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Knut S. Vikør
Professor of History
Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion
Dr. philos. (Univ. of Bergen 1992); Cand. polit. (Univ. of Bergen 1979).
Academic positions held
Research fellow (NAVF-NFR), Univ. of Bergen, 1984-86.
Research fellow, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (CINA), Copenhagen, 1987-88.
Director, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Univ. of Bergen,
1988-2005.
Assoc. Professor, Department of History, Univ. of Bergen, 2002-07.
Professor, idem, 2007- .
Professional bodies
Head, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, U. of B., 2011- .
Member of the Board and Secretary, Nordic Society for Middle Eastern
Studies, 1989-2004.
Member of the Council of the European Association for Middle Eastern Studies
(EURAMES), 1990-2006; Vice President, 1993-96; 1999-2006.
Member of the Steering Committee, ESF project on "Individual and Society in the Mediterranean Muslim World", 1996-2000.
Editor, Sudanic Africa, A Journal of Historical Sources, 1990-2009.
Member of the editorial board, Islamic Africa, 2009- .
Member of the advisory editorial board, Journal of Sufi Studies, 2011- .
Member of the advisory editorial board, Saint-Petersburg State University Annual of Asian and African Studies, 2011- .
Member of the advisory editorial board, Babylon, 2003- .
Member of the advisory editorial board, Journal of Libyan Studies, 2000-03.
Member of the advisory editorial board, Periodica Islamica, 1995-97.
Member of the advisory editorial board, Islam et sociétés au sud de Sahara, 1990-2004.
Editor, book series Islam in Africa (Brill), 2002- .
Recent publications
-- The Maghreb since 1800. A short history. London 2012 (Norwegian edn.: Maghreb: Nordafrikas historie. Oslo 2011; 1st edn. 2007).
-- Islam - ei faktabok. Oslo 2006 (1st edn. 2002).
-- Between God and the Sultan: A history of Islamic law. London and New York 2005. (Norwegian edn.:
Mellom Gud og stat: Ei historie om islamsk lov og rettsvesen. Oslo 2003;
German edn.: Zwischen Gott und Sultan: Geschichte des islamischen Rechts. Berlin 2012.)
-- Ei verd bygd på islam. Oversikt over
Midtaustens historie. Oslo 2004 (1st edn. 1993).
-- The Exoteric Ahmad Ibn Idris.
A Sufi's Critique of the Madhahib and the Wahhabis: Four Arabic texts
with translation and commentary
(with Bernd Radtke, John O'Kane and R.S. O'Fahey). Islamic History and
Civilization: Studies and Texts, 31. Leiden 2000.
-- The Oasis of Salt. The History of Kawar, a Saharan Centre of Salt Production. Bergen Studies on the Middle East and Africa: 3. Bergen 1999.
-- Sources for Sanusi Studies. Sudanic Africa Texts and Sources: 1, Bergen 1996.
-- Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge. Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood. London: and Evanston 1995.
On-line articles
- The Man Who Believed in the Mahdi: article, 1991 (Sudanic Africa 2, 1991: w. M.I. Abu Salim)
- The Sanusi Letters: A checklist: article (Sudanic Africa 3, 1992)
- "Fundamentalisme, islamisme eller politisk islam?". Seminar paper, 1995
- "The development of ijtihad and Islamic reform, 1750-1850". Conference paper, Joensuu 1995.
- "The Shari'a and the nation state: who can codify the divine law?". Conference paper, Oslo 1998.
- A Tale of Three shambas: article (Sudanic Africa 10, 1999: w. A.K. Bang)
- "'The Truth about Cats and Dogs': A debate on the genesis of Islamic law". Conference paper, Lund 2001.
Full publications list.
Current research projects
"The ijtihad debate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: The case of al-Sanusi's Iqaz al-wasnan"
The project discusses the debate on ijtihad and taqlid in the period preceding the European impact. The demands for an 'opening of the door' to ijtihad gained strength in the eigtheenth century, in particular in the marginal areas of the Islamic world, uch as Morocco, India and other peripheral areas. This is not a demand for 'free interpretation', but to losen the bonds to taqlid and to the established authority of the schools of law, and allowing direct work on the sources of Revelation in the Koran and sunna. This study is focused on a central actor in this debate, Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi and his most important work on the topic, Iqaz al-wasnan fi'l-'amal bi'l-hadith wa'l-quran, to see what is meant with the multi-faceted term ijtihad in this context.
"Between God and the Sultan: A History of Islamic law".
This is an introduction to the history of the Shari'a both as a law and as practiced in the courts. It presents the theories of usul al-fiqh as a process for the 'raw material' of the divine revelation, the Koran and sunna, through human formulation through various techniques of legal discourse (ijtihad), and finally a confirmation as a law through the acceptance of society in the form of a consensus among the scholars (ijma).
The book also presents the historical development of the court system, based on recent research in the field. It presents a theory of how the Shari'a developed in a dynamic between the scholarly basis and theoretically divine origin and the requirements of society and state, in a balance that shifted irrevocably over time. It was published in August 2005.
Address
Knut S. Vikør
Dept. of Archeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion
University of Bergen
P.O. Box 7805
N-5020 Bergen
Norway
- Visiting address: Øisteinstgt. 1
Tel: +47-5558 2711, Fax: +47-5558 9654
e-mail: knut.vikor@ahkr.uib.no
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