Allan Christelow
Professor
Allan Christelow is a specialist in the history of Islam in North and West Africa. His field experience began as a high school English teacher in the North African country of Algeria in the early 1970s. He completed a doctoral dissertation on the history of Muslim courts in Algeria at the University of Michigan in 1977, and then spent five years teaching at Bayero University in Kano, the largest city in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, in West Africa. Christelow has published books on the application of Islamic law in both Algeria and Nigeria, and he has delivered invited presentations at many major U.S. universities, including Stanford, Notre Dame, Yale, and Northwestern, and in nine different countries, including Holland, Israel, Algeria, and South Africa. He has taught at Idaho State University since 1983. In 2011, the University Press of Florida published his book Algerians without Borders, which is a study of the experience of Algerian emigrants and refugees from the eighteenth century to the present.
PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS
Books
2011 Algerians without Borders: the Making of a Global Frontier Society, University Press of Florida, 2011
1994 Thus ruled Emir ‘Abbas: Selected Cases from the Records of the Emir of Kano’s
Judicial Council, Michigan State University Press (Runner-up, African Studies
Association Text Prize, 1995)
1985 Muslim Law Courts and the French Colonial State in Algeria, Princeton University Press
-summarized in Arabic, al-Masadir, 11:1, 2005, pp. 319-329
Edited Works
1997 Citizenship and Cultural Identity, an issue of the Idaho State University
Humanities Journal, Rendezvous
Articles
2009 “Persistence and Transformation in the Politics of Sharia, 1947-2003: in Search of
an Explanatory Framework.” In Richard Roberts, Shamil Jeppie, and Ebrahim
Moosa, eds. Muslim Family Law in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa
2006 Introduction to Nour Eddine Boukrouh, Islam sans islamisme: vie et pensée de
Malek Bennabi, Algiers: Éditions Samar. (also to be published in Arabic)
“The Western Mediterranean in an American Mirror: The Algerine Spy in
Pennsylvania,” The Maghreb Review, 31:1-3 (2006), pp. 80-102.
2005 “Land, Commerce, and Royal Authority in Kano.” In Donald Crummey, ed., Land,
State and Society in the History of Sudanic Africa, Red Sea Press.
Articles on Algeria in Kevin Shillington, ed., Encyclopedia of African History,
New York: Fitzroy Dearborn.
2004 “Mahkama-Algeria,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden: E.J. Brill, Supplement
volume, fascicle 7-8, pp. 557-559.
2004 “Bashir Ibrahimi and the Islamic Encounter with European Secular and Religious
Faiths,” The Maghreb Review, 29: 1-4 (2004). Also published in collection of
articles in Arabic on Ibrahimi, Beirut: Dar al Gharb al-Islami, 2005.
2002 “Islamic Law and Judicial Practice in Nigeria–an Historical perspective,” Journal
of Muslim Minority Affairs, 22:1, pp. 185-204
2001 “Recollecting Algerian Cultural History: the Work of Bilqasim Sa’adallah,” Institute
for the Study of Islam in the Modern World Newsletter, 5, May 2000, pp. 31-32;
reprinted in al-Zahra (Monthly Newsletter of Al al-Bayt University, Mofraq,
Jordan), Vol 8, No. 33, December 2001, pp. 33-35;
--translated into Arabic in al-Basa’ir (Algiers), No. 78, 7-14 January 2002;
2000 “The Mosque at the Edge of the Plaza: Islam in the Algerian Colonial City,” The
Maghreb Review, 25: 3-4, pp. 289-319.
“Mai Tatsine” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden: E. J. Brill
“Algeria: Arabism and Islamism,” “Algeria: Muslim Population, 1871-1954,”
“Algeria: Islamic Ideas and Movements in Colonial Algeria,” “Algiers,” “Algeria:
Islamic Salvation Front and Civil War,” “Islamic Law, Post-colonial Africa” for
Encyclopedia of African History, London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
“Re-envisioning Algerian Cultural History in the Imperial Age,” The Maghreb
1999 “Louis Massignon et les intellectuels musulmans algériens: domination coloniale
et absence de la confiance,” in Jacques Keryell, ed., Louis Massignon au coeur
de notre temps, Paris: Éditions Karthala.
“Islamic law in Africa,” in Nehemia Levtzion and Randall Pouwels, eds., History of
Islam in Africa, Ohio University Press.
1997 “In Search of One Word’s Meaning: Zaman in Early Twentieth Century Kano.”
History in Africa., 24, pp. 95-115.
1996 “Algerian Dimensions of France’s Middle East Policy, 1916,” in Leon Carl Brown
and Matthew Gordon, eds., Franco-Arab Encounters, American University of
Beirut Press.
1994 “Maitatsine” and “Mahkama” Encyclopedia of Modern Islam. New York: Oxford
University Press.
1992 “Malik Bennabi, an Islamic Humanist in the Twentieth Century,” The Maghreb
Review 1-2, pp. 69-83.
“The Muslim Judge and Municipal Politics in Colonial Algeria and Senegal,”
(revised version) in Juan R. I. Cole, editor, Comparing Muslim Societies:
Knowledge and the State in a World Civilization, University of Michigan Press,
1992, pp. 133-162.
1991 “Legal Process and Social Order in Early Twentieth Century Kano, Nigeria,” Law
in Colonial Africa, edited by Richard Roberts and Kristin Mann, London,
Heinemann/Currey, 1991.
“Women and the Law in Early Twentieth Century Kano,” in Catherine Coles and
Beverly Mack, eds., Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century, University of
Wisconsin Press, 1991, pp. 130-144.
1990 “Oral, Manuscript, and Printed Expressions of Historical Consciousness in
Algeria,” Africana Journal, 15: 258-275.
1987 “Political Ends and Means of Transport in the Colonial North African Pilgrimage,”
The Maghreb Review, 12: 3-4, pp. ;84-89.
“Ritual, Culture, and the Politics of Islamic Reformism in Algeria,” Middle Eastern
Studies 23: 2, pp. 254-273.
“Property and Theft in Kano at the Dawn of the Groundnut Boom, 1912-1914,”
International Journal of African Historical Studies, 20: 2, pp. 225-243.
1986 “Slavery in Kano, 1913-14–Evidence from the Judicial Records,” African
Economic History, pp. 58-74.
1985 “Algerian Interpreters and the French Colonial Adventure in Sub-Saharan Africa,”
The Maghreb Review, 10: 4-6, pp. 101-106.
“Al-Makki Ben Badis,” Parcours: l’Algerie, les homes, et l’histoire, No. 5, Automne
1985, pp. 14-21.
“Records of the Emir’s and Alkali’s Courts in Kano, Nigeria,” Fontes Historiae
Africanae, Nos. 9/10, pp. 35-40.
“The ‘Yan Tatsine Distrubances in Kano, a Search for Perspective,” The Muslim
World, 75: 2, pp. 69-84.
“Religious Protest and Dissent in Northern Nigeria: from Mahdism to Quranic
Integralism,” Journal, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, 6: 2, pp. 375-393.
1983 “Algerian Islam in a Time of Transition, c.1880 - c.1930,” The Maghreb Review.
8: 5-6,pp. 124-130.
1982 “Intellectual History in a Culture Under Siege: Algerian Muslim Thought in the
Late Nineteenth Century,” Middle Eastern Studies, 18:4, pp. 387-399.
“The Muslim Judge and Municipal Politics in Colonial Algeria and Senegal,”
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 24:1, pp. 3-24.
1981 “Career Patterns of Algerian Muslim Magistrates in the Late Nineteenth Century,”
The Maghreb Review, 6:1-2, pp. 36-39.
“Al-Makki Ben Badis wa ba’d nawahi al-haraka al-wataniyya al-jaza’iriyya fi-l-qarn
al-tasi’ ‘ashhar” (Al-Makki Ben Badis and Some Aspects of the Beginning of the
National Movement in Algeria), Al-Thaqafa, Vol. 22, No. 61, pp. 41-51.
1980 “Saintly Descent and Worldly Affairs in Mid-Nineteenth Century Mascara,
Algeria,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12:2, pp. 139-155.
1979 “An Inquiry into the Algerian Medjles Crisis of 1858,” Revue d’histoire
maghrebine, 15-16, pp. 35-51.
1978 “Islamic Legal Documents as a Source for the Study of Colonial Algeria,” Middle
East Studies Association Bulletin, 12:3, pp. 29-34.
“Hawl bidaya al-nahda al-jaza’iriyya” katib li ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Majjawi”
(Concerning the Begining of the Alberian Cultural Revival: a Pamphlet by ‘Abd
al-Qadir al-Majjawi), Al-Thaqafa, Vol 9, No. 47, pp. 55-64.
Conferences, Guest Lectures
2008 “L’image britannique d’Abdel Kader: le Culte de l’Héros et les intérêts impériaux.”
Conference on Abdel Kader, Oran, Algeria, 26-28 November
2005 “Toward an understanding of black communities in Algeria’s changing
social patterns,” African/Middle East Studies Association conference,
Washington, DC. November 19.
“The Western Mediterranean in an American Mirror: Peter Markoe’s
The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania,” Maghreb Review conference, Mansfield
College, Oxford, 9 July
“Malek Bennabi et deux visions mondiales anglophones en 1954: les cas
de Arnold Toynbee et Wendell Willkie,” Conference on Malek Bennabi, Algiers
22 September
2003 “Malek Bennabi et les frontières culturelles de l’ère globale,” International
Colloquium on the Thought of Malek Bennabi, Algiers, 18-20-October
“Bashir Ibrahimi and the Islamic Encounter with European Secular and Religious
Faiths,” Maghreb Review Conference: “The Faith of the Other,” Mansfield
College, Oxford, 6-8 July.
2002 “Persistence and Transformation in the Politics of Sharia, Nigeria, 1958-2002: in
Search of an Explanatory Framework,” Conference on Muslim Family Law in
Post-Colonial Africa, Centre for Contemporary Islam, University of Cape Town,
11-14 March.
2001 “Islamic Judicial Councils and their Sociopolitical Contexts: a Trans-Saharan
Comparison,” Conference on the Application of Islamic law in Courts,” Institute
for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, 26 October.
2000 “Islamic Law and Judicial Practice in Nigeria–an Historical Perspective,” African
Studies Association, Nashville, November.
1998 “Algerian Islam in an Age of Empire, 1880-1920,” African Studies Association,
Chicago, 31 October.
“The Algerian Crisis: Historical Origins, Future Alternatives,” Chicago Council on
Foreign Relations, March 16; also in depth interview, WBEZ–Chicago Public
1997 “Louis Massignon and Algerian Muslim Intellectuals: Colonial Domination and the
Problem of Trust.” Conference on Louis Massignon: The Vocation of a Scholar.
University of Notre Dame. 3 October.
“Islamic law in Africa.” Conference on Writing the History of Islam in Africa. Van
Leer Institute, Jerusalem, 18 June.
“The Mosque at the Edge of the Plaza: Sacred Places, Urban Space, and the
Colonial Heritage in Algeria.” Mellon Colloquium, Northwestern University, 8
1996 “Citizenship in a Frontier Society: Muslims, Jews, and New French in Colonial
Algeria,” Rocky Mountain World History Association, Salt Lake City, 1 November.
Published in Rendezvous (see above, edited works).
1995 “Islamic Law in Africa–basic themes,” Cambridge History of Islam in Africa panel,
African Studies Association, Orlando, 4 November.
1993 “Presenting the Nigerian Shari’a Question; Brief Reflections on Bappa Mahmud’s
Brief History, Northwestern University, African Humanities Center, Roundtable
on Nigerian Historiography, 6 May.
1992 “Mosques, Communities, and the State in Algeria: a Long Term Perspective.”
Islam and Nationhood Conference. Yale University. 12-14 November.
“The Art of Biography in Postrevolutionary Algeria,” Maghreb Review
Conference, London, July 10.
1991 “1492 and the Islamic World,” Phi Alpha Theta Northwest Regional Conference,
Sun Valley, Idaho, May.
1991 “The Concept of Zaman in Early Twentieth Century Kano,” African studies
Association, St. Louis, November.
1990 Chair and commentator for panel on North African history at Pacific Coast
Branch of AHA, 10 August.
1989 Conference to plan volume of comparative studies on the Muslim world for
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Ann Arbor, October.
“Islamic Reformism in Colonial Algeria from 1900 to the Outbreak of the
Revolution” (lecture); and “Islamic Legal Records and Social History in Algeria
and Northern Nigeria” (seminar), at the University of Arizona, Tuscon, 11
1988 “Slavery, Law, and the Patriarchal Order in Northern Nigeria,” African Studies
Association, Chicago, 29 October.
1987 “Orientalists, Islam, and Colonial Administration in the Maghrib and Northern
Nigeria,” African Studies Association, Denver, 22 November.
“Marriage, Murder and the Politics of Islamic Law Codification in Colonial Africa,”
at “New Perspectives on Colonial Africa,” Spring Symposium, University of
Illinois, Urbana, 29-31 March.
“Political Strategies, Legal Sensibilities and Islamic Homicide Law in Northern
Nigeria,” guest lecture at Stanford University, 5 March.
1986 Co-chair of panel on “Approaches to the Social History of Kano;” paper–“Political
Arena and Moral Theater: the Emir of Kano’s Judicial Council”–at African Studies
Association Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, 30 October.
Comment, Symposium on Religion in Africa, Brigham Young University, Provo,
Utah, 23-25 October.
“History as Future: prophetic discourse and historical consciousness in colonial
Algeria,” Colloquium of Sonderforschungsbereich 214 on “Identity in Africa,”
University of Bayreuth, 17-18 July.
“Moyens de Transport et mobiles politiques dans le pélerinage nord-africain
colonial,” Maghreb Review Conference on Trade, Transport and Communication
in the Maghreb, Collège de France, Paris, 7-8 July.
1985 “Clio and Her Wayward Tropical Offspring: the Discipline of History and the
Specialties of Area Studies,” at Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society National
Conference, New York, 27-29 December.
“Property and Theft in Kano on the Eve of the Groundnut Boom,” at African
Studies Association, Middle East Studies Association Conference, New Orleans,
22-25 November.
“The Transformation of the Muslim Court System in Colonial Algeria: Reflections
on the Concept of Autonomy,” at Colloquium on Social and Historical Contexts
of Islamic Law, University of Exeter, England, 27-29 September. Published in
Social and Historical Contexts of Islamic Law, ed. Aziz al-Azmeh, London,
Croom Helm, 1987.
1984 Comment, Panel on “Themes in Sudanese History,” African Studies Association
Conference, Los Angeles, 26 October.
“Three Islamic Voices in Contemporary Nigeria,” in Conference on Multiple
Voices in Contemporary Islam, Social Science Research Council, New York, 25-
27 May. Published in Islam and the Political Economy of Meaning, ed.
William Roff, University of California Press, 1987, pp. 226-253.
“Religious Protest and Dissent in Northern Nigeria: from Mahdism to Quaranic
Integralism,” at Symposium on Islam in Twentieth Century Africa, University of
Illinois, 2-3 April. Published in Journal, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, 6:2
(July 1985) pp. 375-393.
“The Muslim Courts in Colonial Nigeria under British Overrule,” at Conference on
Islam in Africa: the Changing Role of the ‘Ulama, Northwestern University, 28-31
1982 “Contestation et répression dans les communes de pleine exercise pendant la
crise de 1881,” at Colloquium on Nineteenth Century Resistance Movements,
Algiers, 17 February–1 March 1982.