Islam is the second-largest religion in Mozambique behind Christianity. Estimates about adherents of Islam in Mozambique vary between 17%[1] and 19% of the total population.[2] According to local Muslim sources, 25 to 30% of Mozambicans are Muslim.[3] The faith was introduced by merchants visiting the Swahili coast, as the region was part of a Muslim economic network that spanned the Indian Ocean.[4][5] This later led to the formation of several officially Muslim political entities in the region. The vast majority of Mozambican Muslims are Sunni Muslims. The Muslims consist primarily of indigenous Mozambicans, citizens of South Asian (Indian and Pakistani) descent, and a very small number of North African and Middle Eastern immigrants.
Mozambique has long historic ties with the Muslim world. Initially by way of Sufi merchants, mostly from Yemen, and centuries after through a more organized system of coastal trading cities, more heavily influenced by the Ibadi Muslims from Oman along the shores of Eastern Africa.
The arrival of the Arab trade in Mozambique dates to the fourth Hijri century when Muslims established small emirates on the coast of East Africa. Links between Islam and the chiefly clans in Mozambique have existed since the eleventh century, when Islam made inroads into the northern Mozambican coast and became associated with the Shirazi ruling elites.[6]
Since the founding of the Kilwa Sultanate in the 10th AD century by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, Islam had become a major religion in the region. The former port city of Sofala, which became famous for its trade in ivory, timber, slaves, gold (by way of Great Zimbabwe) and iron with the Islamic Middle East and India, was one of the most important trading centres on the Mozambique coast.[7] Sofala[8] and much of the rest of coastal Mozambique was part of the Kilwa Sultanate from Arab arrival (believed to be the 12th century) until the Portuguese conquest in 1505. During the subsequent period of the Omani Al Bu Said dynasty, Muslim merchants expanded their trading zones south along the coast.
Colonial history
A mosque in Mozambique
Islam faced challenges in Mozambique during the colonial era. Since the Estado Novo period (1926–1974), Roman Catholicism has become the dominant religion following a formal alliance (Concordat) between the Church and the government. Only with the start of the War of Liberation did the state lower its opposition to Islam and try to accommodate the religion, in order to avoid an alliance between Muslims and the dissident liberation movement.
Modern Mozambique
Percentage of total population of Mozambique's provinces made up by Muslims (2007)[9]
Since the end of the socialist period (1989 onwards), Muslims have been able to proselytise freely and build new mosques. Muslims have also made their way into the parliament. Several South African, Kuwaiti and other Muslim agencies are active in Mozambique, with one important one being the African Muslim Agency. An Islamic University has been set up in Nampula, with a branch in Inhambane. Mozambique is also an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Rather than relying on the culturally loaded notions of a "chief" of régulo, the FRELIMO government has preferred to use the term "traditional authorities" to indicate a group of chiefs and their entourage of subordinate chiefs and healers. Realizing the social importance of this group, FRELIMO gradually reinstated "traditional authority."[6]
While the Muslim leadership in northern Mozambique seems to have recovered the "traditional" side of their authority and power with legal reforms, they are still largely associated with chieftainship and African culture rather than Islam. Because of this they are barely able to access benefits or gain socio-political influence through Islamic platforms or organizations. This situation has been the source of their continual frustration and resistance to the alleged racial and cultural discrimination perpetrated by FRELIMO allied with southern Wahhabis, Afro-Indians, and Indians.[6]
Whereas Sudan, for instance, had made sharia the law of the land, Mozambique has made attempts to recognize both traditional and religious marriages.[10]
Impact
From the arrival of Islam in the region, literacy rates among the locals via utilizing the Arabic script had risen by the late 19th century. Use of the script was often used for secular affairs like recording business transactions, writing local histories or creating literature. The script was used by diverse groups including the Swahili, non-Swahili Africans, non-Muslims, and women.[11]
^"Religions in Mozambique | PEW-GRF". www.globalreligiousfutures.org. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
^"Mozambique". The World Factbook. Retrieved 2022-09-01.
^"Mozambique". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
^Bonate, Liazzat (2010-07-02). "Islam in Northern Mozambique: A Historical Overview". History Compass. 8 (7): 573–593. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00701.x. hdl:11250/2779503. ISSN 1478-0542.
^Von Sicard, S. (2008-12-01). "Islam in Mozambique: Some Historical and Cultural Perspectives". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 28 (3): 473–490. doi:10.1080/13602000802548201. ISSN 1360-2004. S2CID 216117226.
^ abcNkirote., Maingi, Anne. The diversity factor in the history of Islam in Nairobi, 1900-1963. OCLC 61571423.
^Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sofala" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 344.
^"INE Destaques". Instituto Nacional de Estatistica. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
^Martin, Richard C. (2004). Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN978-0028656038.
^Bonate, Liazzat J. K. (2016). "Islam and Literacy in Northern Mozambique: Historical Records on the Secular Uses of the Arabic Script". Islamic Africa. 7 (1): 60–80. ISSN 2333-262X. JSTOR 90017588.
^Luz, Nuno (23 December 2009). "Abel Xavier se retira y se hace musulmán" [Abel Xavier retires and becomes a Muslim]. Marca (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 October 2020.
^ abHaron, Muhammed (2020), "Southern Africa's Muslim Communities: Selected Profiles", The Palgrave Handbook of Islam in Africa, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 163–202, ISBN978-3-030-45758-7, retrieved 2023-02-10
Further reading
Alpers, Edwards, “ Islam in the Service of Colonialism ? Portuguese Strategy During the Armed Liberation Struggle in Mozambique ”, Lusotopie 1999 (Paris, Karthala), 1999, pp. 165–184.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K., “Divergent Patterns of Islamic Education in Northern Mozambique: Qur’anic Schools of Angoche.” In Robert Launay, ed., Islamic Education in Africa: Writing Boards and Blackboards. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2016, 95-118.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K., “Islam and Literacy in Northern Mozambique: Historical Records on the Secular Uses of the Arabic Script.” Islamic Africa, Vol. 7, 2016, 60-80.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K. “The Advent and Schisms of Sufi Orders in Mozambique, 1896–1964”. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Vol. 26, No. 4, 2015, 483-501.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K., “Muslim Memories of the Liberation War in Cabo Delgado.” Kronos: Southern African Histories, Vol. 39, November 2013, 230-256.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K. ,“Islam in Northern Mozambique: A Historical Overview.” History Compass, 8/7, 2010, 573-593.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K. “Muslims of Northern Mozambique and the Liberation Movements”. Social Dynamics, Vol. 35, No 2, September, 2009, 280-294.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K., “L’Agence des musulmans d’Afrique. Les transformations de l’islam à Pemba au Mozambique”. Afrique Contemporaine, No. 231, 2009, 63-80.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K., “Muslim Religious Leadership in Post-Colonial Mozambique.” South African Historical Journal, No 60 (4), 2008, 637-654.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K., “Governance of Islam in Colonial Mozambique.” In V. Bader, A. Moors and M. Maussen, eds., Colonial and Post-Colonial Governance of Islam. Amsterdam University Press, 2011, 29-48.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K., “Between Da’wa and Development: Three Transnational Islamic Nongovernmental Organizations in Mozambique, 1980–2010”. Newsletter of the Africa Research Initiative, Second Edition –March 2015, Centre for Strategic Intelligence Research, National Intelligence University, Washington DC, pp. 7–11.
Bonate, Liazzat J. K. “Traditions and Traditions: Islam and Chiefship in Northern Mozambique, ca. 1850-1974.” (PhD Dissertation, University of Cape Town, 2007)
Bonate, Liazzat J. K. « Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique », Journal of Religion in Africa, vol.36, no.2, pp. 2006, pp. 139–166
Bonate, Liazzat J. K. "Dispute over Islamic funeral rites in Mozambique. A Demolidora dos Prazeres by Shaykh Aminuddin Mohamad », LFM. Social sciences & missions 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, no.17, Dec.2005, pp. 41–59
Carvalho, Á. de, “ Notas para a história das confrarias islâmica na Ilha de Moçambique ”, Arquivo (Maputo) (4), octobre : 59-66.
João, B. B., Abdul Kamal e a história de Chiúre nos séculos XIX-XX, Maputo, Arquivos históricos de Moçambique, (Coll. Estudos, n° 17), 2000
Macagno, Lorenzo, Outros muçulmanos : Islão e narrativas coloniais, Lisbon (Portugal) : Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2006
Monteiro, O., “ Sobre a actuação da corrente "wahhabitta" no Islão moçambicano : algumas notas relativas ao período 1964-1974 ”, Africana (Porto) (12), 1993, pp. 85-107.
Monteiro, O., O Islão, o poder e a guerra (Moçambique 1964-1974), Porto, Universidade Portucalense, 1993.
Morier-Genoud, Eric, « L’islam au Mozambique après l’indépendance. Histoire d’une montée en puissance », L’Afrique Politique 2002, Paris: Karthala, 2002, pp. 123–146
Morier-Genoud, Eric, « The 1996 ‘Muslim holiday’ affair. Religious competition and state mediation in contemporary Mozambique », Journal of Southern African Studies, Oxford, vol.26, n°3, Sept. 2000, pp.409–427.
Morier-Genoud, Eric “A Prospect of Secularization? Muslims and Political Power in Mozambique Today”, Journal for Islamic Studies (Cape Town), no. 27, 2007, pp. 233–266
Morier-Genoud, Eric “Demain la sécularisation? Les musulmans et le pouvoir au Mozambique aujourd’hui”, in R. Otayek & B. Soares (ed.), Etat et société en Afrique. De l'islamisme à l'islam mondain? (Paris: Karthala, 2009), pp. 353–383
March 03, 2023
islam, mozambique, islam, second, largest, religion, mozambique, behind, christianity, estimates, about, adherents, vary, between, total, population, according, local, muslim, sources, mozambicans, muslim, faith, introduced, merchants, visiting, swahili, coast. Islam is the second largest religion in Mozambique behind Christianity Estimates about adherents of Islam in Mozambique vary between 17 1 and 19 of the total population 2 According to local Muslim sources 25 to 30 of Mozambicans are Muslim 3 The faith was introduced by merchants visiting the Swahili coast as the region was part of a Muslim economic network that spanned the Indian Ocean 4 5 This later led to the formation of several officially Muslim political entities in the region The vast majority of Mozambican Muslims are Sunni Muslims The Muslims consist primarily of indigenous Mozambicans citizens of South Asian Indian and Pakistani descent and a very small number of North African and Middle Eastern immigrants Contents 1 Pre colonial history 2 Colonial history 3 Modern Mozambique 4 Impact 5 Prominent Mozambican Muslims 6 See also 7 References 8 Further readingPre colonial history Edit A mosque in Mozambique Island Mozambique has long historic ties with the Muslim world Initially by way of Sufi merchants mostly from Yemen and centuries after through a more organized system of coastal trading cities more heavily influenced by the Ibadi Muslims from Oman along the shores of Eastern Africa The arrival of the Arab trade in Mozambique dates to the fourth Hijri century when Muslims established small emirates on the coast of East Africa Links between Islam and the chiefly clans in Mozambique have existed since the eleventh century when Islam made inroads into the northern Mozambican coast and became associated with the Shirazi ruling elites 6 Since the founding of the Kilwa Sultanate in the 10th AD century by Ali ibn al Hassan Shirazi Islam had become a major religion in the region The former port city of Sofala which became famous for its trade in ivory timber slaves gold by way of Great Zimbabwe and iron with the Islamic Middle East and India was one of the most important trading centres on the Mozambique coast 7 Sofala 8 and much of the rest of coastal Mozambique was part of the Kilwa Sultanate from Arab arrival believed to be the 12th century until the Portuguese conquest in 1505 During the subsequent period of the Omani Al Bu Said dynasty Muslim merchants expanded their trading zones south along the coast Colonial history Edit A mosque in Mozambique Islam faced challenges in Mozambique during the colonial era Since the Estado Novo period 1926 1974 Roman Catholicism has become the dominant religion following a formal alliance Concordat between the Church and the government Only with the start of the War of Liberation did the state lower its opposition to Islam and try to accommodate the religion in order to avoid an alliance between Muslims and the dissident liberation movement Modern Mozambique Edit Percentage of total population of Mozambique s provinces made up by Muslims 2007 9 Since the end of the socialist period 1989 onwards Muslims have been able to proselytise freely and build new mosques Muslims have also made their way into the parliament Several South African Kuwaiti and other Muslim agencies are active in Mozambique with one important one being the African Muslim Agency An Islamic University has been set up in Nampula with a branch in Inhambane Mozambique is also an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation OIC Rather than relying on the culturally loaded notions of a chief of regulo the FRELIMO government has preferred to use the term traditional authorities to indicate a group of chiefs and their entourage of subordinate chiefs and healers Realizing the social importance of this group FRELIMO gradually reinstated traditional authority 6 While the Muslim leadership in northern Mozambique seems to have recovered the traditional side of their authority and power with legal reforms they are still largely associated with chieftainship and African culture rather than Islam Because of this they are barely able to access benefits or gain socio political influence through Islamic platforms or organizations This situation has been the source of their continual frustration and resistance to the alleged racial and cultural discrimination perpetrated by FRELIMO allied with southern Wahhabis Afro Indians and Indians 6 Whereas Sudan for instance had made sharia the law of the land Mozambique has made attempts to recognize both traditional and religious marriages 10 Impact EditFrom the arrival of Islam in the region literacy rates among the locals via utilizing the Arabic script had risen by the late 19th century Use of the script was often used for secular affairs like recording business transactions writing local histories or creating literature The script was used by diverse groups including the Swahili non Swahili Africans non Muslims and women 11 Prominent Mozambican Muslims EditAmade Camal MP from Nampula Province Abel Xavier Portugal international footballer 12 Jose Ibraimo Abudo politician and former Minister of Justice 13 Nazira Abdula politician and pediatrist 13 See also Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Islam in Mozambique Religion in Mozambique Insurgency in Cabo DelgadoReferences Edit Religions in Mozambique PEW GRF www globalreligiousfutures org Retrieved 2022 10 10 Mozambique The World Factbook Retrieved 2022 09 01 Mozambique United States Department of State Retrieved 2022 10 10 Bonate Liazzat 2010 07 02 Islam in Northern Mozambique A Historical Overview History Compass 8 7 573 593 doi 10 1111 j 1478 0542 2010 00701 x hdl 11250 2779503 ISSN 1478 0542 Von Sicard S 2008 12 01 Islam in Mozambique Some Historical and Cultural Perspectives Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 28 3 473 490 doi 10 1080 13602000802548201 ISSN 1360 2004 S2CID 216117226 a b c Nkirote Maingi Anne The diversity factor in the history of Islam in Nairobi 1900 1963 OCLC 61571423 Sofala MSN Encarta Archived from the original on 2009 10 31 Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Sofala Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 25 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 344 INE Destaques Instituto Nacional de Estatistica Retrieved 25 August 2022 Martin Richard C 2004 Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World Macmillan Reference USA ISBN 978 0028656038 Bonate Liazzat J K 2016 Islam and Literacy in Northern Mozambique Historical Records on the Secular Uses of the Arabic Script Islamic Africa 7 1 60 80 ISSN 2333 262X JSTOR 90017588 Luz Nuno 23 December 2009 Abel Xavier se retira y se hace musulman Abel Xavier retires and becomes a Muslim Marca in Spanish Retrieved 23 October 2020 a b Haron Muhammed 2020 Southern Africa s Muslim Communities Selected Profiles The Palgrave Handbook of Islam in Africa Cham Springer International Publishing pp 163 202 ISBN 978 3 030 45758 7 retrieved 2023 02 10Further reading EditAlpers Edwards Islam in the Service of Colonialism Portuguese Strategy During the Armed Liberation Struggle in Mozambique Lusotopie 1999 Paris Karthala 1999 pp 165 184 Bonate Liazzat J K Divergent Patterns of Islamic Education in Northern Mozambique Qur anic Schools of Angoche In Robert Launay ed Islamic Education in Africa Writing Boards and Blackboards Bloomington and Indianapolis Indiana University Press 2016 95 118 Bonate Liazzat J K Islam and Literacy in Northern Mozambique Historical Records on the Secular Uses of the Arabic Script Islamic Africa Vol 7 2016 60 80 Bonate Liazzat J K The Advent and Schisms of Sufi Orders in Mozambique 1896 1964 Islam and Christian Muslim Relations Vol 26 No 4 2015 483 501 Bonate Liazzat J K Muslim Memories of the Liberation War in Cabo Delgado Kronos Southern African Histories Vol 39 November 2013 230 256 Bonate Liazzat J K Islam in Northern Mozambique A Historical Overview History Compass 8 7 2010 573 593 Bonate Liazzat J K Muslims of Northern Mozambique and the Liberation Movements Social Dynamics Vol 35 No 2 September 2009 280 294 Bonate Liazzat J K L Agence des musulmans d Afrique Les transformations de l islam a Pemba au Mozambique Afrique Contemporaine No 231 2009 63 80 Bonate Liazzat J K Muslim Religious Leadership in Post Colonial Mozambique South African Historical Journal No 60 4 2008 637 654 Bonate Liazzat J K Governance of Islam in Colonial Mozambique In V Bader A Moors and M Maussen eds Colonial and Post Colonial Governance of Islam Amsterdam University Press 2011 29 48 Bonate Liazzat J K Between Da wa and Development Three Transnational Islamic Nongovernmental Organizations in Mozambique 1980 2010 Newsletter of the Africa Research Initiative Second Edition March 2015 Centre for Strategic Intelligence Research National Intelligence University Washington DC pp 7 11 Bonate Liazzat J K Traditions and Traditions Islam and Chiefship in Northern Mozambique ca 1850 1974 PhD Dissertation University of Cape Town 2007 Bonate Liazzat J K Matriliny Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique Journal of Religion in Africa vol 36 no 2 pp 2006 pp 139 166 Bonate Liazzat J K Dispute over Islamic funeral rites in Mozambique A Demolidora dos Prazeres by Shaykh Aminuddin Mohamad LFM Social sciences amp missions Archived 2016 03 03 at the Wayback Machine no 17 Dec 2005 pp 41 59 Carvalho A de Notas para a historia das confrarias islamica na Ilha de Mocambique Arquivo Maputo 4 octobre 59 66 Joao B B Abdul Kamal e a historia de Chiure nos seculos XIX XX Maputo Arquivos historicos de Mocambique Coll Estudos n 17 2000 Macagno Lorenzo Outros muculmanos Islao e narrativas coloniais Lisbon Portugal Imprensa de Ciencias Sociais 2006 Monteiro O Sobre a actuacao da corrente wahhabitta no Islao mocambicano algumas notas relativas ao periodo 1964 1974 Africana Porto 12 1993 pp 85 107 Monteiro O O Islao o poder e a guerra Mocambique 1964 1974 Porto Universidade Portucalense 1993 Morier Genoud Eric L islam au Mozambique apres l independance Histoire d une montee en puissance L Afrique Politique 2002 Paris Karthala 2002 pp 123 146 Morier Genoud Eric The 1996 Muslim holiday affair Religious competition and state mediation in contemporary Mozambique Journal of Southern African Studies Oxford vol 26 n 3 Sept 2000 pp 409 427 Morier Genoud Eric A Prospect of Secularization Muslims and Political Power in Mozambique Today Journal for Islamic Studies Cape Town no 27 2007 pp 233 266 Morier Genoud Eric Demain la secularisation Les musulmans et le pouvoir au Mozambique aujourd hui in R Otayek amp B Soares ed Etat et societe en Afrique De l islamisme a l islam mondain Paris Karthala 2009 pp 353 383 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Islam in Mozambique amp oldid 1138509763, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
