Rudolph Ware is associate professor in the department of history at the University of Michigan, and the founder and director of the IKHLAS research initiative for the study of Islamic Knowledge, Histories and Languages, Arts and Sciences. He is the author of The Walking Qur'an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa (2014) and several articles on slavery in Islamic Africa and the Atlantic World.

Zachary Wright is associate professor of history and religious studies at Northwestern University in Qatar. His research concerns Islamic revivalism and the religious sciences, especially Sufism, in North and West Africa from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. He is the author of Living Knowledge in West African Islam: The Sufi Community of Ibrahim Niasse (2015).

Amir Syed is a visiting assistant professor of the history of the Islamic world at the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include issues related to the construction of religious authority, scholarly culture, and Islamic knowledge practices.

Acknowledgments
Note on Translation

Introduction: Zachary Wright
Four Saintly Biographies
Islamic Intellectual Production in West Africa
Islamic Law in West Africa
Philosophy and Metaphysics
Women Scholars of West Africa
Structure of the Book

Shaykh ¿Uthman b. Fudi: Rudolph Ware, with translations by Aisha Bewley and Muhammad Shareef
Roots of the Religion (Kitab usul al-din)
Sciences of Behavior (¿Ul¿m al-mu¿amala)
Book of Distinction (Kitab al-tafriqa)

Shaykh ¿Umar al-Futi Tal: Amir Syed
Reminder for the Seekers (Tadhkirat al-mustarshidin)
Lances of the Party of the Merciful (Rimah hizb al-Rahim)
Vessel of Happiness (Safinat al-säada)

Shaykh A¿mad Bamba Mbacké: Rudolph Ware
The Valiant One (al-Sandid)
Pathways to Paradise (Manasalik al-jinan)
Gifts of the Benefactor (Mawahib al-Nafi¿)

Shaykh Ibrahim ¿Abdallah Niasse: Zachary Wright
The Spirit of Etiquette (Ruh al-adab)
The Removal of Confusion (Kashif al-ilbas)
The Jeweled Letters (Jawahir al-rasäil)
Poetry for the Prophet (from Diwawin al-sitt)

Conclusion: Rudolph Ware