Anne Bang 
Sufis and Scholars of the Sea [PDF ebook] 
Family Networks in East Africa, 1860-1925

Anne Bang focuses on the ways in which a particular Islamic brotherhood, or ”tariqa”, the tariqa Alawiyya, spread, maintained and propagated their particular brand of the Islamic faith. Originating in the South-Yemeni region of Hadramawt, the Alawi tariqa mainly spread along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The Alawis are here portrayed as one of many cultural mediators in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious Indian Ocean world in the era of European colonialism.