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Ibadi Hadith An Essay On Normalization
Ibadi Hadith An Essay On Normalization
Ibadi Hadith An Essay On Normalization
and incorporated in the Mozabite "bible" of the renaissance, the Kitäb cd-
Nil. This work in turn was re-expanded in a huge commentary by Mufram-
mad b. Yüsuf Atfayyish, who also made a major commentary on another
early Ibädi composition of great importance, the Mudawwana by A.
Ghänim Bashir b. Ghänim al-Khuräsäni (see below). So the hadith collec-
tion is integrated into the great works of the Ibädi renaissance and its ori-
gins in its Tartib form can at least be traced back to the 6th/12th Century.
An examination of al-Sälimi's edition of this Tartib shows it divides into
four books.3) The first two, containing 742 hadith are A. 'Ubayda Muslim b.
A. Karima's4) transmissions, always direct from A. Sha'thä* Jäbir b. Zayd
and bis source: here al-Rabi* b. Habib's contribution is minimal. At the end
of the second volume, comes the following Information. The hadith of
«Ä'isha are 68, Anas b. Mälik 40, Ibn 'Abbäs 150, A. Sa'id al-Khudri 60, A.
Hurayra 72: the maräsll transmissions from Jäbir are 184, and from A.
<
Ubayda Muslim 88. The arranger then goes on to say that according to al-
Rabf there are 654fyadithto be found in these two parts;5) the rest the com-
mentator (presumably A. Ya'qüb al-Warjläni) supposes are from A. Ayyüb
(al-An§äri, hardly A. Ayyüb Wä'il b. Ayyüb al-lja<jrami, al-Rabfs succes-
sor äs Ibädi "Imam" in Basra), 'Ubäda ibn al-$ämit and A. Mas(üd (read
'Abdullah ibn Mas'üd?) and some from al-Rabi' himself. None of this, of
course, quite adds up äs the Allah cflam clearly indicates, but the sources
are confirmed by my own sampling in Volume DI of al-Sälimi's Sharh.
Part DI of the Tartib, comprising hadiths 743-882, is more heterogene-
ous and seems basically to be al-Rabi's own contribution of hadiths, includ-
ing comments on them by distinguished companions. It is this part which is
politically interesting, and has a neat set of "Khäriji" traditions about the
Imamate (no.s 817-820). Where exactly al-Rabr got his Information from
is often far from clear, though the Jäbir b. Zayd source is important. Part
IV is a sort of appendix of post-al-Rabi' recordings and brings the total of
hadith up to 1005. This includes transmissions deriving from the last
"Imam" of the Basran Community, A. Sufyän Mahbüb b. al-Rahil (author of
an important early Ibäqli work, the Kitäb A. Sufyän, see below) and a
Zlyäda by'his contemporary, the Rustamid Imam al-Aflah b. cAbd al-Wah-
häb who recorded them from A. Ghänim, the author of the MuAawwanat A.
3
) It is clear from al-Barrädi Kitäb al-Jawähir that all four parts are the arran-
gement of A. Ya*qüb. For analysis of al-Barrädi see Rubinacci, R. in Ann. Ist. Or. di
Napoli, new series iv (1952) pp. 95-110.
4
) P611at, C. "Djähiz et les Khäridjites", Folia Orientaliaxii (1970), 195-209 has
the reading of his name äs A. (Ubayda Muslim b. Kürin or Kurzin.
5
) Al-Rabic also adds the tradition that there are 4000fyadithin total, 900 con-
cerning u$ül, the rest ädäb and akhbärrel&tea by 900 men and one woman, 'Ä'isha.
Ibäcji IJadith: an Essay on Normalization 233
n
) It is interesting that this accusation is only made in the Maghrib, thus per-
haps substantiating the argument that it was there that raacMooisation was taken
to extreme form.
12
) Wilkinson, J. C. "The Early development of the Ibäcji movement in Basra",
in Juynboll, G. H. A. (Ed.) Studies on the First Century of Islamic Society, Southern
Illinois U.P., Carbondale, 1982. This contribution was in fact written in 1977, so I
have incorporated some modifications to it in the present account.
Ibägli iJadith: an Essay on Normalization 235
his judicial opinions (fatäwä) who seems to have been a confident of Ihn
'Abbäs (al-bahr = bahr al-'ulüm of the Ibädis)13) and a number of other
authorities apparently of the Meccan school. Amonst his own pupils was
Pumäm b. al-Sä'ib, who along with some other quasi-contemporary collea-
gues of a similar humble Gulf background, notably Ja'far b. al-Sammäk/
Sammän, §uhär al-'Abdi and A. Nüfe §älih b. Nüh al-Dahhän, began to
develop a particular school which was called by others "Ibäcji", since it had
a degree of continuity with the ideas of one of the political leaders in the
Basran Khawärij schisms that developed in the crisis of A. H. 64, 'Abdullah
Ibn Ibägl. Amongst their pupils were A. <Ubayda Muslim b. A. Karima and
al-Rabr b. Habib who later developed Dumäm's movement into a full-scale
13
) Ibn 'Abbäs is held almost in veneration by the Ibä<Jis. One of the very few
Basran transmissions back to the Prophet I have found in Omani sources has
Jumayyil (al-Khwärzimi?) reeording from A. 'Ubayda al-A§ghar (Abdullah b. al-Qä-
sim, the China merchant) from A. al-Muhäjir from A. <Ubayda al-Akbar (Muslim b.
A. Karima) from A. Sha^hä* Jäbir b. Zayd from Ibn 'Abbäs that the Prophet said to
him on learning that he had seen the Angel Gabriel," you have seen what no man
sees except the abnä (the true Prophets): you will be a learned faqih who will remäin
for the worid so long äs God does not blind your vision." This occurs in the sixteenth
Century Jämi* of Afetmad b. Maddäd entitled Khuzänat al-'ubbäd, (Muscat Ministry of
National Heritage Collection) and I have not noticed it elsewhere. If reported cor-
rectly this tradition would go back to the time of A. Sufyän Mahbüb b. al-Rahil, a
major ttrationalizerÄ of the movement.
10*
236 J. C. Wilkinson
and quote Alm - , that is al-Shaykh <Ammi Yahyä, who left no writ-
ten works. If we look at the official list ofhamalat oZ-^mtransmittors deve-
loped around the turn of the 5th/llth and 6th/12th centuries by the Rus-
täq party in Oman it is significant that few before the final two names,
Ibn Baraka (A. Muhammad Abdullah b. Baraka al-Bahlawi of the first half
of the fifth Century A. H.) and his pupü al-Hasan al-Bisyäni (var. Bisyawi)
wrote books, and it is equally significant that both of these are prolific
authors and belong to the period in the fifth Century when the maahkab
really became formalised. Behind this Situation16) lies the fact that this was
a period of crisis, a time when Oman was finally rent by the extreme divi-
sion between a moderate Nizwä school, who sought reconciliation over the
issues that had led to the crisis in the Imamate at the end of the 3rd/9th
Century, and the Rustaq school who sought legitimization of the Yahmad
Imamate by excommunicating (tabn*a) the party which had deposed the
Imam al-§alt b. Mälik al-Kharü§i in 272/886, the act which had finally led
to civü war. The official proclamation of this dogma (which reached füll
theoretical development under Ibn Baraka and al-Hasan al-Bisyäni) in
443/1052 speit the end of unification with Ha<Jramawt and the eventual
demise of Ibä<Jism there, äs too in northern Oman, for the division over the
deposing of al-$alt had been basically the geographical problem of sharing
power (centre versus peripheral north). It was this formalization of an offi-
cial Rustaq dogma, school which gave rise to an official line of teachers that
itself conflated with the emerging formalization of the Ibä^i madhhab to
give rise to the hamalat al-'üm list which Starts Prophet — Ibn 'Abbäs — Jä-
bir b. Zayd and finishes with the two later fourth to early fifth Century figu-
res mentioned above. This formal transmission line I have traced to al-'Aw-
tabi, but it may go back a bjt farther.17)
16
) For further details see Wilkinson, J. G., "Bio-bibliographical background to
the crisis period in the Ibä<Ji Imamate of Oman", Arabian Studies iii, 137-164, and
also in "The Omani Manuscript Collection at Muscat" (part ) ibid iv, 191-208.
17
) Notably in vol. iii of his (Salma b. Muslim al-'Awtabi al-§ubäri) Qiyä on
wüäya and barä'a. This list is already accepted äs Standard by Muhammad b. Sa'id
al-Qalhäti and reproduced in his raf al-'üm transmission line in the Kashf wa(l-
bayän (discussed below) and regularly reappears in later bibliographical works. It
should not therefore be imputed that a formal transmission school finished with Ibn
Baraka and A. 'l-IJasan al-Bisyäni. The object of the original list was simply to make
these extremist Rustaq school exponents the culmination of a scholastic process.
Al-'Awtabi himself belongs a couple of generation on from them: his floruit may be
fixed by a letter he wrote to the Kilwans somewhere in the first decade of the sixth
Century (see Wilkinson, J. C. "Oman and East Africa: new light on early Kilwan
history from the Omani Sources", Int. J. ofAfricanHist. Studiesxiv (1981) 272-305.
238 J. C. Wilkinson
So we find Ihn Ja'far (A. Jäbir Muhammad b. Ja'far: end of 3/9th Cen-
tury) not in this list, even though his great three volume Jämi* Ihn Ja'far
was enonnously respected, partly because he was sympathetic to the group
that deposed al-§alt, but partly because he was not a great teacher. Con-
versely Ibn Baraka himself, despite the importance of his own Jämi\ was
celebrated basically for his school at Bahlä by his contemporaries. Neither
writer normally refers directly to books18) and the only important written
work I have found mentioned in a cursory look at the Jämi* Ibn Ja'faris, sig-
nificantly enough, the KitäbA. SSufra (see below) whilst a brief survey of the
first volume of Ibn Baraka's Järni* only provided reference to the Jämi* Ibn
Ja'far. Still with Ibn Baraka, the insistence is älways on what is effectively
ijmä\ that concensus of the Community fostered by the oral tradition. Indi-
viduais are cited over particular opinions or specific judgements, but al-
ways in the context of creating a collective view, the ijmä< of the commun-
ity. Normally this is quoted in the form qäl a$häbnä, which differs little from
the qäl al-Muslimün in the first Omani Tafsir by A. '1-Hawäri Muhammad b.
al-Hawäri, a quasi-contemporary of Ibn Ja'far from the late third to very
early fourth Century. In this formulative period sources are still often just
cited äs min al-athär or min al-(ilm and transmission lines are accorded no
importance. That this is not accidental is made clear, albeit obliquely, by
A. Sa'id al-Kudami, the greatest doctor of the Nizwä school writing prob-
ably about the end of the 4th/10th Century in his al-Mu*tabar, which is a
commentary on the Jämi* Ibn Jajar. In the section on talb al-'ilm he com-
ments on the criteria which Muhammad Ibn Ja'far lays down for fatäwä,
that is "no man may issue such judgments unless he knows what is in the
Book of God, the sunna of his Prophet and the äthär of the first imams"
(leaders of the Community) äs follows; tThe sunna, all of it, is what explains
(ta*wil) God's Book, in the same way äs the ijmä* is what explains God's
Book. . . and the opinion of the ahl al-ra'y of the (true) Muslims, extracting
argument from intelligence (yakhruj hujjamin (d-rna^qül), confirms that the
Truth, all of it, and that Learning ('Um) all of it, is from the Qur'än". This
shows that a fundamentalist view of what the sunna of the Prophet meant19)
still persisted in Oman and that in this they still subscribed to the basic
Khawärij principle äs expressed by their notional founder, Ibn Ibä<J (whe-
18
) This, of course, does not mean that the authors were unfamiliar with written
works. On the contrary, Ibn Baraka presumes considerable knowledge of them, but
his reference is älways direct to the primary (oral) source, an individual, and not his
book or other written collections of his Statements.
19
) See Schacht, J. "Sur Texpression 'Sunna du Proph^te'," in Melanges d'O-
rientalisme offerts a Henri Masse, Tehran (1963), 361-5.
Ibä^i Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 239
ther it is his or not, is immaterial) that the Opposition "abandoned the jud-
gement (hukm) of their Lord and took ahaditha for their religion".20)
Nowhere in these early Omani sources therefore, is there any sign of
tracing hadith (äs distinct from fatäwä) though Jäbir b. Zayd. So in the
exposo on Aldibär 'an al-Nabi, in the Musannaf (perhaps the culminating
authority of Omani Ibäcji fiqh in the pre-modern period), A. Bakr AJimad b.
(
Abdulläh aHündi (d. probably 557/1162) is still quoting his authority äs
A. Muhammad (Ibn Baraka) and he makes absolutely no mention of an
Ibädi line for hadith. Even though he does explain the scholastie divisions
of i$näd äs determined by the Sunnis, Ibn Baraka pays no attention to such
criteria when quoting hadith in his own Jämi\ He still retains those types of
formula "from the Prophet", or "it is said from the Prophet", "from Ibn *Ab-
bäs" etc. used by Ibn Ja'far and A. l-Hawäri, whilst on one occasion he
actually quotes a hadith in markedly difierent form from that of Jäbir.21)
Furthermore, the way he quotes non-Ibä<2is indicates that he expects his
readers to be fully conversant with the writings of the founding fathers of
other schools. All of which goes to show that the later formalities of nothing
but Ibädi doctors were artifical contrivances, aimed at giving Ibädism a
pedigree based on the criteria that had been developing elsewhere in the
Muslim world. In doing so the later writers destroyed the flexibility of the
early Ibädis who followed the reputed precepts of their founder A. 'Ubayda
Muslim b. A. Karima: "it does not matter changing the position of words of
the traditions . . . if the meaning is the same"; "knowlege is to be learnt
from the reliable person even if he does not know (by heart) a single tradi-
tion"; äs for Jäbir b. Zayd, he disliked having his legal opinions written
down in case he wanted to change them.22)
So the Omani sources throw no light on where A. Ya'qüb al-Warjläni
got his material from. On the contrary their written works indicate the con-
tinuation of a "concensus" Ibä^i school, and right down äs far äs the nine-
teenth Century I can find no sign of any hadith scholarship. The seventeenth
and eighteenth Century Yacäriba period ulema are still saying "it is related
from the Prophet" in exactly the same way äs their predecessors were say-
ing nearly a millenium before. And the only reference I have found in the
early Omani sources at all relevant to our hadith collection is to the K. A.
§ufra which was clearly known from the earliest times.
20
) For the complete context see Cook (op. dt.), p. 9.
21
) Vol. I p. 101 of the Bärüni (Cairo 1971) edition.
22
) Quotations from Ennami, A. K. Studios in Ibä^üm. Unpublished Ph. D.
thesis, Cambridge, 1971.
240 J. C. Wilkinson
23
) Shammäkhi, (A. -'Abbäs Ahmad), K al-Siyar, Cairo 1884 edn. p. 119.
24
) Ennami Thesis (op. cit.) chapters iii and iv.
25
) Van Ess. "Untersuchungen" (op. cit.) items l and 2.
Ibäoli Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 241
Herr Dr. Werner Schwarte, has very kindly sent me a photocopy of the
Athär which comes out of a manuscript from Jerba copied in 1191 A. H. and
which Ennami used both for his J.S.S. article26) and his thesis. According to
Ennami27) there are two copies of this work in Jerba äs well äs one copy in
the Dar al-Kutub library, which is where Sezgin's notice of the Athär prob-
ably derives from.28) The complete work is called al-Diwän al-Ma'rüd 'alä
'ulamä* al-Ibä4iyya and consists of a number of early works, notably,
amongst those relevant to Jäbir b. Zayd, the Aqwäl Qatäda, the Athär, plus
some fragmentary material such äs a work on §alät by one IJabib b. A.
Habib deriving, significantly enough, from a work entitled the "Kitäb Jäbir
6. Zayd79. The compilation also includes, inter alia, a work by one of the
"heretic" pupils of A. 'Ubayda, Abdullah b. <Abd al-' , on marriage and
divorce relating from the early Ibädis A. Nüh and A. <Ubayda, a treatise by
A. Ubayda on zakät (see below), and narrations from various non-Ibä<Ji
authorities of Basra, Madina and Mecca concerning topics of jurispru-
dence. The fact that many of the works incorporated in this large manu-
script derive from the same sources äs the Mudawwana makes Ennami
believe29) it was the work of A. Ghänim, a view which should be considered
further in the light of what will be said later on about his work.
26
) Ennami, A. K., *A description ofnew Ibä^i manuscripts from North Africa*1,
J. Sem. Studie* xv, (1970) 63-87. '
27
) Thesis chapter iv.
28
) Sezgin, F. Geschickte de* Arabischen Schriftums, i, 93. Incidentally, I am not
happy with Sezgin's Identification of our al-Rabf with that of Ihn Hajar (Tahdhib iii,
241).
29
) Thesis, 159-164.
242 J. <X Wilkinson
30
) Cook (op. dt.) pp. 18, 78; see also Pollat (op. cü.).
31
) This, incidentally, is the'only mention I have found of Sufyän. The impor-
tant son is A. Abdullah Muhammad äs is indicated by his being simply called "the
beloved". There are other vestiges of A. 'Abdullah using A. Sufra äs a source for
early history, e. g. 'Abdullah b. ijumayd al-Sälimi, Tuhfat al-A lyän bi Siratahl 'Umän
ii, 112-3.
32
) His father, 'Ali, died 202 whilst the dates of his grandfather, Müsä b. A. Jä-
bir the great Organizer of the Ibädi uprising which ended Julandä rule, are reported
in Omani biographies äs 96-181.
33
) See Muhammad b. Ibrahim al-Kindi (end of 5/1 Ith Century) Bayän al-Shar*
(Ministry of National Heritage, Muscat, 1982 vol. I, 152-4, 183-185).
34
) Al-Sälimi, Tuhfa i, 151. It is perhaps worth noting that in North Africa the
Ibäclis remained pro-Creation. Massignon (op. cit.) sees a number of the fyadith in the
Rabi' collection äs being insertions by the Imam Aflal?, influenced by the ofiicial
dogma of the Aghlabite governors in Qayrawän between 218-234 A. H. He points to
the concordance of IJanafi and Khäriji ideas on this issue, which would explain the
presence of Bishr al-Marisi äs a source.
244 J. C. Wilkineon
would suggest that hie name has been introduced äs a deliberate smoke
screen to imply that these Athär, whose existence was attested but few had
seen, were the actual source for the Muenad\ an implication taken up by
Shammäkhi.
Early Ma$hriqi treatises in the Maghrib: the Mudawwana and the K A. Sufyän.
A. Ya'qüb himself went further than the Omanis, and I believe, may
actually have moved into manipulating evidence. That he was able to do so
is partly due to the fact that he had material at his disposal that the Omanis
did not. The basic reason was that whereas the Mashriqis were in relatively
close contact with each other through Basra, their trading networks and
the Hajj, the last was the only occasion when they could meet the Maghri-
bis. As a result a certain amount of material was set down for them, a proc-
ess perhaps encouraged by the somewhat bibliophile tendencies of the
urbane Tahert Imams. This need was all the greater in the early period
since it was the Mashriqis who were the leaders in Interpretation. Origi-
nally, of course, it was the Basran sehool, but after that folded when A.
Sufyän Mahbüb b. al-Rahil retired to die in Oman, probably in the 230s,42)
the next generation Omanis, including his son, took over the scholarly tra-
dition. So, for example, A. Ya'qüb al-Warjläni gives äs the greatest authori-
41
) Ben Moussa F. B. Les Communautes ibadites en Afrigue du Nord . . . depuis
Lee Fatimides. Unpubliehed D.^s. Lettres thesis, Sorbonne Paris , 1971, p. 240.
42
) cf. footnote 35.
248 J. C. Wilkineon
ties, alter the Qur'än and the Prophet, two Omanis, A. 'Abdullah Mufram-
mad b. Mafcbüb (d. 260/873) and 'Azzän b. al-§aqr (d. 268/881-2): again
in a series of problems quoted by him, half the Solutions are by
Mashriqis,43) Thus we find some extremely early treatises in the Maghrib,
including the only complete written work by A. TJbayda Muslim b. A.
Karima, an exposo on zakät addressed to one Ismail b. Sulaymän al-
Maghribi.44) Two works require especial mention however, for they were
major sources available to A. Ya'qüb al-Warjläni relevant to his concoc-
tion. The first was the Mudawwana.
The Mwimvwana was brought to the Imam 'Abd al-Wahhäb by its
author A. Ghänim Bashir b. Ghänim al-Khuräsäni, when he came to visit
the Maghrib. The copy he left in Tahert was losjb,with the destruction of the
Rustamid library, but fortunately a copy, made clandestinely by 'Amrüs b.
al-Fath in the Jabal Nafusa of the author's original which he loaned him
when he went on to Tähert, survived.45) This original Mudawwanais known
äs the Mudawwana al-l&ughrä by contrast with its expanded Tartib by
Muhammad b. Yüsuf Atfayyish which is known äs the Mudawwana al-
Kubrä. At least so it would appear. But Van Ess,46) who has seen the Sugh-
rä, states that it is a conflation of at least two if not three works by A. Ghä-
nim, brought together at a later date.
I would like to add two points to Van Ess's appreciation. The first is
that there are certain signs of tampering in the temporal äs well äs the tex-
tual field, tampering possibly associated with improving the internal Ibädi
transmission line. One indication of this is the already mentioned Ziyädam
the Tartib, written by the Imam Aflah b. 'Abd. al-Wahhäb who got his
hadith from A. Ghänim. This shows that A. Ghänim clearly derived his
Information from intermediaries, fromji collector of Ibä(Ji tradition (Hänim
b. Mansür) and from the Egyptian Ibäcji Community, a Community inciden-
tally, which tended towards the heretical doctrines of A. 'l-Mu'arrij adopted
by the Nukkarites. When, therefore, we find A. <Ubayda's pupils appa-
rently being quoted directly in the Mudawwana we should at least Jbear in
mind that the Information may be at second hand. This possibility is rein-
forced when we try to date A. Ghänim himself.47) If indeed he really did
know 'Amrüs b. al-Fath who was killed at the battle of Manu in 283/896, it
is difficult, even though not totally inconceivable, to see him knowing
43
) K. al-Dalti wa'l-Burhän, Bärüni Press 1306 A. H. part ii.
44
) Ennami J. 8. S. 1970 item 2.
45
) Darjini (ap. cit.) ü, 323.
46
) "Untersuchungen", (op. cit.), item 4.
47
) Sezgin, G. A. S. i, 586 dates his death to around 200/815.
Ibä^i Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 249
important pupils of a man who died in the mid 150s. In fact, I believe the
indications are that A. Ghänim's florait was the late 2nd/8th to early 3rd/
9th Century, a period when the leadership in Basra was in the hands of A.
Sufyän Mahbüb b. al-Rahil and material was inereasingly being recorded in
the Mashriq itself; and that in fact he came to the Maghrib in Aflah's time
and not that of bis father.
The actual content of the Mudaivwana derives from the pupils of A.
<
Ubayda. I have only been able to study the expanded Kubrä version, so it
is difficult to be sure of the structure of the basic material. According to al-
Sälimi48) the material is based on reports by seven of A. Ubayda's students.
What is interesting is that the two most widely quoted are 'Abdullah b.
'Abd. al-' and A. 'l-Mu'amj TJmar b. Muhammad who split with the
other pupils of A. 'Ubayda, led by al-Rabf b. Ilabib al-Farähidi, over, inter
alia, the use of analogical reasoning, views which were adapted and deve-
loped by the Nukkarites according to Ennami. Al-Sälimi is not certain of
the status of these two men in the Community, but thinks that A. 'l-Mu'arrij
repudiated Ms opinions after debate in Oman; since he died before the
Situation was clarified however, he is held in wuqüf (abstention in cases of
legal uncertainty) by the true Ibädis. However, both pupils he says, are all
right for use in transmission and fiqhl
Despite al-Sälimi's absolution there are in fact few, if any, isnads in the
Mudawwana which go back to early sources, nor should we expect to find
them if this material is genuine. Those that do .occur appear to emanate
from A. Ghänim himself and are usually of the form Immediate source —
Prophet without any intermediaries. On the other hand we do get the
oddity of an apparent füll Ibädi isnad, e.g. Vol. I, p. 165 where we read "it
was recounted to me (A. Ghänim) originating (N.B. not direct) from A.
'Ubayda from Jäbir b. Zayd from Ibn 'Abbäs from the Prophet". If this is
genuine it may indicate some development of a more formal hadlth
approach, which perhaps took root in the Maghrib. We should note, howev-
er, that it is at the earliest A. Ghänim who is responsible: he did not have
his information direct from A. 'Ubayda nor do his other Ibäcji sources pro-
vide him with an i&nad. The form of what they say nearly always follows the
pattern A. -Mu'arrij said that A. 'Ubayda used to say, or A. '1-Mu'arrij
asked A. TJbayda about such and such a problem: in both cases his reply is
the master's answer or solution without, normally, any reference to the
way this was derived. This, äs we have seen is characteristic of the Athär
am! of the way early Ibätjüsm really developed, that is by the question and
48
) Letter cited in the introduction to volume II of the Dar al-Yaq?a edition,
1974.
17 Ißlaro LXIl, Heft 2
250 J. C. Wilkinson
answer form between pupil and teacher. One is reminded of the story of
how, when the Ibä<Ji "missionaries" to the Maghrib had finished their train-
ing in Basra, one of them, Ibn Darrär, asked A. <Ubayda a series of 300
legal questions and of how his teacher gently taunted in reply whether his
ambition was to become a qädi.49)
In summary, therefore, I would suggest that the Mudawwana, derives
not only from A. Ghänim, who clearly recorded a certain amount of mate-
rial for the Imam Ailah based on his own collection of data, but also from
other sources that had currency in rival Ibätfi schools. The work probably
grew by accretion from the Imam Aflah's time onwards with important
additions perhaps in the post-Rustamid period when Nukkarism gained
ground. Be that äs it may, it does represent genuine early material going
back to A. 'Ubayda's time which was recorded for the North African
domain and it does, perhaps, indicate some development of a hadith
approach in North Africa. But the core of the material .was not set down
before the third Century, the first decade at the earliest I would suggest,
and it is a work that remained unknown in Oman until comparatively
modern times.
The second source available to A. Ya'qüb, but which we only know
today in the recensions of authors like Barrädi, Shammäkhi and Darjini, is
the Kitäb A. Sufyän Mahbub b. al-RaJiil.
Unlike their attitude towards recording €ilm teachings there was no
particular compunction amongst Ibädis about recording versions of politi-
cal history in the form of uplifting biography. Two sets of early quasi-histo-
rical materials existed for the study of the early Ibäcji Community, one of
which was in general circulation in the "Unitarian" Khäriji Community äs a
whole, the other that recorded by the Ibädis proper. The former were cer-
tainly used by early outside historians also, for of the 32 monographs of A.
Mkhnäf (c. 70/689-157/775), which Tabari used, äs enumerated by Sez-
gin,50) nine at least (numbers l, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 16, and 17) must have
been of at least partial Khäriji composition. Such sources were also used by
al-Mubarrad who, we might notice, was of Omani origin, in his Kämil. Füll
use of such sources, however, do not seem to appear in the Omani books
until the time of al-Qalhäti who draws on such works äs the K al-Nahrawän
in the second volume of his Kashfwa*l-Bayänto show the evolution of the
true firqa. (<
49
) A. Zakariyyä' al-Warjläni (d. 471/1078) "Chronique", Revue Africaine, civ
(1960) p. 111.
50
) Sezgin, U. Abu Mihnaf. Ein Beitrag zur Historiographie der umaiyadischen
Zeit, Leiden, 1971.
Ibädi Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 251
The Ibädis proper did not seem to write this type of political history. All
the history of early Oman derives from snippets in other sources, notably
the studies on the Institution of the Imamate developed in the fourth and
fifth centuries A. H., whilst in the Maghrib the basic early history of the
Rustamids was produced by a non-Ibädi, Ibn §aghir (c. 290/902-3). An
exeeption there is Ibn Salläm who wrote around 260/873-4 some sort of
account of the early history of IbüUjism in the region;51) but even this was
probably originally presented in a semi-biographical form, that is the form
of anecdotal hagiography favoured by the Ibädis which subsumed a know-
ledge of the oral historical traditions of the Community. Basra produced at
least two such biographical sources, both of which ended up in the Maghrib.
The first was written by a contemporary of A. <Ubayda, A. Yazid al-Khwär-
zimi. The Imam Aflah had a copy of this book which he obtained from A.
Ghänim (cf. Ziyäda to the Tartib). I have found no other mention of this
work or the form it took, but from the Tartib quotation it is fairly clear it
must have been semi-anecdotal: we may assume its content was assimilat-
ed by the Maghribi sources. It was also probably absorbed by the major
early biographical-history, the Kitäb a. Sufyän (Mahbüb b. al-Rahil), the
last Basran Imam, who probably died in the 230 s. This, we should note,
was a composition that was quite specifically written for the Maghribis,
probably for the Imam Aflafr who enormously praised and recommended
it.52).
It is perhaps of interest to note that A. Ya'qüb al-Warjläni had this
book, äs also that of his son Muhammad b. Mahbüb (see below) according
to the slra of Sulaymän b. Yakhlaf.53) The K A. Sufyän was not known in
Oman in early times where the oral tradition of the Basrans remained in cir-
culation. Hence it preserves .some interesting anachronisms, particularly
when A. Sufyän's account is compared with what his son, A. 'Abdullah
Muhammad b. Mahbüb had to say, or even indeed what A. Sufyän himself
on occasion states within the Mashriq. So, for example, in an extant letter
of A. Sufyän to the Ha<}ramis,54) he quite specifically says that A. 'Ubay-
da's main teacher was Dumäm; in his account to the Maghribis, on the
other hand, Pumäm is superseded in favour of two other figures, Ja'far b.
al-Sammäk and $uhär al-'Abdi. Similar anachronisms abound in the K A.
Sufyän, some of which I have pointed out elsewhere. The question that
arises is why?
51 52
) Lewicki, T. Fol. Or. iii, (ap. cü.). ) Darjini (ap. dt.) ii, 290, 478.
53
) Ennami Thesis, p. 149. Ennami, however, seeros to have overlooked the lact
that Sulaymän b. Yakhlaf al-Mazäti (d. 491 A. H.) pre-dates A. Yaqüb: presumably
therefore, this detail has been added to his slra.
M
) In Jaivhar al-Muqta^ir (op. dt.).
J7*
252 J. C. Wilkineon
development which sees the origins of the formal school äs dating back to
the previous Century, these figures can only be left hanging around in a
structural void, spare material not required for creating the Ibägli cosmos.
Parallel historical normalization was also necessary to make the Ibä<Ji
movement the culmination of a single line of true development from Nahra-
wän onwards, including in it not only heroes of the movement like A. Biläl,
but sympathizers of "Unitarian" Khawärij thought like al-Ahnaf b. Qays al-
Tamimi, or even the Umayyad Caliph 'Umar b. €Abd al-' . As I have
pointed out in my previous study A. Sufyän probably played a major role in
this historical normalization process, äs too did his son, A. 'Abdullah
Muhammad in Oman. Certainly it is clear from a sira56) written by some of
the fuqaha* to the Imam al-§alt b. Mälik, probably not long before his
deposing in 272 A. H., that the details of the true line of just revolt, äs also
of the notion of a threefold division of the Khawärij movement from A. H.
64 into Azäriqa, §ufriyya and Ibäcjiyya was already well established by this
time: this latter can be traced at least to the time of Sälim b. Dhakwän,
whenever that might prove to be.57)
there is no parallel collection of such material until the second half of the
third Century. There is some vague Suggestion that the fatäwä of Müsä b.
'Ali (171 or 200-230/231 A. H.), the leading Omani 'älim towards the end
of the second quarter of the third Century may have been collected59) but
the first fairly definite Jämic collection was that made of the rulings of
A. Sufyän's son, A. 'Abdullah Muhammad b. Mahbüb (d. 260/873), the
great ^alim responsible for deciding a vast amount of practical problems
concerning both the System of government and day-to-day administration
in Oman. Unfortunately, this work, extending reputedly to some 70 vol-
umes, has not survived although one section at least was still extant in the
Maghrib in Barrädi's time.60) Its content, however, has been assimilated
into later works and it is clear from these that it was still essentially fatäwä
elaborated in the problem-answer form with little reference to basic dicta.
Similarly, with the extant Jämi* of A. 'l-Hawäri Muhammad b. al-Hawäri,
who was a leading figure around the time of the deposing of the Imam al-
§alt (272 A. H.) but still active well into the next Century. Both these Jämi's
however, seem to have been works set down by pupils.61) Another impor-
tant collection of early fatäwä and dicta was by a quasi-contemporary of
A. -Hawäri (no relationship), al-Fadl b. al-Hawäri. He is often quoted but
there is no trace of a written work, (although it is conceivable it was in fact
he who was responsible for bringing together Müsä b. 'Ali and A. 'Abdul-
lah's judgements in Jämi* form).
All this written material belonged to what one might call the growing
hifz tradition,62) that of trying to preserve the traditional learning of the
Community in a surer way than verbal transmission. In its original form, äs
far äs one can judge (for it should be remembered much has been subse-
quently reorganized) there is little attempt to structuralize it. This early
recorded material is still largely in a "primitive" form dominated by legal
59
) In an Anonymous list of books written on the fly-leaves of the final volume
(No. 72) of a copy of the Bayän al-Shar* in the Muscat manuscript collection
(Ministry of National Heritage). However, this is the only reference I have found to
such a possible collection, and if it was made it was certainly posthumous and lost
early on.
60
) Barrädi Catalogue (Motylinski "Bibliographie" op. cit.) item 15.
61
) I have/seen a Ms of the Jämi* A. 'l-Hawäri in Muscat and am very much
under the impression it is more or less a posthumous collection of his writings (e. g.
his letter to the ilacjramis), legal answers and judgments. Although it has been orga-
nized under certain themes and is of very great interest for specific rulings it is in no
way a comparable work with the Jämi* of Ibn Ja'far.
62
) It is interesting to note that the Jämi* Ibn Ja'far refers to A. §ufra's work äs
a W?·
Ibäcji IJadith: an Essay on Normalization 255
63
) cf. Zerouki, B. La diffueion du Hari^isme soua Vlmamai de Tahert enAlgerie
actueüe, Thesis, 3&ne cycle, Paris, 1975; and Wilkinson, J. C. "Sufcär (Sohar) in the
Early Islamic Period: the written evidenee", South Asian Archaeology 1977, 887-
907.
64
) Darjini op. dt. ü 321. Further aspects of his views of Islamic jurisprudence
and theology occurring in one of his polemic works are discussed in Ennami J. S. S.
1970, item 12;
256 J. C. Wükinson
approach but grouped around baeic issues which are developed methodolo-
gically from fundamental precepts. It is a great compilation of traditional
scholarship and äs such attracted numerous ziyädät ranging from his con-
temporary A. 'MJawäri down to the last "hämil al-^ilm", al-Hasan al-
Bisyäni (mid 5/1 Ith Century). But it was intellectually "primitive" and it
was A. Sa'id al-Kudami (late 4th to early 5th Century), perhaps the greatest
of all early Omani Ibä<Ji jurists, who, äs we have already seen, gave the
work its most penetrating analysis by composing a critique, al-Mu'tabar (of
99 chapters) on its Content. It is an indication of the development of Ibä-
glism after the collapse of the First Imamates that in fact he disagrees with
much of what Ibn Ja'far himself concludes.65)
Tafsir also began to make their appearance around this time, again
with the Maghrib's Hüd b. Mahkam al-Hawwäri's two volume work lead-
ing, probably by a decade or two, that of the Omani A/1-Hawäri in this
genre. The latter seems to have been set down in reply to. a request for com-
mentary: amongst its interesting features is the importance of Ibn 'Abbäs
for establishing sunna.66) But again, äs with Ibn Ja'far, there is no trace of
isnäd tradition in his work. Once more the Ibädis are a Century and a half or
more late on the Sunni world for these Tafsir are not much older than that
of Tabari.67) The mysterious Tafsir of the Imäm <Abd al-Rahmän b. Rus-
tum (d. 168/784-5)), which nobody had ever seen but was reputed to have
been on sale in a süq some time during the life of 'Abdullah b. Muhammad
al-Lawäti (432-528 A. H.), is quite clearly a fable, again aimed at erecting
an antique tradition to parallel that of the Sunnis: äs Lewicki points out,
Ibn $aghir, writing at the end of the third Century, A. H., quite specifically
states that 'Abd al-Rahmän wrote nothing.
Space does not permit discussion of further development of Ibäxji fiqh,
but it is clear that A. Ya'qüb al-Warjläni represents the last link in this
chain of converting the primitive forms of Ibäclism into a model madhhab
based on the norms which had been evolving in the Sunni school and which
Ibä(Jism had tended to follow a Century or so later, in particulai> in the
Maghrib. He himself wrote the "ultimate" in Tafsir but to achieve the per-
fect calquing he needed an independent collection ofhadtth. How far he was
65
) According to a Sira of Nä?ir b. Jä'id b. Khamis al-Kharü§i (advising a col-
league of replies to questions the "Christians" had been asking about the Ibäglis and
written probably in the early 1840s).
66
) It has been published by the Dar al-Yaq?a press (1974) äs a Tafsir of 500
äyas. However, from a study of his Jämi* I have the impression it was not specifi-
cally composed äs a Tafsir but was compiled from replies to requests for commen-
tary on certain Qur^nic verses.
61
) van Ess Untersuchungen (op. cit.) item 5.
Ibäcji Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 257
responsible for creating these, ab initio, l have no idea but feel that he was
too good a scholar to have manipulated so crudely. It is eertainly possible
that Maghribi Ibäcjism had tended to follow a different path from the funda-
mentalist Omani-Basran line and that the Rustamid Imams had them-
selves tended to collect hadith a la Sunni to justify their legal and theologi-
cal views, äs we already have had some cause to note in the case of the
Mudamwana and over the creation of the Qur'än issue. Rejection of the
Qadariyya and other polemical issues may also have given rise to a collec-
tion of useftd fyadtth, whilst hadtth might have to be countered by hadtth in
debate with Outsiders, even if the Ibäcjis themselves disliked such an
approach. Their views, on the other hand, like those of the Mu'tazila may
also have changed in N. Africa. Over the course of time too, the massive
collection of rulings of Jäbir and the other early Ibä<Ji doctors that existed
in the Maghrib may have been rationalised, that is the basic dicta behind
their fatäwä extrapolated by "hadtth" scholarship in the sort of way that al-
Atfayyish comments with the relevant hadtth in his Kubrä version of the
Mvdawwana. Such material might become attributed to the standardized
pupil-teacher line so that the only real jiggery-pokery would involve finding
a favourable source for Jäbir b. Zayd.
Historically this involved manipulating the essential transmission line
Jäbir — A. <Ubayda — al-Rabi', a process never completely achieved for it
works by Suggestion rather than statement (the transmission line itself
suggests the history and this is only belied by .a careful study of existing
sources). What A. Ya'qüb himself did seem to add, however, was the
"Imamate" lineage of the early Ibädis. In his Dalli wa'l-Burhänhe develops
a new slant on the theory of the Imamate to create the Imäm al-Kitmän,
that is a proper Imam of the Community when it is living in secrecy. Such a
classification does not exist in Oman, where the nearest notion, and even
that is very late (nineteenth Century?), is that of the Muhtasib*Imam9 one
who can guide the Community when it is no longer independent. But in the
Maghrib, where the Imamate institutions had long since disappeared to
give rise to the more secret organization of the halqa, A. Ya'qüb's sugges-
tion makes sense, in particular after somewhat modifying the original
notion of the provisional power and role of the cK/a'ilmäm.68) And who bet-
ter to fit the role of the prototype Imäm al-Kitmän than the "father" of the
movement Jäbir b. Zayd? Thus the early Basran movement receives an ins-
68
) The difä'i Imam did not originally mean a defensive, äs opposed to a shäri,
expansionist, Imam, but an Imam with limited authority, usually a military leader
appointed for a specific task or time. Thie is a subject I intend discussing further in a
fortheoming work.
258 J. C. Wilkinson
69
) In Ms 2424 in Ministry of National Heritage, Muscat, collection.
70
) Schacht Origins, 261.
Ibswji IJadith: an Essay on Normalization 259
some of the overlay which the Ibäcjis themselves developed upon their ori-
ginal school to show that there are important traces of its early develop-
ment to be found in their written records. The hadtth collection is not a part
of that genuine early Ibägli material.
Acknowledgemente.
I should particularly like to thank Dr. Michael Cook and Dr. Patricia
Crone, äs well äs other members of the hadtth colloquium held at Oxford
in September, 1982, for their many interesting comments and suggestions
made on various drafts of this paper and in discussion.