ABSTRACT
It is a little appreciated fact that the Sudan was a pioneer in the reform of the Shari‘a allowing judicial divorce for women, this occurring in 1915–16 just after the Ottoman Turkish amendment of the law. In fact the reforms in both countries were influenced by progressive Muslim thought of the time, especially that of Mohammed Abduh, Mufti of Egypt at the turn of the century. Sheikh Mohammed Shakir, first Grand Qadi of the Sudan and an Egyptian national, had advocated reform in the law of divorce with Mohammed Abduh, recommending that the more liberal Maliki interpretation be accepted over the harsher Hanafi law which excludes almost entirely the possibility of judicial divorce for women. After the Turkish reform which permitted judicial divorce (tatliq al-qadi) for women whose husbands had deserted them or were afflicted with some disease or defect, Sheikh Mohammed Shakir took advantage of the pre-existing Sudanese Maliki base by not only introducing these reforms (in Circular no. 17) but including as well the Maliki provision of darar or cruelty in the marriage as sufficient grounds for divorce. These grounds, introduced in the Sudan in 1915-16, were adopted in a more restricted form four years later in Egypt and were expanded upon by the Sudan and Egypt in the late 1920s. However similar reforms were not introduced in other Muslim regions, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Tunisia, for example, until the 1950s, so with respect to the amendment of the Shari‘a regarding divorce regulations the Sudan and Egypt were pioneers.
