Abdalla, Ismail H.

Dr. Abdalla is a Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Islam, Medicine, and Practitioners in Northern Nigeria

1997 0-7734-8655-0
Many ethnographers and anthropologists have written about traditional medicine in Africa as if it were one coherent system. This volume argues that though the Islamic and the pre-Islamic Hausa medical systems have by now many things in common, their theoretical and conceptual frameworks are different. They operate from different understandings of the causes of disease and misfortune, and the appropriate methods to be employed to restore health or alleviate suffering. It also discusses another significant difference between the Islamic and non-Islamic Hausa medical systems: the mode of preserving and communicating medical knowledge. For a thorough understanding of the interaction between these two medical traditions in Hausaland, the early history of Islamic medicine is described, and its theories, concepts, and developments through the centuries are explored.

Perspectives and Challenges in the Development of Sudanese Studies

1993 0-7734-9333-6
The collection of papers in this volume identifies the areas of strength in Sudanese studies both in the Sudan and in Germany, and points to the direction future research should take in order to fill gaps in our knowledge, especially with regard to the origin of Nubian languages. More importantly, the book tackles some of the problems facing Sudan: its financial relations with the World Bank; the difficulties with its regional development projects; the questions of drought, famine and refugees; and the problem of Sudanese identity, more specifically how the search for a Sudanese identity impinges on the north-south conflict, and the extent to which the historical experiences of the Sudanese people have complicated this conflict.