Hasan Al-Turabi: The Mahdi-Lawyer

Abstract

Abstract As young Sudanese intellectual returning to his country in 1964 after completing his doctoral studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, Hasan al-Turabi seemed about to begin a career as a distinguished academic. Instead, he became one of the world’s most visible and well-known Muslim activist intellectuals. Hasan al-Turabi had an important appointment in the Faculty of Law at the University of Khartoum when he returned from Paris and was poised to become a member of the Sudanese intellectual establishment. Instead he gave a stirring oration at a political rally that helped to crystallize opposition to the existing Sudanese military regime of Ibrahim Abboud. Turabi was catapulted into the center of the Sudanese political maelstrom, and he has remained there ever since. He has been an important actor in every major political development in Sudan since 1964. Turabi is reported by most observers to have been the leading ideologue in the regime that came to power in Sudan in 1989 under the banner of establishing an authentically Islamic political system and social order, and even when he was relieved of his positions in 1999 he remained a major political figure.