Knut S. Vikør

University of Bergen, AHKR (Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion), Faculty Member

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My current research interest is primarily within Islamic law, where I have worked on ijtihad in the early modern period. Previously, I have worked on 19th-century Sufism, in particular in North Africa (the Sanusiya and the Idrisi tradition).

I am also interested in the history of Islam in Africa in general, primarily north and western (the Sahara), but also comparatively.

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Britta Frede

University Of Bayreuth, Germany

shamil jeppie

University of Cape Town

Ulrich Rebstock

Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg

Fallou Ngom

Erin Pettigrew

New York University Abu Dhabi

Rüdiger Seesemann

Ismail Warscheid Hargal

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research

Said Ennahid

Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane

Ghislaine Lydon

Dmitry Bondarev

University of Hamburg

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Papers by Knut S. Vikør

Arabic Literature of Africa, Volume 5. The Writings of Mauritania and the Western Sahara, Parts 1 and 2Edited by Charles Stewart

Journal of Islamic Studies, 2016

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A Tale of Three 'Shambas': Shafi'i-Ibadi Legal Cooperation in the Zanzibar Protectorate. Part One

Sudanic Africa, 1999

Libya: Frå Qadhafi til Khalifa Haftar

Babylon Nordic Journal of Middle East Studies, 1970

To hendingar har bidratt til å sette Libya i fokus igjen den siste våren. Den eine var ei evaluer... more To hendingar har bidratt til å sette Libya i fokus igjen den siste våren. Den eine var ei evaluering av den norske innsatsen i Libya-krigen i 2011, som var oppe til debatt i Stortinget, og som reiste spørsmålet om Norge hadde eit medansvar for det kaoset som følgte. Det andre var eit dramatisk skifte i dette kaoset da ein "krigsherre" eller "sjøloppnevnt general" fra Aust-Libya marsjerte mot hovudstaden Tripoli og truga med å ta makta i landet.

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The Maghreb since 1800 : a short history

The Maghreb - the region that today encompasses Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya - is a region... more The Maghreb - the region that today encompasses Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya - is a region apart within the larger Muslim and Arab world. Today the focus of popular uprisings for democracy and participation, it underwent long periods of colonisation and anti-colonial nationalist resistance, both peaceful and militant. To understand the nature of today's developments in North Africa we need fully to appreciate the tumultuous history of the region and how its four discrete countries followed different trajectories, some marked by a continuity of social and political structures in both the colonial era and as independent states, while others were marked by sharp ruptures and violent struggles. These historical differences are still visible in the current era and tell us much about the societies in question. This short history of the Maghreb surveys its development from the coming of Islam to the present day, but with greatest emphasis on the modern period from the early nine...

The Man Who Believed in the Mahdi

Sudanic Africa, 1991

The following is a document in defence of the Sudanese Mahdi, written by one of his followers, Yü... more The following is a document in defence of the Sudanese Mahdi, written by one of his followers, Yüsuf A˛mad Mu˛ammad fiAwa∂ al-Sıd. 1 Entitled 'The answers that silence', it purports to be the report of a conversation he had with a Moroccan believer, one A˛mad b. fiAbd Allh al-Fsı in 1306/1888-9, that is four years after the death of the Mahdi while his khalıfa fiAbdallhi was reigning. The format of the debate is that the Sudanese raises a number of reservations and criticisms made against the Mahdi by his opponents, 2 while the Moroccan answers them. Al-Fsı is thus the 'man who belived in the Mahdi although he did not see him'. We may assume that this is not the report of an actual debate, and that no 'A˛mad al-Fsı' ever existed. It is a literary device to discuss points raised by those who denied the Mahdi's mission and refute them. Thus it refers to events that took place well after the purported time of composition, such as the fact that the three khalıfas did not succeed each other in office, and the destruction of the Mahdi's tomb. It must thus have been written after the Mahdiyya had been defeated by the Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1898. At this time, belief in the

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The Origins of the Sharia

A Tale of Three 'Shambas': Shafi'i-Ibadi Legal Cooperation in the Zanzibar Protectorate. Part One

by Knut S. Vikør and Anne K. Bang

Sudanic Africa, 1999

Europeisk lov og islamsk lov

Babylon Nordic Journal of Middle East Studies, 2016

Lovene vi har i Midtausten er ikkje så mye arva frå "kolonitida" som dei samme som i de... more Lovene vi har i Midtausten er ikkje så mye arva frå "kolonitida" som dei samme som i denne tida. Derfor må vi heller sjå på kva dei sjølstendige statane har endra i forhold til det som var før europearane. Her kan vi sjå ei utvikling i retning av meir "moderne" normer, men også større statskontroll over det private.

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Sources for Sanusi Studies

smi.uib.no

This is a companion volume to my Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sa... more

The oasis of salt: the history of Kawar, a Saharan centre of salt production

Kawar, an oasis in the centre of the Sahara, rose to prominence on revenues from the vast quantit... more

Between God and the Sultan: a history of Islamic law

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Islamic Law in the Modern World: States, Laws, and Constitutions

Islamic Studies in the Twenty-first Century

Al-Sanusi and Qadhafi: Continuity of Thought?

The Maghreb Review, 1987

The Islamic tradition

Routledge Handbook of Religious Laws, 2019

The Early History of the Kawar Oasis: A Southern Border of the Maghreb or a Northern Border of the Sudan?

The Maghreb Review, 1987

The Middle East viewed from the North

Between God and the Sultan: A History of Islamic Law

This introduction to Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) summarizes its major concepts and prese... more This introduction to Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) summarizes its major concepts and presents the contemporary debates among historians concerning the historicity of the Islamic sources of dogma, and of the dating of early Islamic law. It describes the classical practice of the law, in the formulation and elaboration of the legal rules (fatwas, furu' works, mukhtasars and so forth) and in the paradigms of legal practice in the courts. It summarizes various types of Islamic substantive legal rules (in mu'amalat), hudud and ta'zir, bodily harm and diya, marriage and family law and some apects of economic law, in particular taxation, contracts and the marketplace.

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A Zanzibari Waqf of Books: The Library of the Mundhiri Family

Sudanic Africa, 1996

... In a discussion with Dr Ahmed bin Sumeit Khitamy, whose father Sharif Abdul Rahman Khitamy&#x... more

The Sanusi Letters: A Checklist

... A group of Sanusi notables [in the hand of cAbd al-Rahim b. Ahmad al-Mahbub] to Muhammad b. c... more

Ethnic encounter and culture change : papers from the Third Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, Joensuu, 1995

Papers from the third Nordic Conference, concentrating on ethnic encounters between Europeans and... more

Arabic Literature of Africa, Volume 5. The Writings of Mauritania and the Western Sahara, Parts 1 and 2Edited by Charles Stewart

Journal of Islamic Studies, 2016

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A Tale of Three 'Shambas': Shafi'i-Ibadi Legal Cooperation in the Zanzibar Protectorate. Part One