Panel

5. Knowledge-making: Institutions, Objects, Cultural Ownership

Knowledge Circulation Between Arabian Peninsula and Africa: The Graduates of Medina

1 - Sheikh Ahmed Msallam from Lamu, Kenya, and his Network

Friday, June 13, 2025

14:00 - 15:45 GMT

Location: LNB-27B

Presenter(s)

KK

Kai Kresse
Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany

Presentation Abstract
Sheikh Ahmed Msallam (1947-2022) also known as ‘Kitendi’, from Kizingitini, Pate Island, in the wider Lamu archipelago, was one of the most influential Islamic scholars in terms of teaching a generation of Salafi oriented reformist sheikhs in Kenya. Being employed long-term by the Saudi-Arabian embassy in Nairobi as a translator (Arabic-Swahili and Swahili-Arabic) because of his impeccable linguistic abilities, he also translated Islamic pamphlets and teachings by sheikhs/authors who the Saudi Arabian government saw as important for the cause of furthering their Islamic position within East Africa and the Swahili speaking Muslim public. This paper seeks to provide an account of him and his writings and educational as well as missionary activities, on the basis of his pamphlets (including translations), speeches and sermons. Sources also involve interviews with him, as well as with some of his family members and disciples, some of whom studied in Medina due to his mediatory efforts. He himself has studied at Omdurman University in the early 1970s.