'Erin Pettigrew's monograph offers a fresh interpretation of Islam and societal life in the Saharan West. Replacing local histories of Muslim esoteric sciences within the various cultural and social contexts that nurtured them, the author masterfully challenges notions of marginality and periphery in Islamic studies and African history.' Ismail Warscheid, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Introduction: a Saharan ontology of the invisible; 1. Principles of provenance: origins, debates, and social structures of l'ḥjāb in the Saharan West; 2. Local wisdom: contestations over l'ḥjāb in the 18th-19th centuries; 3. Colonial logics of Islam: managing the threat of l'ḥjāb; 4. Postcolonial transfigurations: contesting l'ḥjāb in the era of social media; 5. Desert panic: bloodsucking accusations and the terror of social change; 6. Sui generis: genealogical claims to the past and the transmission of l'ḥjāb; Epilogue.