About the Author

Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim, Ph.D. (1987) in folklore and anthropology, Indiana University, is an Associate Professor of African History and Islam at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has published extensively, in both Arabic and English, on the culture history of Sudan including The Mahdi-Ulema Conflict (1968); Assaulting with Words: Popular Discourse and the Bridle of Shari'ah (1994); Culture and Democracy in Sudan (1994). He contributes a daily column to a-Sahafa, a leading paper in Sudan.