Includes bibliographical references (p. 359-376) and index.

Legal and historical excursus of Muslim personal law in the Colonial Cape, South Africa, eighteenth to twentieth century / Shouket Allie -- Custom and Muslim family law in the native courts of the French Soudan, 1905-1912 / Richard Roberts -- Conflicts and tensions in the appointment of Chief Kadhi in colonial Kenya 1898-1960s / Hassan Mwakimako -- Obtaining freedom at the Muslims' tribunal: colonial k adijustiz and women's divorce litigation in Ndar (Senegal) / Ghislai ne Lydon -- Making and unmaking of colonial Shari'a in the Sudan / Shamil Jeppie -- Injudicious intrusions: chiefly authority and I slamic judicial practice in Maradi, Niger / Barbara M. Cooper -- Coping with conflicts: colonial policy towards Muslim personal law in K enya and post-colonial court practice / Abdulkadir Hashim -- Pers istence and transformation in the politics of Shari'a, Nigeria, 1947-20 03: in search of an explanatory framework / Allan Christelow -- S ecular state and the state of Islamic law in Tanzania / Robert V. Ma karamba -- State intervention in Muslim family law in Kenya and the Tanzania: applications of the gender concept / Susan F. Hirsch -- Muslim family law in South Africa: paradoxes and ironies / Ebrah im Moosa.