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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A tentative note on Islamic welfare: 'zakat' in theory and praxis in the Sokoto Caliphate
Author:Weiss, HolgerISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Hemispheres: Studies on Cultures and Societies
Issue:13
Pages:63-77
Language:English
Geographic terms:Nigeria
Northern Nigeria
Subjects:Islam
social welfare
Sokoto polity
Abstract:Muslim social scientists underline the possibility of an Islamic welfare system based on 'zakŻat', or legal alms. Along with most Western scholars, the present author argues that there has been a rift between the ideal model of 'zakŻat' and its reality in Muslim States, and that the role of 'zakŻat' as a welfare system, upheld and controlled by the State, has to be questioned. He takes the example of the Sokoto Caliphate (present-day northern Nigeria and northern Cameroon) as a test case. It has been argued that there was a functioning State-controlled welfare system in this 19th-century Muslim theocracy based on the collection and distribution of 'zakŻat'. However, although there is no doubt that 'zakŻat' was collected in the Sokoto Caliphate, it is not clear whether it was part of the public sphere. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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