Muhammad Awuda Oulch at Abch: a reformist Islamic challenge to French and traditionalist interests in Ouaddai, Chad, 1947-1956

The return to Abch in 1947 of the faqih Muhammad Awuda Oulch from Cairo in order to create an institute of reformist Muslim learning marked the beginning of a new challenge to both French and traditionalist interests in the Ouaddai Region of eastern Chad. The soon flourishing ‘ma’ahad al-‘ilmi’ which Oulch founded in the capital of Ouaddai spurred the French colonial administration to organize a competing institution, the ‘collge franco-arabe’ of Abch. It would achieve only moderate success despite the backing of the Ouaddaian sultan and notables who were attached to a traditionalist Islam. Though the administration expelled Oulch from Abch for his allegedly hostile activities and though the sultan pressured some of his ‘foqaha’ to teach at the collge, thereby crippling the ma’ahad, they were never able to win over the bulk of the Muslim population. Notes, ref.