Macht und Herrschaft bei den Mauren der westlichen Sahara

In Islamic law, the appointment of a ruler is considered obligatory. Despite Morocco’s precarious sovereignty and the existence of semi-state entities in certain areas, the Moorish tribal society of the pre-colonial Western Sahara was characterised by a state of anarchy according to local legal scholarship. The subject of this study is the question of how this problem was dealt with, what solutions were found in theory and practice, and what controversies arose. In addition to European travelogues, relevant legal treatises serve as sources, supplemented by documents of all kinds that reflect the reality of life in this context.