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Mahdara educational institution continues to play significant role in the shaping of Mauritania's religious and cultural identity. As nomadic entity, it could maintain key position over the course of hundreds of time, and develop a unique African Muslim model of education, culture and mass religious thinking. However, following independence from the French colonial, the rise of Mauritania as nation state, alongside other serious problems associated with climate, modernity, and globalization, the fate of deterioration was inevitable. Today, the intense debate of Mahdara reform continues to sharpen between those proponents of the traditional religious education, modernists, and seekers of middle ground. This paper explores the struggle of Mahdara with those problems to better understand the factors causing its slow decline. This study concludes that Mahdara may even be vulnerable to extinction in the near future should there not be rescuing approach of reform which would blend modernity with tradition system.

Over the course of time, the desert-based mahdara seminaries have made fundamental contributions to the preservation of the religious, spiritual, and cultural identity in West African societies. As an age-old nomadic entity, it was able to maintain a leading role in the promotion of socio-cultural traditions, as well as provide an indigenous model for public religious education in Mauritania. Following the country's independence and Mauritania's emergence as a nation state, modernity and political reform threatened and weakened the mahdara's prestige and glory. National educational reforms, globalization, weather crises and ensuing mass urbanization, in addition to ongoing political debates on the mahdara's model of instruction and its role in citizenship building, all had a role to play in its fate. The intense debate around the mahdara's reform continues to sharpen the divide between proponents of traditional religious learning, modernists, and proclaimed moderates. This paper explores the nature of the mahdara's struggle and the challenges shaping its position in the current religious, educational and political landscape, and leading to the adaptation and accommodation required for its survival. This study concludes that similar to other traditional institutions of Muslim learning, the survival of the mahdara in the face of insurmountable internal and external challenges and in view of its ambitions for progressive reform, the mahdara continues to celebrate itself as a unique model of religious learning whilst demonstrating an established core identity and reputation. Further research should highlight the interaction between tradition and modernity as seen in the case of the mahdara's survival and the necessity of the preservation of such endangered historical institutions of national and cultural identity. © 2019, Florida Gulf Coast University. All rights reserved. ; 154 ; To resolve this dilemma graduates were assisted with enrolling into the public education system in order to allow for their potential roles in the judiciary and government sector. This was achieved through generous support provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which established an association for post-graduate studies and research in order to grant graduates having accumulated four years of study university degree equivalent certificates. Middle Eastern countries supported the sub-Saharan countries in various ways such as sending teachers to Arabic schools, training of local teachers with external support, and the provision of textbooks. The government also established an administration office at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs tasked 154 with overseeing mahdaras and 'indigenous education' as well as regulating their annual financial support (Ould Abdel Wedoud, 2010).

Experts on Sufi movements relegate a rather significant and critical role for Sufism in the formation of redefined political forces on the new post-Arab Spring political map. This is particularly true for one of the most vibrant Sufi capitals of the Muslim world, Egypt, holding a record sum of more than 10 million Sufi members. In spite of this, however, one year after the Revolution in Egypt, political developments exhibited a pattern of failure of Sufis gaining political ground in the post-Mubarak political arena. This paper discusses contentions and problematic issues Sufis faced with respect to politics in Egypt, with particular focus given to their political experience in Egypt. This study seeks to explore the Sufi experience throughout the process of political struggle, while examining their contributions to the November 2011 elections in an attempt to unveil the factors culminating in their political setback in spite of their massive membership base, and the official favored support of the state, both on the local and international fronts. The study concludes that the nature of the Sufi practice itself contributed to a restraining of their political presence, in addition to their lack of political awareness, poor organization and populism, all of which acted critically toward creating a failed political journey for the Sufi orders in modern Egypt.

This relationship between Sufism and politics presents itself at the heart of an emerging Western interest in Sufi political development. Western institutions have identified Tasawwuf as viable option for shaping all forms of cooperation and understanding with the Muslim world. Such a choice however, stems from factual realities shown in the practice of some Sufi schools and historical developments. This inquiry seeks to explore the historical context of Sufism in relation to political engagement while elucidating its course of interaction as a demonstration of its very values and ideals. This paper also examines some of the similarities and differences between the attitudes of classical and contemporary Sufi practices vis- à-vis political life, and evaluates the evidences of both the current approaches to and interpretation of the position of Sufism in today's world. This research demonstrates the partial interpretation that favours a particular trend pertaining to Sufism and politics, and suggests that the defiant and politically active interpretation of Tasawwuf is by large the dominant and historically consistent current in Sufi thought and practice.