1st Edition

The First Islamist Republic Development and Disintegration of Islamism in the Sudan

By Abdullahi A. Gallab Copyright 2008

    Adding a new dimension to the ongoing scholarly and political debate about Islamism or political Islam within the context of modern politics in Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world, this study details the development and disintegration of the Islamists' Republic in the Sudan. The Islamists' regime in the Sudan has propagated a distinctive ideology whose declared aim was to create a primary model of an Islamist state. This book is the story of the social world of Islamism. Based on extensive field work inside and outside the regime, it provides an entry point into its local and global worlds as they interact and collide with each other. The book places considerable emphasis on the theoretical development and growth of Islamism to address the profound transformations within political Islam. Political scientists, sociologists interested in religion and Middle Eastern and African scholars should read this book.

    Contents: Preface; Introduction; Reflections on Islamism in the Sudan; Elementary forms of the Islamist movement; Competing visions in the aftermath of the October Revolution; From the corporation to the coup; The 1st republic, its sheikh, and community; A call to jihad; End of the 1st republic; The road to Darfur: Islamism without al-Turabi, authoritarianism without Nimairi; Conclusion; Appendix; Index.

    Biography

    Abdullahi A. Gallab is Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and Religious Studies at Arizona State University, USA.

    'The Islamist "experiment" in Sudan has entered a decisive new phase with the end of its 22-year civil war with southern non-Muslims, the global reach of the Darfur crisis and the government's need for pragmatism to facilitate its oil production with its Chinese ally. Analysis of Sudan's withdrawal of Islamism is ably crafted by Gallab, a Sudanese scholar and former journalist who writes as though working with a surgeon’s scalpel. A must read!' Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Rhode Island College, USA '...a well-researched, highly informative contribution on contemporary Sudan. As a Sudanese scholar and former journalist, [Gallab] is uniquely positioned to trace the social roots of Sudanese Islamism and its impact on state, society and economy. While focusing on the period of the first Islamist republic (1989-99), he provides the reader with an excellent historical assessment of the rise of Islamism that places this period within the social, political and cultural history of postcolonial Sudan...By focusing on the sociopolitical landscapes that (re)produce Islamism, the book provides the reader with an excellent discussion of the multiple dynamics of political Islam. Recommended. All undergraduate, graduate and research collections.' Choice 'Abdullahi Gallab, a journalist and academic, has written an important book that fills a large part of that gap...Gallab not only recounts the story of Sudan's Islamists from the 1940s to the present day, but also locates the Islamic republic in theories of the state. His is a valuable contribution to the political science of Sudan.' African Affairs 'The topic of the book...has not been reflected in lengthy English-language academic publications. This well-written and easy-to-read book is the first occasion for bringing this topic to such an audience.' Political Studies Review 'Abdullahi Gallb's book successfully meets its main aims: to portray a complex picture of the emergence, development and failures of the Islamic movement u