21 years of Sudanese and Sufi History at Bergen, 1972-93
A note on research and resources

Anders Bjørkelo, R.S. O'Fahey and Knut S. Vikør

Introduction

Since 1972, when O'Fahey came to the Department of History, University of Bergen as a University Research Fellow, there has been a growing programme of research on the Sudan and Sufism or Islamic mysticism. The main areas of specialisation are the pre-co lonial history of Sudanic Africa (especially the area of the modern Sudan Republic), religious, especially Sufism, and literary history.

The staff involved in this programme are:

Associated with the programme is

Among those in residence for the Academic Year, 1993-94, are The Department of History has a longstanding programme of co-operation, funded by the Norwegian Aid Agency (NORAD), with the NRO, Khartoum. Formal and informal networks of co-operation have been built up with scholars at various European, Middle Eastern, African and American universities, among them Utrecht, Northwestern and Khartoum.

This programme has resulted in a number of MA and dr. philos. dissertations and numerous publications; these are listed at the end of this note, as are the publications of staff members.

An annual journal, Sudanic Africa. A Journal of Historical Sources, is produced from the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies; the editorial board comprises, Hunwick, O'Fahey, Vikør and Professor Jay Spaulding (Kean College of New Je rsey). Three issues have been published to date.

The Centre of Middle Eastern Studies also houses the secretariat of the Nordic Society for Middle Studies, whose membership comes from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Dr. Vikør is secretary of the Nordic Society.

Research

Currently, the main areas of research and publication are:
The socio-economic history of 19th and 20th century Sudan.
The main projects within this area are 19th century business history and the career of the merchant, 'Abd Allah Bey Hamza, his family and associates (Bjørkelo and Dr. Mustafa Ahmad 'Ali, ISESCO, Rabat) and economic history in the Condominium Sudan with special reference to credit institutions (Stiansen). Bjørkelo is also, together with Professor Muhammad Sa'id al-Qaddal, preparing an economic history of the 19th centur y Sudan.
Sufism in 19th century Northeast Africa.
The main focus here is on the life, teachings and students of the 19th century Moroccan mystic, Ahmad b. Idris (d. 1837) (O'Fahey, Hofheinz and Vikør). Vikør is prearing his doctorate o n Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi for publication, while Hofheinz is completing his on the Majadhib holy family. O'Fahey is also preparing a study on the history of the Sammaniyya tariqa in Northeast Africa.
The Arabic Literature of Africa.
This is a project to produce a six-volume bio-bibliographical overview of the Arabic literature of Africa south of the Sahara (Hunwick and O'Fahey, with several collaborators). The provisional titles of the s ix volumes are:

  1. Eastern Sudanic Africa to c. 1900
  2. Central Sudanic Africa
  3. Eastern Africa
  4. Western Sudanic Africa
  5. Eastern Sudanic Africa from c. 1900
  6. Western Sahara
The current status of the project is that volume one will be published by E.J. Brill in late 1993 or early 1994 and volume two in 1995.
The Mahdiyya in the Sudan.
This field is primarily the concern of Abu Salim who is in the final phase of his work on a complete edition of the writings of the Sudanese Mahdi. Five volumes of al-Athar al-kamila li'l-imam al-Mahdi have been p ublished and the final two volumes are in press. With the help of funding from the Bergen/Khartoum co-operation project, these volumes may be purchased from Christopher Hurst & Co., London.
Early Condominium Sources on the Sudan.
This project is its initial stages and involves co-operation between Bergen, the Sudan Archives, University of Durham and the British Academy. Privisionally it has been proposed that O'Fahey be respon sible for the publication of an annotated edition of Charles Armine Willis's Report on the Pilgrimage of 1922, that Stiansen be responsible for an annotated edition of the autobiography of Angelo Capato, a Greek businessman active in the early Condominium period and that Dr. Robert S. Kramer (St. Norbert College, De Pere, Illinois). who, it is hoped will be in Bergen for 1975-76, be responsible for editing E.G. Sarsfield-Hall's 'Handbook for Khartoum Province'.

Arabic and other materials at Bergen

The researches of Bjørkelo, Stiansen, Vikør and O'Fahey and the programme of co-operation with the NRO have led to the creation of a substantial collection of Arabic and other materials in Bergen relevant to the history of the Sudan and of t he Sufi brotherhoods in the region. In addition, other colleagues have deposited copies of material at Bergen; for example, a collection of Arabic manuscripts collected in Somalia by Professor I.M. Lewis (London School of Economics and Political Science) has recently been copied and deposited in Bergen. Substantial collections of other material have been deposited by Spaulding and Hofheinz.

The material is currently housed either at the Department of History or the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. It is hoped eventually to consolidate and house the whole collection at the Centre. A catalogue of the literary materials is under p reparation.

Generally speaking, the material is available to bona fide scholars. In the case of material copied from the NRO, permission from the latter institution is required.

The collection comprises the following general categories of material:

Non-literary materials in Arabic
This category includes land documents, court transcripts and business documents of all types photographed in the field by Bjørkelo, O'Fahey, Spaulding and others in the course of fieldwork. In addition, there are copies of documents of the same type from the NRO in Khartoum. The collection totals about 6,000 documents and includes the entire extant corpus of documents from the Darfur and Funj Sultanates (some 600 items); the business papers of 'Abd Allah Bey Hamza, his family and associates (3, 000 items) and various miscellaneous collections from the Gezira, Kordofan and the eastern Sudan.

Materials on Sufism
This category includes about 2,000 items; manuscripts, lithographs and printed works. Virtually all the extant writings of the various orders belonging to the tradition established by Ahmad b. Idris, namely the Dandarawiyya, Idrisiyya, Isma'iliyya, Ja 'fariyya, Khatmiyya, Majdhubiyya, Salihiyya and Sanusiyya, are gathered in Bergen. In addition, there is a substantial collection of manuscript and printed materials from the Sammaniyya, Hindiyya and Tijaniyya brotherhoods from the Sudan and elsewhere.

Much of this material has been copied from the originals in the NRO, but a considerable proportion has been photographed from private family archives in the Sudan and Egypt. One major collection are the writings of the various branches of the Majadhib pho tographed in al-Damar, Kasala and elsewhere by Hofheinz.

Mahdist and other Sudanese literary materials
This category includes literary and non-literary materials from the Mahdist period in the Sudan, i.e. between 1881 and 1898, for example, copies of the records of the central Mahdist Treasury records, but it also includes a body of material about th e Mahdiyya written after the fall of the state. Other writings include an extensive corpus of Sudanese poetry and a complete set of the literary journals, al-Fajr and al-Nahda.

European Sources
Bergen has a substantial collection of Condominium records and Consular and travel materials from Austria, Britain, France, Italy and elsewhere concerning the region.

Theses: Completed and in progress

Ph.D.

In progress

Hovedfag [= MA by thesis]

1976 1977197819791980198119821983198419861988198919901992

In Progress

Publications by staff
(Only articles for the last five years are listed)

Abu Salim

Forthcoming

Bjørkelo

Books: Books in preparation Articles Forthcoming

O'Fahey

Books Forthcoming Articles

Stiansen

Books Forthcoming

Kjerland

Books Articles

Vikør

Books Edited works Articles Forthcoming