Knut S. Vikør

Publications

Books

• Ei verd bygd på islam: Oversikt over Midtaustens historie. [A World Built on Islam: Overview of Middle Eastern History]. Oslo: Det norske samlaget, 2nd edn, 2004, 301 p [1st edn. 1993].
• Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge. Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood. London: Chr. Hurst & Evanston: Northwestern University Press 1995, x, 310 p. [based on a doctoral dissertation, Univ. of Bergen 1992].
• Sources for Sanusi Studies. Sudanic Africa Texts and Sources: 1, Bergen/ London: SMI 1996, ix, 247 p.
• The Oasis of Salt. The History of Kawar, a Saharan Centre of Salt Production. Bergen Studies on the Middle East and Africa 3, Bergen/London: SMI 1999, xii, 342 p. [Expanded from a master's thesis, Univ. of Bergen 1979]
• 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: E.J. Brill 2000, x, 225 p.
• Islam: ei faktabok [Islam: A Book of Facts]. Oslo: Spartacus 2002, 159 p.
• Between God and the Sultan: A History of Islamic Law. London: Hurst & New York: Oxford University Press 2005 xi, 387 p. [Norwegian edn: Mellom Gud og stat: Ei historie om islamsk lov og rettsvesen. Oslo: Spartacus 2003]
• Maghreb: Nordafrika etter 1800 [Maghreb: North Africa after 1800]. Oslo: Det norske samlaget 2007, 160 p.

Editions

• The Middle East Viewed from the North. Papers from the First Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies. Ed. Vikør and Bo Utas. Bergen: Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies 1992, viii, 211 p.
• The Middle East - Unity and Diversity. Papers from the Second Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies. Ed. Vikør and Heikki Palva. Copenhagen: NIAS Books 1993, viii, 247 p.
• Ethnic encounter and culture change: Papers from the Third Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, Joensuu, 1995. Ed. Vikør and M'hammed Sabour. Bergen/London: Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies 1997, viii, 270 p.
• The Middle East in a globalized world: Papers from the Fourth Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, Oslo, 1998. Ed. Vikør and Bjørn Olav Utvik. Bergen/London: Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies 2000, xi, 269 p.

• Sudanic Africa. A Journal of Historical Sources. Ed. Vikør, John O. Hunwick, R.S. O'Fahey, Stefan Reichmuth, Jay Spaulding, Jean-Louis Triaud. Bergen, annual, published: i, 1990 (106 p.); ii, 1991 (190 p.); iii, 1992 (189 p.); iv, 1993 (239 p.); v, 1994 (279 p.), vi, 1995 (192 p.), vii, 1996 (187 p.), viii, 1997 (203 p.), ix, 1998 (198 p.), x, 1999 (213 p.), xi, 2000 (161 p.), xii, 2001 (181 p.), xiii, 2002 (169 pp.), xiv, 2003 (161 p).

Articles

• "The Desert-Side Salt Trade of Kawar". African Economic History (Madison), xi, 1982, 115-44
• "Salthandel og politisk utvikling i Sahara før 1900 - eit døme på menneskelig tilpassing" [Salt trade and political development in the Sahara before 1900: an example of human adaptation]. Historisk Tidsskrift , lxi, 4, 1982, 333-59.
• "Mystikk og politikk - eit problemfelt for historisk forskning" [Mysticism and politics: A problematics for historical research]. Historisk Tidsskrift , lxiii, 1, 1984, 1-27.
• "An Episode of Saharan Rivalry - The French Occupation of Kawar, 1906". International Journal of African Historical Studies (Boston), xviii, 4, 1985, 699-715.
• "The Early History of the Kawar oasis: A Southern Border of the Maghrib or a Northern Border of the Sudan?". The Maghreb Review (London), xii, 3-4, 1987, 78-83.
• "Ibn Idrîs and al-Sanûsî - The Teacher and his Student" (with R.S. O'Fahey). Islam et sociétés au sud du Sahara, Notes et documents (Paris), i, 1, 1987, 70-82.
• "Al-Sanusi and Qadhafi - Continuity of Thought?". The Maghreb Review, xii, 1-2, 1987, 25-28.
• "The Writings of Muhammad b. 'Ali and Ahmad al-Sharif al-Sanusi". Arabic Literature in Africa, A Bulletin of Biographical and Bibliographical Information (Evanston), 3, 1987, 80-90.
• "Modernitet og tradisjon i islam" [Modernity and tradition in Islam]. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforsking, xxxi, 5, 1990, 481-97.
• "A Sanusi treatise on jihad". BRISMES Proceedings of the 1991 International Conference on Middle Eastern Studies. London 1991, 508-20.
• "The Man Who Believed in the Mahdi" (with M.I. Abu Salim). Sudanic Africa, 2, 1991, 29-52.
• "The Sanusi Letters: a checklist". Sudanic Africa, 3, 1992, 149-62.
• "Mystics in the Desert: The Sanusiya and the Sahara" in Vikør and Palva (ed.), The Middle East - Unity and Diversity. København, over, 133-45.
• "The Sanusiyya Tradition" in R.S. O'Fahey (ed.), Arabic Literature of Africa: I: The Writings of Eastern Sudanic Africa. Leiden 1993, 166-78.
• "'Umar al-Mukhtar" in John Esposito (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. New York 1995, iii, 175-6.
• "Sanusiyah" in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. New York 1995, iii, 473-4.
• "Fundamentalisme, islamisme eller politisk islam" [Fundamentalism, Islamism or Political Islam]. April 1995. 49K (13p.)
• "Shi'ismen - historias lim" [Shi'ism - the glue of history]. Tidskrift för mellanösternstudier, 2, 1996, 79-93.
• "Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi: A Fasi graduate in the Central Sahara", in Fès et l'Afrique. Relations economiques, culturelles et spirituelles (Fas wa-Ifriqiya: al-'alaqat al-iqtisadiya wa'l-thaqafiya wa'l-ruhiya), Rabat / Casablanca 1996, 95-105.
• "A Zanzibari waqf of Books: The Library of the Mundhiri Family" (with R.S. O'Fahey). Sudanic Africa, vii, 1996, 5-23.
• "Sahara Desert" in John Middleton (ed.), Encyclopedia of Africa south of the Sahara. New York 1997, iv, 27-30
• "Politisk islam - fundament eller utvekst?" [Political Islam - fundament or malignancy?], in Øyvind Bjørnson, Egil Nysæter and Arve Kjell Uthaug (eds.), Til debatt: Innlegg ved Norske historiedagar 1996, Bergen 1998, 83-96.
• "Jihad in West Africa: A global theme in a regional setting", in Leif Manger (ed.), Muslim Diversity. Local Islam in a Global Context, Richmond 1999, 80-101.
• "A Tale of Three shambas: Shafi'i-Ibadi legal cooperation in the Zanzibar Protectorate" (with A.K. Bang). Sudanic Africa, 10, 1999, 1-26 & 11, 2000, 1-24.
• "Sufi Brotherhoods in Africa", in N. Levtzion and R. Pouwels (eds.), The History of Islam in Africa, Athens, OH 2000, 441-76.
• "Jihad, 'ilm and tasawwuf - two justifications of action from the Idrisi tradition", Studia Islamica, xc, 2000, 153-76.
• "The Shari'a and the nation state: who can codify the divine law?", in Bjørn Olav Utvik and Knut S. Vikør (eds.), The Middle East in a Globalized World, Bergen 2000, 220-50.
• "Opening the Maliki school: Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi's views on the madhhab". Journal of Libyan Studies, i, 1, 2000, 5-17.
• "Niger" [revision of article], Encyclopedia Britannica, Chicago 2000.
• "Shari'a", "Madhhabs", "Waqf", "'Ulama'", "Mujtahid", "Imam", "Sufism", "Ibadism", in [Encyclopaedia of religion], Athens, 2001.
• "al-Wisyani", in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New edn. Leiden 2002, XI, 212-13.
• "Zawila", in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New edn. Leiden 2002, XI, 466.
• "Sufism and social welfare in the Sahara", in H. Weiss (ed.), Social welfare in Muslim societies in Africa, Uppsala 2002, 80-97.
• "The Sanusiya", in Richard Lobban, Robert S. Kramer and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Historical Dictionary of the Sudan, 3rd edn, Metuchen, NJ, 2002, 244-5.
• "'The Truth about Cats and Dogs': The historicity of Early Islamic law", Historisk Tidsskrift, lxxxii, 1, 2003, 1-17.
• "Sufism and foreign rule in Africa: politics and piety", in T. Sato (ed.), Muslim Societies: Historical and comparative aspects, London 2004, 9-28.
• "Ahmad b. Idris", in Richard C. Martin (ed.), Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, New York 2004, i, 28-9.
• "Kalifatet" [Caliphate], in Store Norske Leksikon, Oslo 2005, viii, 261.
• "Sudan", in Josef Meri (ed.), Medieval Islamic Civilization. An Encyclopedia, New York 2006, ii, 770-1.
• "The shaykh as mujtahid: A Sufi conception of ijtihad?”, in A. Carmona (ed.), El Sufismo y las normas del Islam, , Murcia 2006, 129-56/351-75.
• Chapter 3: "North and North-East Africa 1800-1920", in Francis Robinson (ed.), New Cambridge History of Islam, vol. 5, Cambridge forthc. [2008?], 28 p.

Conference & seminar papers

• "Al Sanusi in Fez", for "Workshop on Sufism in Africa in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries", SOAS, London 16-18.9.1987, 15 p.
• "Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi and three opponents of ijtihad", for conference Middle East Studies Association, San Antonio, Texas, 9-13.11.1990, 9 p.
• "The Sanusiya, the Beduin and Sufi identity", for conference "Islamic Identities in Africa", SOAS, London 17-20.4.1991, 13 p.
• "Sanusiya, a Saharan order", for 8. session of Euro-Arab Itinerant University, Ghardaïa, Algérie, 2-10.5.1992, 6 p.
• "The Conception of ijtihad in a 19th Century Debate", for the Inaugural Conference, European Association for Middle Eastern Studies, Warwick 8-11.7.93, 9.p.
• "An Attack on the Freedom of Interpretation: Hasan al-'Attar's Risala fi 'l-ijtihad". The Joseph Schacht Conference on Theory and Practice in Islamic Law, Amsterdam / Leiden 6-10.10.94
• "The development of ijtihad and Islamic Reform, 1750-1850". 3rd Nordic Middle East conference, Joensuu, 19-22.6.1995.
• "Sufism and revolt. Tijanis, Sanusis and Safavids", for conference Middle East Studies Association, Providence, RI, 22-24.11.1996, 12 p.
• "'Politcal language, action and religion': an overview and introduction to the seminar" for seminar 'Political language and action and religion' pt. iii [Group 6 of project, 'Individual & Society in the Muslim Mediterranean World, Bergen, 16.1.98, 18 p
• "Muhammadan piety and Islamic enlightenment: Survey of a historiographical debate" for workshop 'Individual piety and Society' [Group 6 of project, 'Individual & Society in the Muslim Mediterranean World], Istanbul 3-5.7.98 22 p.
• The SharI'a and the nation state: who can codify the divine law?", 4th Nordic Middle East conference, Oslo, 13-16.8.1998 17 p. [draft of printed version with same title, above]
• "'The only madhhab is the Qur`an and Sunna': A nineteenth-century attack on legal method" for 3rd. EURAMES conference, Gent 27-29.9.99. 12 p.
• "Sufi reform or takfir: Ahmad b. Idris and the Wahhabi debate" for conference Middle East Studies Association, Washington, 20-22.11.1999, 13
• "'To follow a madhhab is shirk': Anti-madhhabism in a nineteenth-century tradition" for III International conference on Islamic legal studies, "The madhhab", Harvard 4-6.5.2000, 18 p.
• "To study Islamic law: text or process, essentialism or relativism?", Seminar on Shari'a studies in Norway, Oslo 12-13.4.2002, 9 pp.

Popular works

• Hovuddrag i egyptisk grammatikk. Eit oppsummeringshefte for arabisk grunnfag [Main features of Egyptian Grammar. A summary for 1st year Arabic]. Bergen 1987, 23 p.
• "Afrika - språk utan nasjonar eller nasjonar utan språk?" [Africa - languages without nations or nations without languages] in L.S. Vikør, Språkpolitikk på fem kontinent. Oslo 1977, 178-205.
• "Revolusjon mot sionismen (Intervju med Moshe Machover)" [Revolution against zionism (Interview with Moshe Machover)]. Kontrast, 1, 1977, 16-21.
• "Demokratiet i Afrika - stat og samfunn" [Democracy in Africa - state and society]. Syn og Segn, lxxxiv, 9, 1978, 526-40.
• "Islam i dag - ein moderne reaksjon?" [Islam today - a modern reaction?]. Perspektiv, 4, 1984, 6-9.
• "Islamske røtter til ei framtid - Fire glimt" [Islamic roots to a future: four glimpses]. Syn og Segn, xciii, 1, 1987, 28-37.
• "Irak, Kuwait og USA: Mot nye skilleliner i Midtausten?" [Iraq, Kuwait and the USA: Towards new divisons in the Middle East?]. Commentary, StudVest, 30.8.1990, 17.
• "Fargerik og variert fortid" [A colourful and varied past] in Sahel, Oslo: NORAD, n.d [1990], 28-33.
• "Islam og sufisme" [Islam and Sufism]. Religion og livssyn, ii, 4, 1990, 14-16.
• "Islam og sufisme" [Sufism, a popular Islam ]. Midøsten-forum (Oslo), 2, 1990, 49-53.
• "Fins det ein arabisk nasjon?" [Is there an Arabic nation?]. Syn og Segn, xcvii, 2, 1991, 122-9.
• "Guds ord og menneskeverk" [God's word and human actions]. Utvikling, 2, 1991, 32-6.
• "Sigurd på sofaen" [Sigurd on the sofa]. Utvikling, 2, 1991, 34-5.
• "Skal vi frykte islam?" [Should we fear Islam?]. Commentary, Studvest, 29.4.1992, 4.
• "Nasser: Arabisk stoltheit og sosialisme" [Nasser: Arabic pride and socialism]. Midtøsten-forum, 1, 1993, 36-41.
• "Boikott av Iran?" [Boycott of Iran?]. Commentary, Dag og Tid, 21.10.93
• "Islamsk lov og reform i Afrika" [Islamic Law and Reform in Africa]. 3. verden-magasinet X, 5, 1995, 24-5.
• "Algerie: kvifor valden?" [Algeria - why the violence?]. Syn og Segn, civ, 2, 1998, 172-9.
• "Er ein fatwa farlig?" [Are fatwas dangerous?]. Bergens Tidende, 22.4.99, 30 [kronikk].
• "Algerie: veg ut av tunnelen?" [Algeria: a way out of the tunnel?]. Bergens Tidende, 8.7.99, 28 [kronikk].
• "Skal vi støtte islamismen", and "Korleis blir islamist-samfunnet?" [Should we support Islamism, and "What will the Islamists' society look like?"]. Klassekampen, 16.1.2002, 3 / 17.1.2002, 3 [dobbelkronikk].
• "Palestina-konflikten" [The Palestine Conflict]. Internasjonalt studiehefte, NMU 2003, 37-42.
• "Assassinarane: dei første terroristane?" [The Assassins: The first terrorists?], Historie, 1, 2003, 8-15.
• "Frå Ibn Ahmad til Abu Umar: Om arabiske namn og tradisjon" [From Ibn Ahmad to Abu Umar: Om Arabic names and tradition], Språknytt, 2003 in print.
• "Språket og det heilage: Arabisk og islam" [Language and the sacred: Arabic and Islam], Språknytt, 2003 in print.
• "Shariaen, ei lov for samfunnet, ei lov for Gud" [The Sharia: A law for society, a law for God], Babylon, 2, 2003, , in print. 9 s.
• "Gud er makt" [God is power], in Kjartan Andersen (red.), Makt, Oslo 2004, in print. 6 s.
• "Korleis "modernisera" islam?" [How to "modernize" Islam]. Ny Tid, 2, 17.1.2004, 18-19.
• "Når blir islamisme til jihad?" [When does Islamism turn into jihad?], Klassekampen. 16.7.2005, 3
• "Fortolking i islamsk lov" [Interpretation in Islamic law]. Atrium, xiv, 1, 2006, 2-3.
• "Europeisk lov og islamsk lov" [European law and Islamic law]. Babylon, 1, 2006, 36-43.
• "Eit pragmatisk parti", [A pragmatic party]. Klassekampen, 21.8.2006, 3
• "'Den rette praksisen'- Sunnismen i islam" [The correct practice: Sunnism in Islam]. Religion og livssyn, xix, 2, 2007, 4-9.
• "Fatwa", "jihad". Statsvitenskaplig leksikon, 2nd edn, Oslo [in print].

Articles about computer materials etc.

• "Den polyglotte dator" [The polyglot computer]. Humanistiske data (Bergen), 3, 1988, 63-80.
• "Computing in Arabic". NIAS Report, Copenhagen 1989, 58-71.
• "Arabic Word Processing on the Mac ­ Some User Experiences". Proceedings of the Seminar on Bilingual Computing in Arabic and English, Cambridge 1989, 6 p.
• "Writing Arabic in Roman". Proceedings of the Second Conference on Bilingual Computing in Arabic and English, Cambridge 1990, 14 p.
• "Arabic computing news". EURAMES Newsletter, 1, March 1993, 11.
• "Network services for the Middle East scholar", EURAMES Newsletter, 4, November 1994, 11-14. Revised version Periodica Islamica, vi, 1, 1996, 57-64. Also <http://smi.uib.no/ksv/NetResources.html> w/subsidiary articles (publ. April 1995, rev. Jul 1996), 26K.
• "An introduction to writing Arabic on the Mac", <http://www.smi.uib.no/ksv/ArabicMac.html> w/subsidiary articles. April 1995, in all 62K (18 p.)
• "European and non-European languages on the Net", <http://www.smi.uib.no/ksv/char.html>, April 1995, 1997, 33K (12 p.)
• "Fourth Dimension and Arabic", <http://www.smi.uib.no/ksv/4DFirst.html>. Sept. 1994 (publ. April 1995). 11K (4 p.)
• "The Middle East Scholar and the Internet". Paper at the 3rd EURAMES conference, Aix-en-Provence, Jul. 1996. 10 p