Islam's perfect stranger : the life of Mahmud Muhammad Taha, muslim reformer of Sudan

294 Pages·2010·1.136 MB·English

by  Edward Thomas

,
I
SLAM S PERFECT STRANGER
The life of Mahmud Muhammad Taha,
Muslim Reformer of Sudan
Edward Thomas

I.B.Tauris Publishers
Published in 2011 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © Edward Thomas, 2011
The right of Edward Thomas to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
International Library of African Studies 26
ISBN: 978 1 844885 0044 0
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham
from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author
Typeset in Garamond by Vibhu Mishra
Dedicated with love to my parents

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Transliteration xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Remembering childhood 7
Chapter 2 Sudan from 1500–1900 16
Chapter 3 Escaping the village shop 36
Chapter 4 Training an effendi 44
Chapter 5 Starting work and getting married 55
Chapter 6 The Republican party 64
Chapter 7 Taking the lift to the fields of heaven 79
Chapter 8 Giving up abstinence 92
Chapter 9 Independence for the elite 106
Chapter 10 Battle lines 117
Chapter 11 Glorious October 126
Chapter 12 Pyramids 142
Chapter 13 Modern Sufi 166
Chapter 14 Romancing Sudan 180
Chapter 15 Perfect stranger 190
Chapter 16 The perfect ending 203
Chapter 17 Aftermath 220
Endnotes 236
Appendix 1 Constitution of the Republican Party 259
Glossary of non-English Terms 260
Acronyms 264
Bibliography 265
Index 276
Acknowledgements
People who knew Mahmud Muhammad Taha generously committed
their memories to me; I am extremely grateful to everyone who spent
time answering my questions: ‘Abdallah al-Dabi, Professor Abdullahi
An-Na‘im, Dr ‘Abdelwahab El-Affendi, ‘Abd al-Rahman ‘Ali al-Shaykh,
Ahmed Omer, Dr Al-Baqir Mukhtar, ‘Ali Lutfi, Amna Muhammad Lutfi,
Asma Mahmud, ‘Awatif ‘Abd al-Gadir, Batoul Mukhtar, Bona Malwal,
Eltayeb Hassan, El-Nour Hamad, Fatma Ibrahim, Fatma Yusuf Gway, Dr
Girgis Iskander, Ibrahim Yusuf, Khalid Muhammad al-Hasan, Mahmud
Amin Siddig, Mona Zanoon, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Khalig, Muhammad
‘Ali Malik, Muhammad al-Fatih, Mudawi Turabi, Omer El Garrai, Saadia
‘Izz al-Din, al-Hajja Sayyida Muhammad Lutfi, Dr Steve Howard, Yusuf
Hasan, Yusuf Lutfi, as well as other people who preferred not to be
mentioned. Asma Mahmud, El-nour Hamad and Abdullahi An-Na‘im
spent several days on my questions. Girgis Iskander was willing to spend
hours of his time thinking about my questions and composing long,
precise responses: he even translated an entire book to save me time
and bother. Al-Baqir Mukhtar and Eltayeb Hassan, completing their
doctorates on Republican thought in England, were unfailingly generous
with advice and suggestions. Gerhard Lichtenthaler, Jurgen Rogalski
and Haydar Ibrahim Ali helped me find copies of Taha’s works. Al-
Baqir Mukhtar and Girgis Iskander read this book for me before it was
submitted.
This book began as a thesis written at Edinburgh University. I would
like to acknowledge the financial support of the Spalding Trust, which
paid for my fees and the Carnegie Trust which funded a field trip. I am
very grateful to them both.