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• Shari'a
• Sufism
• Saharan history
• Islam in Africa

I work on Islamic history, in particular in North and West Africa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but also with earlier interests. My first area was the history of central Sahara, I later studied the history of Sufi brotherhoods, in particular the Sanusiyya, and have also written on the history of Islamic law. In all these field, the focus has been on the social impact and relevance of these aspects of Islamic practice.

Introduction to the History of the Middle East

Islam and politics

Themes in the history of the Middle East 

(all in Norwegian)

Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge. Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood. London og Evanston 1995

The Oasis of Salt. The History of Kawar, a Saharan Centre of Salt Production. Bergen/London 1999

“Jihad, ‘ilm and tasawwuf - two justifications of action from the Idrisi tradition”, Studia Islamica, xc, 2000, 153-76

“Sufi Brotherhoods in Africa”, i N. Levtzion and R. Pouwels (eds.), The History of Islam in Africa, Athens, OH 2000, 441-76.

Between God and the Sultan: A history of Islamic law. London and New York 2005.

“The shaykh as mujtahid: A Sufi conception of ijtihad?” in A. Carmona (ed.), El Sufismo y las normas del Islam, Murcia 2006, 129-56 og 351-75.

The Maghreb since 1800: A Short History. London 2012

• The conception of ijtihad (legal formulation) in debates over method in the 18th and 19th centuries
• ”The Shari’a in the modern world: Faith, norms and state power”.