Precious Meanings and Attainment of Hopes by Sidi Ali Harazim
The Jawahir al-ma’ani is without doubt the most important primary source for the Tijaniyya. It was completed in 1798 by Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani’s khalifa, Sidi Ali Harazim, with the approval of Shaykh al-Tijani himself. This translation by Talut Dawud, an accomplished translator of Tijani texts, offers English readers the first of two volumes. Dawud relied on the 2012 edition of the Jawahir, redacted by the Moroccan researcher Radi Genoune. The translation was commissioned by Ibrahim Dimson at Fayda Books, and approved by Shaykh Mahy Cisse of Senegal.
Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection By Oludamini Ogunnaike
(Islamic Texts Society, 2020)
This study of West African poetry in praise of the Prophet (madih) explores the depth and deployment of a rich literary genre frequently ignored by academic research. Ogunnaike considers the breadth of madih poetry in West Africa, together with its antecedent references. The majority of his analysis returns to what he considers the most widespread and popular Arabic poetry in the region today: the poetry of the Tijani Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse.
.
Removal of Confusion by Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse
The Kashif al-ilbas, authored in the early 1930s, is a comprehensive defense of Sufism and the Tijaniyya. The work essentially comprised two volumes: the nine-chapter original, and the author’s appendix. This translation was entrusted by Shaykh Hassan Cisse and Shaykh Tijani Cisse to Zachary Wright in 2008, who drew on earlier drafts by Muhtar Holland and Abdullahi Okene. It was first published in 2010 with Fons Vitae, and revised for a subsequent publication in 2019.
Wrapping Authority: Women Islamic Leaders in a Sufi Movement in Dakar, Senegal (University of Toronto Press, 2018)
This book is based on years of ethnographic research in Senegal and Mauritania. It both offers new insights on the Tijani community of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, and demonstrates the contemporary importance of female leadership in urban contexts.
Sur la Voie du Prophète: le Cheikh Ahmad Tijani et la Tariqa Muhammadiyya By Zachary Wright
(Éditions Tasnîm, 2018)
The French translation of On the Path of the Prophet (see below) was completed by Benoit Schirmer, who worked closely with Wright. Daoud Riffi, a publisher of a number of Islamic Studies texts in French, wrote a new introduction to the work.
Ahmad al-Tijani de Fès: un sanctuaire soufi aux connexions transnationales By Johara Berriane
(L’Harmattan, 2016)
This book provides some historical background to the development of the Tijaniyya but is mostly an ethnography of the main Tijani zawiya in Fez, Morocco, where Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani is buried. It gives insight into the ways in which the contemporary Tijaniyya transcends national identities.
Living Knowledge in West African Islam by Zachary Wright
This work situates the formation of the knowledge community of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse within the Islamic intellectual history of West Africa. It also provides context for Shaykh Ibrahim’s contribution to the spread of the Tijaniyya in the twentieth century, and is based on a wide range of Arabic sources and interviews with prominent representatives of Niasse’s legacy in Senegal and beyond.
On the Path of the Prophet by Zachary Wright
This is a reprint of the 2005 publication (African American Islamic Institute) of Wright’s MA thesis (Arabic Studies, American University in Cairo, 2003) by the same name. It offers a useful introduction to the emergence of the Tijaniyya in the eighteenth century.
The Divine Flood: Ibrahim Niasse and the Roots of a Twentieth-Century Sufi Revival By Rüdiger Seesemann
(Oxford University Press, 2011)
Seesemann delves into the Islamic and Sufi doctrines, as well as the early history surrounding the emergence of the Tijani community of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse in West Africa. This work argues for the contemporary vibrancy of Sufi thought, and for the centrality of African Muslims in understanding Islamic revivalism in the modern age.
*For more recent publications related to the Tijaniyya, the most active publisher is Fayda Books (faydabooks.com).