Governance and Islam in East Africa: Muslims and the State

Author:   Farouk Topan (Professor Emeritus, Aga Khan University) ,  Kai Kresse (Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin) ,  Erin E. Stiles (Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Nevada) ,  Hassan Mwakimako (Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Pwani University, Kenya)
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:  

9781474482981


Pages:   344
Publication Date:   31 January 2026
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
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Governance and Islam in East Africa: Muslims and the State


Overview

Recent studies of Muslims in Kenya and Tanzania have tended either to examine governance of Muslims in relation to security issues, or to discuss the reforms attempted within communities and their implications for Muslim theology, rituals and general welfare. Both these approaches are covered in this book, and a third is added the study of Muslims as citizens or residents of their respective countries, looking at their activities and attitudes in relation to the various challenges they face together with their fellow compatriots and citizens.

Full Product Details

Author:   Farouk Topan (Professor Emeritus, Aga Khan University) ,  Kai Kresse (Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin) ,  Erin E. Stiles (Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Nevada) ,  Hassan Mwakimako (Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Pwani University, Kenya)
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
Imprint:   Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:  

9781474482981


ISBN 10:   1474482988
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   31 January 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Reviews

This volume focuses on politics, institutions and law in Islamic East Africa. By adopting a broad and multidisciplinary approach at both the macro and micro level, we are given new and sometimes surprising insights into changing relations between the state and Islam. A very welcome addition to the literature. -- Pat Caplan, Goldsmiths, University of London This volume unites contributions by both Western academics as well as Kenyan/Tanzanian academics and bridges the North-South-divide in academic research. It is far ahead of current scholarship and will add considerably to the established wisdom. -- Roman Loimeier, University of Göttingen


This volume focuses on politics, institutions and law in Islamic East Africa. By adopting a broad and multidisciplinary approach at both the macro and micro level, we are given new and sometimes surprising insights into changing relations between the state and Islam. A very welcome addition to the literature. --Pat Caplan, Goldsmiths, University of London This volume unites contributions by both Western academics as well as Kenyan/Tanzanian academics and bridges the North-South-divide in academic research. It is far ahead of current scholarship and will add considerably to the established wisdom. --Roman Loimeier, University of Göttingen


Author Information

Farouk Topan is Professor Emeritus at the Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, London. He has taught at the universities of Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Riyad and the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. He is also a writer of Swahili fiction and has published several short stories and two of his plays have been part of the school curriculum in Tanzania. Kai Kresse is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin, and Vice Director for Research at Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin. He has conducted anthropological fieldwork on the Swahili coast, working on local thinkers (poets, scholars, activists), the transmission and negotiation of knowledge, and the production and interpretation of texts, with a focus largely on internal debates among coastal Muslims in post-colonial Kenya. He is the author of Philosophising in Mombasa(2007; shortlisted for the Herskovits Award of the African Studies Association) and Past Present Continuous: Swahili Muslim Publics and Post-colonial Experience (2018). Erin E. Stiles is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, where she also chairs the programme in Religious Studies. Her research focuses on the intersections of religion, law and gender, and she conducts fieldwork in Zanzibar, where she has done extensive ethnographic research on Islamic family law and dispute resolution. Hassan Mwakimako is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Pwani University, Kenya. His research focuses on the interface between colonial and postcolonial state policy and practice towards Islam, religion and politics and contemporary Islam. He has been Visiting Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA), a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient, (ZMO) Berlin, Germany and African Studies Visiting Fellow at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge.

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