Jihad, "Era das Revoluções" e história atlântica: desafiando a interpretação de Reis da história brasileira

Abstract

It is fortunate that I have an opportunity to reply to the comments of Professor Reis, who has criticized my article in Topoi in no uncertain terms. Prof. Reis has chosen to focus on specific details of my analysis rather than confront the challenge of scholarly debate over the substance of my article. Briefly, I have alleged that the scholarly analysis of the Atlantic world during the age of revolutions, not specifically the publications of Prof. Reis, has largely been distorted in two fundamental ways. First, the Atlantic world as usually conceived, with exceptions that are referred to in my article, has largely not included West African history, even though the African continent helped to shape the Atlantic basin and hence should figure as prominently in the study of the Atlantic, even the Black Atlantic, as Europe and the Americas. I have traced the origins of this failure, symbolically at least, to Eric Hobsbawm and Eugene Genovese, two prominent historians, for purposes of discussion. This is certainly obvious in my article and should have been apparent to Prof. Reis. Indeed the implication in my article is that Prof. Reis is of the same stature as Hobsbawm and Genovese in his distinguished career and hence should have been able to withstand my criticisms of his work as a sign of respect. Second, I have argued specifically that the jihad movement in West Africa that coincided chronologically with the age of revolutions has been overlooked or misinterpreted, despite an extensive literature by specialists of West Africa who have argued the enormous significance of jihad. Prof Reis falls into the category of scholars who have failed to appreciate this importance, although he has gone much further than many other scholars in identifying some of the factors of African history that are essential in the reconstruction of Atlantic history during the age of revolutions. Unfortunately, either Prof. Reis did not understand the basic argument of my paper or he became so defensive in the face of criticism that he lost perspective. Hopefully, my forthcoming book, Jihad in West Africa during the Age of Revolutions, 1785-1850 (Ohio University Press), will make my arguments even clearer and give him another chance to reflect on the criticisms of his own work so that this exchange can move from being an attack on personal integrity to a discussion of scholarly discourse.