Dans la Cité des Marabouts

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) Geert Mommersteeg is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utrecht, and has conducted nearly three decades of research on the historic West African town of Djenné. The author is lying on his back, studying the constellation of cracks in the mud ceiling above his bed, and struggling to keep the fast during the hottest period of the dry season. Chapter 2 introduces two major kinds of knowledge acquired and practised by Djenné's religious scholars: namely a 'transparent' knowledge of the Islamic scriptures that is taught in the town's numerous Qur'anic schools and the purpose of which is collective well-being with its sights on paradise; and a 'secret' esoteric knowledge employed in the production of amulets, dream interpretation, geomancy, prophesyzing and making benedictions, all of which are typically commissioned in the service of individual, earthy pursuits.