Cheikh Babou

Cheikh Anta Babou is a historian of Islam and the modern West African Muslim diaspora. He joined the history department of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2002.  Educated at University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar and Michigan State University, Dr. Babou is the author of Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853–2013 (Ohio U Press, 2007), a French translation of the book was released by Karthala under the title Le Jihad de l’Ame in 2011. His second book, The Muridiyya on the Move: Islam, Migration and Place Making, was published by Ohio University Press in 2021. It was a finalist for the Fage-Oliver Prize of the ASA/UK for authors of an outstanding original scholarly work published on Africa the preceding two years. His other books include Shaykh Ahmadou  Bamba, le Fondateur de la Mouridiyya (Dakar, HGS, 2022) and Territoriality and Hospitality: Christian and Muslim Perspectives (Langham, 2024), he co-authored with Dr. John Azumah. Dr. Babou is the author of numerous articles that appeared in African Affairs, Journal of African History, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Journal of Religion in Africa, Africa Today and other scholarly journals in the United States and in France. He has contributed chapters to six edited volumes on Sufi Islam, migration, Islamic Education, Senegalese politics, Muslim-Christian relations, and the African diaspora. He was an editor of the Journal of African History from 2011 to 2016.

Babou offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses on topics related to ancient African history, colonial rule, decolonization, Islam, religion and politics, migration and the new African diaspora.