From Istanbul to Dakar and Dar es Salaam

Abstract This article studies the formation of (borrowing Wilson Chacko Jacob's terminology) efendi masculinity, through the conceptual lens of adab (proper conduct). It combines interviews with members of Süleyman Efendi Cemaati in Dakar, Senegal, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and digital ethnography of Islamic forums in order to develop a historically informed cultural analysis of gendered and raced sartorial practices within the Cemaat. It argues that the Cemaat's culturally specific dress code—an ironed shirt tucked into trousers—is produced by tensions and convergences between civilizational discourses emanating from European metropoles, the modernizing reforms of the Kemalist state, and Islamic pedagogies of civility. At the intersection of these competing and concurring civilizing projects and processes is situated the figure of “Istanbul efendisi” (the gentleman from Istanbul) as the embodiment of civilized Muslim masculinity championed by Süleyman Efendi Cemaati. The article explores efendi masculinity within the Cemaat's pedagogy of adab, as a legacy of the Kemalist modernization project and the Turkish state's civilizing mission, by analyzing the discourses of order and hygiene in dormitories and the adoption of European-style male clothing. It examines how in Muslim Africa these legacies intersect with those of European colonialism and its civilizing mission.