The Karamogo were the scholar class among the peaceful Dyula

Dyula

The Dyula are a Mande ethnic group inhabiting several West African countries, including the Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau....

 traders

Merchant

A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...

 of Western Africa, of which Al-Hajj Salim Suwari

Al-Hajj Salim Suwari

Sheikh Al-Hajj Salim Suwari was a late 15th-century West African Soninke karamogo who focused on the responsibilities of Muslims minorities residing in a non-Muslim society...

 was a prominent member. The Karamogo developed theological rationales for living among non-Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s, arguing that one should nurture one's own faith and let conversion happen in its own time. Accordingly, jihad

Jihad

Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

should not be waged except in defensive contexts.