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Al-Ibadhiya, or al-Ibadhiyah, is
one of the earliest Islamic sects, the foundation of which goes
back to the first half of the first century H. The school took
its name from Abdullah b. Ibadh, one of its early theologians.
The name Ibadhiyah applies to a
Muslim group, which was considered by most writers as a moderate
branch of the Kharijite movement. The adherents of this school
still form a number of independent communities holding a fast to
its teachings. The largest of this lives today in Oman and
Muscat in Southeast Arabia. There are other minorities in
Zanzibar of the East Coast of Africa, in Jabal Nafusah and
Zuwarah in Libya, in Jerba Island in Tunisia and in Wad Mzab in
Algeria.
Very little is known about the
Ibadhiyah, their doctrines, origins and development. Modern
European scholars have made useful contributions in the field of
Ibadhi studies, but their studies were directed mainly to the
history of the Ibadhi communities or some aspects of their
present social and religious life. With the exception of a few
articles on Ibadhi theology, Ibadhi teachings in general have
not been dealt with seriously. The studies conducted by
European scholars on Ibadhism were based mainly on historical
sources. The vast Ibadhi writings on jurisprudence and theology
were not properly utilized. This was no doubt due to the
difficulty of access to such sources.
The earlier paper on Ibadhi
bibliography was presented by Motylinski in his article on "Bibliographe
du Mzab"* in which he listed the Ibadhi works given by al-Barradi,
adding his own notes and findings. However he does not give
specific locations of the Mss. he mentions, nor does he give a
satisfactory description of them with the exception of the
historical works. The value of this study lies in the fact that
it was the preliminary step, which facilitated subsequent
researches. The latest and most useful list of Ibadhi work in
Mzab was made by the late Professor J. Schacht in his article "Bibliotheque
et manuscript abadites" in which he listed the extant Ibadhi
Mss. in the private collections of Mzab, arranged according to
their subjects, giving the names of the collections and the
numbers of the Mss. The other lists of Ibadhi collections of
Mss. were complied by other modern scholars: A list of the
Ibadhi Mss. in Krakow in Poland made by Wladyslaw Kubiak, in his
article "al-Makhtutat al'arabiyah fi Polunia" in Majallat Ma;had
al-Makhtutat al-arabiyah; a list of the Ibadhi Mss. in the
Oriental Institute of Naples, made by Rubinacci, and also the
description of the Ibadhi Mss. in Dar al-Kutub or Cairo, made by
the late Fu'ad al-Saiyid in the Catalogue of Dar al-Kutub.
During the course of this study I
made two tours to the Ibadhi communities in North Africa in
search of Mss. and material for my work. The first tour was
during June - September 1968, and the second was during November
- December 1969. Being myself an Ibadhi, it was easier for me
to obtain access to private libraries and collections of Mss.
than for non-Ibadhis. To my surprise, most of the important
Maghribi works, including those which were thought to be lost,
were still extant and in good condition. Moreover, there is
still great hope for future discovery in this field. A
description of some of the new Mss. discovered on my first tour
has been published in the Journal of Semitic Studies. It is
hoped that a complete list with a full description of all the
Mss. I have examined will be made in the near future.
The region, which has not yet been
fully explored and is no doubt a place where even more valuable
Ibadhi Mss. are likely to be found, is Oman, which requires
special attention from students of Ibadhi matters. I myself was
unable to visit Oman, but was provided by some early works on
jurisprudence and standard Sirahs of early Ibadhi authorities
which were or great help in the study on the origins of the
Ibadhi school and its relations to the early opposition
movements in Islam.
Oman, being a major center of the
Ibadhis and the Ibadhi imamate, received close attention from
European scholars, an account of which has already been given by
J. Wilkinson in his D. Phil. thesis on The Arab Settlement in
Oman, Oxford, 1969, and which I therefore do not propose to
treat here. However, what seems still to be needed as far as
Oman is concerned, though it would not be easy to achieve, is
the discovery of more material which would undoubtedly help in
forming a clear picture of the Ibadhi school and its development
in all Ibadhi areas. For, most of the early Ibadhi authorities
moved from Basra to Oman, where strong Imamate was founded and
which provided a more congenial atmosphere for those scholars to
develop their views and contribute to other Ibadhi countries,
but the original material of the Ibadhi doctrine in its early
period may well be preserved in Oman, and the likelihood of
making important findings there is quite feasible.
European
scholars also paid close attention to the Ibadhis of North
Africa. Masqueray, who translated the Sirah of Abu Zakariya al-Warijlani
into French, started their studies. His work attracted the
attention of other scholars who contributed to Ibadhi studies in
different fields. In the field of history, Motylinski, in his
article on the Ibadhi books, presented full tables of contents
of the Ibadhi works on the biographies of the Ibadhi Sheikhs;
the Sirah of Abu Zakariya; the Tabaqat of al-Darjini; al-Jawahir
of al-Barradi, and the Siyar of al-Shamaakhi. He later edited
and translated into French the history of Ibn al-Saghir al-Maliki
on the Rustamid Imams. Full reviews of these Ibadhi sources
appeared later. Lewicki made reviews of both Tabaqat of al-Darjini,
and the Siyar of al-Shammakhi, and Rubinacci reviewed K. al-Jawahir
of al-Barradi. Lewicki, also, possessing a copy of the Siyar of
al-Wisyani, published a series of articles using material from
al-Wisyani and the other Ibadhi historical works. These cover a
number of topics concerned with Ibadhi studies and with Ibadhi
communities in their various countries, especially North Africa,
their intellectual life and commercial and political
activities. His studies appear to be the most satisfactory of
those so far discussed despite a few minor points where he was
misled mainly because of the lack of material. Brief historical
accounts of the Ibadhis of North Africa were given first by
Strothmann in his article "Berber und Ibaditen," then a fuller
account of the Ibadhis, together with the other Kharijites in
north Africa, was presented later by Chaikh Bekri in his article
"Le Kharijisme Berber" The Ibadhi sources were used recently by
the Italian scholars in the study of the early political
conflict in Islam, notably by Vaglieri for an account of the
conflict between Ali and Muaawiyah, and by Rubinacci for an
account of the relation between the Ummayad Caliph 'Abd al-Malik
b. Marwan and the Ibadhis. |
