Few studies exist which deal with Islamic law in practice, and this is among the first such studies in the English language for Islamic Africa. It is significant that the present study was completed just prior to the extension of Islamic law as the sole governing law in the Sudan in 1983, for it captures many essentials of the Shari’a as it has been applied for decades prior to this important change. Numerous movements for reform and change are discussed in the book, which reflect the contemporary debate in the Sudan over the position of Shari’a in society.

The present study examines President Ja'far Numayrī's experiment of reinstating Islamic law in the Sudan and the methods employed to this end, in the light of its historical context and sources of inspiration. Islamist legislation, legal circulars and judicial practice are here utilized as source material for the analysis of the methodology employed in Numayrī's experiment and its application with a view to evaluating their impact on the uncodified Islamic law, state control of public morals, and on Sudanese society and economy. The focus of attention here is the judge as an instrument for implementing the government's Islamist policy by means of expanded judicial discretion based on a synthesis of traditional Islamic and modern non-Islamic sources of law. The book is intended for Islamists, legal historians, and lawyers.

Anthropology of Law in Muslim Sudan analyses the hybridity of law systems and the plurality of legal practices in rural and urban contexts of contemporary Sudan, shedding light on the complex relation between Islam and society.

In The Codification of Islamic Criminal Law in the Sudan, Olaf Köndgen offers an in-depth analysis of Islamic criminal law in the Sudan through the penal codes of 1983 and 1991; he examines their application and interpretations in the case law of the Sudan’s Supreme Court.

The Sudanese Mahdī headed a millenarian, revivalist, reformist movement, strongly inspired by Salafī and Ṣūfī ideas in the late 19th century. He established a Caliphate and created a unique legal methodology and doctrine to promote his political and social agenda.