One man in his environment
Coordinates
Intellectual history and philology
Peripheries
Sources and structure
Dramatis loci
A history of Bornu and Baghirmi as Islamic states
The spread of Islam
Ethnicity, religion, slavery
Islam and traditional religions
Conclusion
Muhammad al-Wali
Biography
Works
Reputation
Education
Conclusion
The scholar's habitat
Scholarship
Religious leadership
Intellectual environment: genres
Intellectual environment: themes
Conclusion
Method and message
Al-Sanusi's Sughra
The kabbe
Between oral and scholarly text
Tradition with a twist
Conclusion
Demonising smokers
How tobacco conquered the Islamic lands
Al-Wali's point of view
A folktale about the devil's piss
From Abgar to al-Azhar
Conclusion
On writing
Author and authority
Why did al-Wali translate the Fulani commentary?
From orality to literacy
Knowing and the knower.