. Mervyn Hiskett (1984: 290) goes so far as to label them "the religious wing of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain in West Africa." [BACK]

6. On the role of rote memorization in other traditions of Islamic learning, see Eickelman 1985 and Santerre 1973. [BACK]

7. Reichmuth 1989 describes comparable trends in Islamic education in Nigeria. [BACK]