There is very little scholarship on the history of Islamic development in Somalia which seriously takes into consideration both historical forces and the very ideas and internal organization of the Islamic movements. This book reconstructs the historical evolution of moderate Islamic movement in Somalia using postcolonial perspective. It succinctly accounts for the revival of Sufi brotherhoods since 1800s, focusing on the 50-year period (1950-2000) in which civilian governments, military dictatorships, armed opposition factions and Islamic movements were interacting and reshaping the Somali history. It divides Islamic development in Somalia into four historical periods: the Islamic revival (1800-1950), the Islamic consciousness ( 1950-1967), the Islamic awakening (1967-1978) and the Islamic movements (1978-2000).
The book provides empirically rich narrative of the Islah Movement as a case study which has an impact on the social and political developments in Somalia since the collapse of the state in 1991. The author provides an insider's view of the Islamic Movement being one of the leaders of Islah.
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Abdurahman M. Abdullahi (Baadiyow) was born in 1954 in Somalia. He combines rare skills of being a high ranking military officer (19971-1986) with being an electronic engineer, Islamic scholar and socio-political activist. He obtained MA &PhD in Modern Islamic History from the Islamic Institute, McGill University, Canada. He is one of the founders of the Mogadishu University and currently the Chairman of its Board of Trustees. He was a presidential candidate in the 2012 election in Somalia. Currently, he is the leader of the National Unity Party (Midnimoqaran) and the vice-president of the Forum for Unity and Democracy, the largest political coalition in Somalia that advocates for democratic transformation.
Besides his political career and socio-political activism, Dr. Abdullahi is a prominent Islamic scholar and has participated in many academic conferences and published a number of academic papers, book chapters and feature articles in Arabic, Somali and English languages.
