Ibädi Hadith: an Essay on Normalization.

von J. C. Wilkinson (Oxford)

The collection of Ibätfi fyadtth is to be found in a Tartib, by A. Ya'qüb

Yüsuf b. Ibrahim al-Warjläni (d. 570/1174), of theMiisnad, oratleastmore
accurately entitled, albeit even more redolent of parallel early collections
by the most respectable of Sunni scholars, the §ahfy of al-Rabf b. IJabib al-
Farähidi. These evocative titles are attributed by Abdullah b. IJumayd al-
Sälimi (d. 1332/1914) who collated the Omani manuscripts (all of which he
says are similar) with the copy sent to him by bis great Maghribi contem-
poraiy Muhammad b. Yüsuf Atfayyish (1236-1332/1820-1914).1) Al-Säli-
mi also did a major Sharfy on the fyadtth whilst Atfayyish did a Tartib of the
Tartib. As the first book after The Qur'än2) it is not surprising that it was
such an important work for the Ibäiji renaissance (nahfa) and we find the
Hawäshi al-Tartib of A. Sitta al-Qa§abi (d. 1088/1677) amongst the first
ever published Ibäcji books at the short-lived Zanzibar Press promoted by
the Sultan Barghash b. Sa'id (ruled 1870-1888). This book itself had
already been subject to a Mukhta$ar Hawäshi al-Tartib by 'Abd al-' b.
Ibrahim al-Thamini (1130-1223/1718-1808) of Beni Isguen in the Mzäb,
the leading pupil of 'Ammi Y^hyä (d. 1226/1811), known äs Abu 'l-Nahfa,
!
) I refer to the 1968 Damascus printing of al-Sälimi's edition, which was first
printed in 1908. I have only seen volume III of bis Sharh al-Jämi* al-§ahih Musnad
al-Imäm al-Rabi* b. ffabib al-Farähidi (Damascus 1963) but know that the first two
volumes have also been published. The title of the Tartib äs given in T. Lewicki, "Les
Historiens, biographes et traditionalistes Ibäijites — Wahbites de TAfrique du nord
du VHP au XVT si^cle, Folia Orientalia üi (1961) p. 90 is Tartib $ahih fi hadüh
Ra#ül AUäh riwäya Rabi* b. ffabib.
2
) See for example al-SäHmi in al-Lwin^a al mar&yya (in Majmu* sittat kutub
(Tunis N. D.); or äs Muhammad b. Yüsuf A(fayyish puts it (Wifä* al-pamäna bi idä*
al'imänafifann al-fyadith, Muscat 1982 pt I p. 7) "the truest hadith are those related
by al-Rabi4 b. JLabib from A. *Ubayda from Jäbir b. Zayd from a companion from the
Prophet.. .".He continues with the subsequent order of reliability äs agreed by the
Ibädis, al-Bukhäri, then Muslim both of whom are above the Muwaffa' of Mälik,
which according to al-Shäfi'i was tbe first work after the Qur'än until these two
came along.
232 J. C. Wilkinson

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

Ghänim himself derived the material quoted from A. Yazid al-Khwarazmi

(a contemporary of A. TJbayda)6) from Hänim b. Man$ur, an important col-
lector of early Ibä^i tradition, and also from the Egyptian Ibädi Community
which he presumably visited en route for North Africa. Finally comes the
maqäti* traditions of Jäbir (i. e. Jäbir — Prophet, numbers 924 — end). I am
not competent to comment on the content, style and anachronisms of all
this material and would simply like to point out three features at this stage.
The first is that little, if any, of this material appears to be "unusuaP.
It is largely a hodge-podge and most, if not all can be found in Standard
Sunni collections, äs is elearfrom annotations in al-Sälimi's commentaries.
Part does, nevertheless, contain some fairly characteristic Ibädi-Khäriji
notions, particularly the traditions covering the bnamate, inkär cd-munkar
and rebuttals of the Qadariyya.
The second is that the death date of al-Rabf of 170/786 poses prob-
lems for the content of the work so that Van Ess7) proposed c. 180-190. On
these grounds Cook8) goes even further, stating that the Musnad contains
isnads which would place him a good generation later. Apart from Bishr al-
Marisi (d. 218), noted by Van Ess and also Massignon,9) Cook notes in the
third part transmissions from Futfayl b. lyäd (d. 187), Ammär, nephew of
Sufyän al-Thawri (d. 182), WakT b. al-Jarrah (d. 196), Asbät b. Muhammad
(d. 200) and, in one case, from Ibn 'Ulayya (d. 194) at one remove. Where
exactly Brockelmann got his date from is far from clear. Generally al-
Rabi's dates are stated äs being unknown but we find a confirmation of the
170/786 period in Massignon who gives a death date of around 175. Histo-
rically this makes veiy good sense for it is clear from the Omani biogra-
phies that al-Rabi' took over the direction of political activities from A.
<
Ubayda and then returned to Oman where he died at Ghadfän (on the nor-
thern Batina coast above §ujiär) äs a missionary preparing for the over-
throw of Julandä rule. At the time this was finally achieved, in Ram. 177/
Dec. 793, there is absolutely no mention of al-Rabi* in the fairly detailed
notices we have of the events,10) whilst in Basra we know that Wä'il b.
6
) al-Darjini, A. 'l-'Abbäs Abmad b. Sa'id K Tabaqät al-Mashäyikh bi'l-Maghrib
(2 volumes Constantine 1974) ii, 258.
7
) van Ess, J. "Untersuchungen einiger ibäxjitischen Handschriften", Z.D.M.G.
cxxvi (1976), 25-63: cf. also in Nachträge, ibtä cxxvü (1977), 1-4.
8
) Cook, M. Early Muslim Dogma, Cambridge U. P. 1981, p. 56. ,.
9
) Massignon, L. Report on a study of the first four parts of the Tartib made by
his section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Revue des Etudes Islamiques, i,
410-11.
10
) Wilkinson, J. C. aThe Julandä of Oman", J. of Oman Studies i (1975), 97-
108.
16 Islam LXII, Heft 2
234 J. C. Wükinson

Ayyüb al-IJa<Jrami was in charge. So historically the death date of 170/786

rnakes excellent sense äs too does the life span this could suggest, for we
cannot explain relationships we know he had from other more reliable
sources without invoking excessive age, if we place his death later.
The third point is that the collection performs two functions: that of
providing an independent Ibä(Ji corpus of hadlth without having to refer to
other schools; and that of permitting their claim to have the oldest collee-
tion. Thus the Ibäqiis can reject the accusation made in the Maghrib that
they are the "fifthers",11) those trying to make an additional school, by say-
ing that on the contrary they are the first sehool. Their basic transmission
line follows a pupil-Imam line from the reputed founder of the madhhab, Jä-
bir b. Zayd, who was a täbi'i of importance, via,his successor A. 'Ubayda
Muslim b. A. Karima who was succeeded, probably about the mid to late
150s A. H. by al-Rabf who died back home in Oman, äs we have seen,
around 170/786. Al-Rabi's basic role in this hadlth production was there-
fore äs the recorder. He provides the terminus anbe quem and hence a neat,
short transmission line exists: all that is necessary is to ensure that Jäbir's
sources are "correct". I am not going to repeat my arguments dealt with in
an earlier article,12) that the Ibä<Ji line of transmission does not stand up to
any close examination and will summarize conclusions drawn there äs fol-
lows:
Ünderlying the numerous "moderate" Khäriji schools that developed in
Basra in the second half of the first Century was a current of thought that
sought the overthrow of the innovatory rule of the ahl al-ahdäth and to bring
the ahl -giWaback under a justruler whose law was God's alone (lähukm
illä l'Allah), that is the Qurcän and something called the Sunna of his Pro-
phet. This cürrent of thought, which shpuld not be confounded with any of
its particülar political sub-movements, I termed "Unitarian" Khärijism in
my earlier paper, and was the very antithesis of the divisive principles of
hijra and tashrik developed by the extemist Khawärij, most famous of
whom were the Azäriqa.
Among the adepts of "Unitarian* Khärijism was Jäbir b. Zayd (18 or
21-93), ohe of the leading Basran scholars, renowned for the soundness of

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

The Ibädi legerdemain of rationalizing the development of their school

consisted of building up Jäbir b. Zayd with his Meccan connections into the
founding figure; of more or less suppressing the unco-ordinated middle
generation of Dumäm and other "proto"-Ibädis, who often had their own
individual raajKses; and of making the activist, A. 'Ubayda, the direct suc-
cessor to the unified Community supposedly developed by Jäbir. Al-Rabr,
who was in fact a contemporary of A. 'Ubayda, albeit perhaps a few years
younger, is in turn made a "pupil" of A. 'Ubayda, the master of the move-
ment, and his own inheritance from their common teacher, Pumäm (and
others of the generation), played down. Al-Rabr, thus inherits (hamal or
m/o* al-*ilm) and sets down the basis of his learning from A. 'Ubayda who
in turn received it from the great scholar Jäbir b. Zayd in the same way äs
the "Imamate" of the Community passed along this same line.
In coming to the above conclusions it had never occurred to me to
query the authenticity of the Jiadlth collection itself or to ask where it came
from. It is an attempt to answer these questions which is the object of the
present paper.

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

The Omani Sources.

One approach to filling the gap between al-Rabi's time and the emer-
gence of the Tartib is to start at the Omani end. After all, the Mashriqi
Ibä^is in Basra were closely involved in events there, and it was in Oman
that Ibäglism saw its füllest development. Certainly one would expect to
find traces of the hadith collection there, and furthermore to see it being
used in the development of Omani fiqh. Before looking, however, it is essen-
tial to make the preliminary point that a fundamental characteristic of the
propagation of early Ibäcjism was that (ilm was transmitted verbally and
not in writing.14) Basically the process involved enlarging the original
circle of cognoscenti, temporally from generation to generation, and spa-
tially from one centre to another. The aim was that members of the indivi-
dual circles should have studied together with those who had preserved the
*ilm from the original Muslim/Ibä<}i Community that had first propagated
the da'wa in Basra. Grossmann15) is quite right when he sees the halqa of
the post-Imamate period in the Maghrib äs a continuity of the original Bas-
ran "halqa", a school grouped around teachers which would in turn trans-
mit the faith. Such a group of ahl al-tariq is always made up of instructors
('ämir) and those who obey (ma'mür), and it is significant that the term
A. Abdullah Muhammad b. Bakr (who first formalized the halqa Institution
in the Maghrib in the fifth Century A. H.) uses to designate the teachers is
hamalat al-Qur'än, those who have preserved by heart the Qur'än and are
ready to teach its learning. It is this state of spiritual "pregnancy", an abi-
lity to give forth to others, which lies at the heart of all Ibä<Ji teaching and
why the term that came to be used is hamalat al-*ilm. Its tradition must
remain fundamentally oral, based on a teacher-learner relationship, for
only in this way can real continuity exist and members of the Community
truly know each other and arrive at a common Interpretation (ijmä*). It is
this direct contact between those who haml al-'ilm that both links the
ulema of the individual centres and determines their relationship with the
ordinary members of the Community to whom they convey a more simple
version of that message.
This oral tradition was not only essential for the original process of pro-
pagating Ibädism and recruiting shurät (the Ibäcjli warriors), but has remai-
ned enormously strong in both Oman and the Maghrib until the present,
even though written works became of increasing currency. Mozabites have
emphasised to me that Ibä<Ji scholarship does not reside in writing books
H
) I have a study in preparation which will elaborate these ideas."
15
) Grossmann, C. "Aperqu sur l'histoire religieuse du Mzab en Algerie . . ..w
Thesis, 3^me cycle, Paris, 1976.
 Ibeuji Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 237

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

The Maghribi Sources.

So we must look at the Maghribi sources and see if any light can be
found in the relatively late Standard references (thirteenth to fifteenth
centuries). Al-Barrädi simply states that there is a book called Hadith al-
Rabic which is not the same äs the arrangement of A. Ya'qüb, but Sham-
mäkhi says he does not know who related the Kitäb al-Musnad *an A.
'Ubaydawhich is caÜed Kitäb al-Rabtf: it is possible, he adds, that it was A.
Sufra 'Abd al-Malik b. §ufra who was the man who related the Atkär of al-
Rabr from Pumäm from Jäbir.23) In ai-Darjini's biography of al-Rabf there
is mention of the Musnad in his introduction, but there is absolutely no
mention of it in his recension of the primary source used for the biography
proper, that is the Kitäb A. Sufyän (any more thah there is in the version of
this work äs presented by the others quoted above).
So in these sources, all of whom post-date A. Ya'qüb al-Warjläni, the
implication is that there was material known in the Maghrib before our
author got to work but that exactly what it consisted of was no longer clear.
There was, however, some reason to believe that the material might derive
from A. §ufra and not be the actual recording of al-Rabf himself. Neverthe-
less we, and others who read these sources, are at least reassured that such
material did once exist and we can rest assured that A. Ya'qüb probably
only re-presented it in a more organised form.
Let us, however, not stop here and persist in trying to find out exactly
what this material was before re-presentation. One way is to try and sort
out something about that material which is attributed to Jäbir b. Zayd. As
Ennami shows24) Jäbir was both a täbi'i and the leading Mufti of Basra of
his time, with an important following of students. Although he disliked hav-
ing his opinions written down there is no doubt that most of them were re-
corded at some time. Amongst his actual pupils to do so was Qatäda b.
Di'äma al-Sadüsi (d. 117 or 118): along with some fatäwäand rasä'ü25) this
would seem to make up the main body of extant quasi-contemporary recor-
ded material emanating from Jäbir. There is no specific evidence bf any-
thing of his being recorded by his proto-Ibä<Ji students i. e. Pumäm and the
rest and, leaving out the Tartib, nothing to indicate that anything was
ever set down by the Ibädis until the time of A. §ufra cAbd al-Malik b.
§ufra. And it is his work which indeed turns out, äs indicated by Sham-
mäkhi, to form the basis of what became known äs the Athär al-Rabtf.

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.

The Athär of al-Rabl\

The Athär of al-Rabi* is made up of two parts, the Athärproper followed
by the Futyä of al-Rabf. Prom the text the only clue to this work being by
A. Sufra is right at the start where the first riwäya Starts haddathanä Abu
Sufra 'Abd al-Malik b. Sufra: qäl haddathanä al-Haytham 'an al-Rabl* b.
Habib lan Dumäm b. al-Säyib,(sic) 'an Jäbir b. Zayd al-Azdi followed by the
first problem and answer. After that we go into shorthand "al-Rabl1 *an
Dwmäm 'an A. Sha'thä* (Jäbir b. Zayd)". On p. 14 there is an Interruption
with a series of questions "I asked him" and again from p. 21 where the
work starts getting divided into babs. This latter section runs straight on at
p. 32 into what is headed Part of al-Rabi's fatäwä and is in exactly the
same style "I asked him" äs preceded. All this latter material therefore

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

appears to be al-Rabi's own legal opinions. Whether the writer is al-Hay-

tham or A. §ufra (or, indeed, neither) is not clear. The only certainty is that
the source recorded was asking al-Rabi* direct, although occasionaily we
find him asking others also, e. g. p. 37 "I asked 'Umar and 'Abdullah and al-
Rabi' about the case where . . .": WäMl b. Ayyüb (al-]Badrami) is another
occasional source. The break between the riwäya and thefatäwäof al-Rabic
is not clear but the former focuses on the legal opinions of Jäbir b. Zayd.
So the first dozen pages of riwäya are almost entirely al-RdbV from
Pumäm relating Jäbir's judgements, although at the beginning the inter-
mediary is occasionally A. Nüfr: on the odd occasion, both are given äs the
source. This section clearly comprises what in some Ibädi bibliography is
referred to äs Kitab Dumäm. Jäbir's legal opinion is stated extremely
briefly, sometimes almost on a yes-no basis, but never is a reason given for
the opinion, (nor later on, for that matter, for al-Rabfs). On p. 13 the style
of the work begins to change with a section on (A. Sufyän) Mahbüb b. al-
Rahil's views, whilst on p. 14 we break into the personal style "I asked
him", äs already mentioned (in fact it is by no means clear here whether the
legal opinions are those of Mahbüb or äl-Rabf). On p. 15 we return to the
al-Rabi' — Pumäm or A. Nüh — A. Sha'thä' lineage and half way down the
page (A. <Ubayda) Muslim b. A. Karima appears äs a direct source for A.
Sha<tha>: he also quotes Mujähid. On p. 16 the riwäya from Dumäm almost
stop and we get other sources appearing, e. g. al-Rabi* from 'Abbäs b. al-
Härith that A. <Ubayda asked A. Sha'tha'; or again al-Rabi' frorn 'Abbäs b.
al-Härith and Walid b. Yafryä: on the middle of p. 17 we even get al-Rabi( —
A. Sha'tha' direct. Prom p. 18 Khäzim b. 'Umar, and not al-Rabf, becomes
our source, recording Jäbir's views direct or via Tamim b. Khuways whilst
similarly on p. 20 'Umära b. Habib recounts them from his father or from
Dumäm. Several other names appear in this section, including A. Bakr b.
Nu'äma, ^mar recounting from Hayyän al-A^aj, A. Nüh and others. At
the end (p. 20) we find Jumayyil al-Khwärzimi quoting al-Rabi* from A.
<
Ubayda from Jäbir jfrom Ibn (Abbäs followed finally (p. 21) haddaihana.
A. Ayyüb Wäyilb. Ayyüb, *anal-RabVb.IIabib, €anA. 'Ubayda, 'an Jäbir b.
Zayd, 'an'Ibn 'Abbäs (about ghanvma).
In other words, from page 13 onwards to the end of the riwäyät the
work is drawing on all Ibä<Ji sources for the sayings and acts of Jäbir. Only
now does A. <Ubayda appear, äs a minor direct source, which, if genuine
and not shorthand, would confirm that äs a youth he may have actually
heard Jäbir, a fact which would help the idea later developed that the great
teacher's mantle feil on him. But of much greater significance here is the
fact that it is not until the final two sources, Jumayyil and A. Ayyüb,
(pp. 20-21), authorities form the final quarter of the second Century, that
 Ibä<Ji IJadith: an Essay on Normalization 243

we get any mention of the Standard transmission line with an ascendancy

higher than Jäbir. Two major conclusions follow. The first is that none of
the material can have given rise to the Jiadlth and isnäds which A. Ya'qüb
al-Warjläni presents in the Musnad. The second is that all this material was
recorded at the earliest by A. §ufra, either directly, or setting down what
al-Haytham said. The latter is presumably al-Haytham b. 'Adi (d. c. 206)
who is also responsible for the widely published Ibädi version of A. Hamza
al-Mukhtär b. 'Awf s famous sermon after taking the Holy Cities in the
name of Tälib al-Haqq30).
Who A. §ufra 'Abd al-Malik b. §ufra was can be traced from a reply of
his, obviously written from Iraq, to "the beloved" (A. 'Abdullah) and A.
Sufyän,31) the two sons of Mahbüb b. al-Rahil concerning the Creation of
the Qur'än. In this he speaks of misunderstandings about what A. 'Ali Müsä
b. 'Ali, (177-230: variant, and more likely, c. 200-231)32) said about this
issue. He also spoke of a visit to Baghdad where he talked to various Ibä-
dis, including Ja'far b. Yahyä "Ibn al-Rabi'" (b. Habib presumably), about
this dispute.33)
Now this issue came to a head in the Imamate of Muhannä b. Jayfar
(226-237) when A. 'Abdullah Mufcammad (d. 260/873) was arraigned
before the other ulema of Oman over his assertion that the Qu'rän was
created.34) When this is considered in the whole context of the mihna and
specifically with the facts that A. §ufra is writing about what the Iraqi Ibä-
dis are saying, but that he makes no reference to the opinion of Mahbüb b.
al-Rahil, who was himself still running the Basran end of affairs at least at

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

the beginning of Muhannä's reign;35) that he is clearly speaking of A. 'Ali

in the paet; and that he is dealing with al-Rabi's grandson; then it is per·
haps reasonable to presume that A. §ufra was not writing over this matter
earlier than the mid-230 s and not later than 237. 1 would therefore suggest
that A. §ufra belonged to the last of the Iraqi school of Ibädi ulema,
bridging the period between the folding of the old Basran leadership and
the establishment of the new order when *the 'Um flew to Oman". He may
well have deliberately written down the teachings of the old master, preci-
sely because there was now no continuity provided by the central Organisa-
tion. If he was doing so late in his life, encouraged perhaps by A. 'Abdullah
Muhammad who, from Oman, between the 230 s and 260 s more or less took
over the role his father had played äs "spirituaPMeader in Basra; then this
would confirm that A. §ufra was two generations on from al-Rabi', trans-
mitting from people like al-Haytham, rather than direct, or from the former
leader's grandson Ja'far b. Yahyä. But however that may be, I would be
very sceptical of any dating that took the Athär back before the beginning
of the third Century.
A further conclusion is more tentative, but nevertheless fundamental.
That is that whilst we have in addition to the fatäwä section of the Athär
some other material relevant to al-Rabfs own legal opinions (e. g. masä*il
he wrote to the dissident Abdullah b. 'Abd al-'Aziz) the only work relevant
to transmission referred to äs existing in the period prior to A. Ya'qüb is the
Athär which we have just discussed. Further confinnation that the Athär to
which the post-A. Ya'qüb Maghribi historians refer are the same äs those
just analysed is given under the ninth tabaqa (450-500 A. H.) of Darjini36)
in which the story recounted makes it clear that the riwäya transmission
line in the (first part of the) Athär has-indeed been shortened and shoidd
read A. $ufra — al-Rabic — Pumäm — Jäbir, though perhaps it should also
contain an intermediary between A. §ufra and al-Rabi'. I would suggest
therefore that our complete Manuscript (al-Diwän al-Ma'rüd) was
assembled to incorporate all available transmission from Jäbir (along with
other early members of the Community) but that the specifically Ibäcji part
was contained in the Athär. This section was not recorded until the time of
A. $ufra, probably towards the end, but certainly not earlier than the first
third of the third Century hijra. It was under this name of the K A. Sufra
that it was known in Oman and is referred to in the first legal compendium,
the Jämi* Ihn Jcffar. A major subsection is also referred to äs K. fhimäm
(b. al-Sä'ib).
35
) See the eorrespondence between Mahbüb, the Imam Muhannä, the
mis and Harun b. al-Yamän concerning the last's schism in the Jawhar al-Muqta$ir
(Muscat MS. described by the writer in AraJbian Studies iv).
36
) Op. cit. ü, 416.
 Ibäcjii Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 245

The Diwan Jäbir b. Zayd

So, no hadith here. Where eise might they have been discovered? There
remains the mysterious Diwan of Jäbir in whieh Jäbir himself is supposed
to have set down traditions and legal opinions. A copy of this work repu-
tedly existed at one time in the library of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid.
There are two stories recounted in late North African sources which imply
that a copy may also have passed into the hands of the Ibä^i Community
there. The first is that the Diwan was possessed by A. 'Ubayda, then
passed to al-Rabf, then to A. Sufyän and finally to his son (A. Abdullah)
Muhammad b. Mahbüb, from whom the Contents were copied in Mecca.
There is absolutely no trace of such a story in Oman. The second is that
Nafiath (var. Faraj) b. (A. YQnus) Na§r of the Jabal Nafusa brought a copy
of the work to North Africa. This he reputedly destroyed when in rebellion
against the Rustamids.37) However, it is worth noting in view of this story
that his brother, Sa'd b. A. Yünus, who was Governor of Qanträra in the
first half of the third Century on behalf of the Imam Aflah, wrote a book
which according to Barrädi no one had ever seen.38)
This Diwan can in fact be no more than an early, and perhaps different
recension of Jäbir's opinions and practices. As Ennami himself suggests,
some of the al-Diwän al-Ma*rüd, originates from it and the very title of
Habib b. A. IJabib's work Kitäb Jäbir b. Zayd is suggestive of this. But in
that case the material was neither set down by Jäbir nor does it in any way
resemble fyadith with isnäd. Furthermore, if Jäbir's own writings had genu-
inely been the source for A. Ya'qüb's work, then why was it necessary to
abandon the horse's mouth and attribute the transmission to A. 'Ubayda
and al-RabH
These arguments, which tiave been derived purely from examining the
evidence about where A. Ya'qüb may have obtained his originale for his
Tartib, have placed the present writer onto the side of acutally accusing
him of at least a degree of fabrication. Nowhere can I find any source con-
ceming Jäbir from which he derived his hadith collection. Certainly there is
a mass of material concerning Jäbir but it is almost entirely concerned
with his legal opinions and practices and in this there is little sign of his
quoting precedent, let alone hadith for establishing them. Al-Rabi(s name
only comes into the picture in connection with X)umäm's riwayät and even
then not he, but a pupil, or even a pupil of a pupil, set the material down.
37
) Ennami Thesis 64, 146-7.
38
) cf. Bassett, R "Lee Sanctuaires du Djebel Nefousa" (reprint from two part
article in J. Aaiatique 1899), item 18, read with Barrädi's catalogue item 51 (Moty-
linski, A. de C., "Bibliographie du Mzab", Butt. Corr. Afr. 1885, pt in, 16-30).
246 J. C. Wilkinson

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.

i normalization: the historical background.

Before looking at what A. Ya'qüb may have done it is necessary to
obtain a degree of historical perspective on his period, to comprehend the
normalization process which he finished and to see why it was a Maghribi
rather than an Omani who achieved ultimate success is calquing Ibädism
on Sunnism.
In both regions Ibä<iism was very much under siege in the 6th/12th
Century. The great expansion of the Omani and Tahert Imamates (äs well
äs the establishment of a minor Imamate in Hadramawt) had both finished
in civil wars at the end of the 3/9th Century. In the Maghrib the main "Wah-
biyya" Imamate was never to be restored, although there was a temporary
recrudescence of that of the Nukkarites. The story was one of retreat,
retreat first to Sadrät in Wargla, the home area of A. Ya'qüb, and finally to
the Mzäb where the Pentapolis was currently being developed. Eventually
Ibädism survived only in the Mzäb, Jerba Island and the Jabal Nafüsa in
the Maghrib. In Oman the Situation was a shade less grave for there had
been a major re-expansion of the Imamate in the mid 5/llth Century. But
this had soon disintegrated with the IJaglramis falling by the wayside, and
over the course of the 6/12 th Century, the Imamate survived increasingly
intermittently in the Nizwä area alone where it eventually succumbed to
the new force in the land, the Nabähina, some time towards the end ofthat
Century. Overseas too the last Ibäcji colonies were under great pressure and
Kilwa was finally to go under in the 7th/13th Century. Closely involved in
Omani missions to save Ibä(Jism in that centre on the East African coast
was another quasi-contemporary (perhaps half a generation on) of A.
Ya'qüb al-Warjläni, Muhammad b. Sa'id al-Qalhäti.39) It is interesting to
note the convergence of approach of the two authors: al-Qalhäti's great
treatise, the Kashf wa*l-Bayän shows strong affinities with A. Ya'qüb's
main work, the Kitäb al-Datil wa*l-Burhän. As the title of the first volume of
the Kashf4**) .indicates ("fi tawhtä al-bayän wa tafsir mushäkil al-Qur'än
39
) Muhammad b. Sa'id al-Qalhäti can be dated by a list of his contemporaries
äs given in al-Sira al-Kilwiyya, cf. Wilkinson "Oman and East Africa" (op. cit.).
40
) Which I saw in the Maktabat al-Ghannä* of Beni Isguen and which is theolo-
gically much more interesting than the second volume, which is well known from
British Library Ms. Or. 2606.
 IbäcjLL IJadith: an Essay on Normalization 247

wa€l-radd coiä 'l-nvushabbih wa'l-qadariyya wtfl-mu'tazila wa'l-qayilm:

nuhälifuhu bi'l-fiujja wa'l-burhän min kitab wa'l-kashf wa*l-bayän) it is a
work which proceeds by rebuttal: it belongs to the aggressive sehool of Ibä-

Two approaches were possible to the pressure under which Ibädism

found itself. One was to retreat into a shell and rigidly ignore the Opposi-
tion. So we find several cases of Ibädis in North Afriea being excommuni-
cated (tabri'a) for studying non-Ibä<Ji sources, notably A. Ya'qüb Yüsuf b.
Khalfun al-Mazäti who was condemned for reading works like K. al-Ishräf
'alä Mas&il al-Khiläf.41) The alternative was to read precisely this kind of
thing, put your own house in order and then move out to do battle with the
rival schools. It is this latter approach our two authors use, perhaps not
surprisingly, for both came from cosmopolitan backgrounds, A. Ya'qüb al-
Warjläni having studied extensively at Cordoba, al-Qalhäti living in the
eponymous port which was the new centre for Indian Ocean trade on the
Omani coast. In this approach, both were also continuing the old tradition
of eclecticism, the tradition still to be found in Ibn Baraka who quite freely
quotes (and from the form of reference, clearly assumes his reader knows
them) Mälik (b. Anas), A. Hanifa, A. Bakr al-Asamm (al-Mu'tazili), al-Shä-
fi'i, and Däwüd when, for example, discussing the vexed problem of 'aql.

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

The Historical Normalization Process.

The brief answer is that historical normalization and a calquing process
was already under way. In this correspondence with the IJaxjlramis A.
Sufyän was dealing with one of the major disputes raised by Harun b. al-
Yamän, that concerning central prayer, and quotes the fact that even in the
heat of Ramadan Pumäm, A. Nüh and others of their ilk walked to the Fri-
day mosque to assemble together. Here no fantasising can occur because
he is quoting the real tradition of the Ibä$ movement äs passed on by. A.
'Ubayda: A. <Ubayda thus takes his true position of a "recorder" of the
actions of Pumäm, recognized in the Omani sonrces äs one of the figures
wlio established the true sunna of the movement. But in A. Sufyän's compo-
sition for Aflafr he is giving an overview of the inain figures who made the
movement and in doing so is inevitably faced with a number of discrepan-
cies within the general picture he is trying to establish. So he attempts to
rationalize. At the same time he must also have been affected by the kinds
of criteria being developed by al-Shäfi'i (d. 204) and his school and the
whole problem of tradition:55) it is eertainly obvious from the K A. Sufyän
that Jäbir b. Zayd's position in the movement was already being firmly
developed to rationalize living traditions. Hence his need also to bridge the
gap between Jäbir and the real founder of the da'wa, A. <Ubayda, which
had, in reality, been filled by Dumäm and his generation: whence in turn a
eonsiderable amount of fiddling to link the two by overlaps and to suppress
the role of the proto-lbäcjis äs creators of "sunna". Let it be made clear,
however, that A. Sufyän never goes äs far äs to raise Jäbir's status to that
of Imam and he never attempts to make A. 'Ubayda a major pupil of Jä-
bir's: in any case this would have been impossible for A. 'Ubayda's own
statement that Jäbir and Anas b. Mälilrdied within a week of each other in
93 A. H. automatically invalidates any attempt to make A. 'Ubayda (d. late
150 s) a füll pupil of a seventy-year old who died over sixty years before. In
fact this succession of A. 'Ubayda from Jäbir has never really been accept-
ed by serious seholars äs al-Sälimi indicates in his introduction to the Jämi*
al-$ahih (vol. III): Modern students of the early Basran biographies in the
Maghribi sources in which the K. A. Sufyän eventually reappears (Darjini
mid-seventh Century A. H. et. seq.), will also probably be strack by the unsa-
tisfactory treatment of a number of early figures, who are clearly of impor-
tance for the development of the movement but who fit into no particular
classification. The reason for this is simply that they really belonged to the
first quarter or so of the second Century, before Ibädism gelled; but since
this period of individual endeavour is not recognized in the rationalized
ss
) Schacht, J. The Origins of Mvhammadan Jurisprudencet Oxford, 1950.
 i Hadith: an Essay on Normalization 253

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)

Early Rationalization of Fiqh.

Part of this process of the normalization of Ibsujism also included the
initial steps in writing down material appertaining to the doctrines and
legal opinions which the "school" had developed in polemics with other
dogmas and had drawn them into the nonns of "Orthodox" scholarship.
Originally material was written because of the physical problem of commu-
nicating between Basra and its communities. But äs we have seen, some set-
ting down does seem to have gone on äs part of a more fundamental change
in the attitude towards writing in the first third of the third Century. In the
Maghrib there was apparently an early tendency to make collections of
legal judgements (fatäwä)* äs for example the collection ofthose written for
the Jabal Nafusans by <Abd al-Wahhäb, Imam from 168-208.58) The pro-
cess of making collections of rulings emanating from leading authorities
there accelerated in the third Century, but this may in part reflect the prob-
lem of communicating between the widely dispersed centres of Ibä<iism in
N. Africa, although there is evidence that the rather urbane Tahert Imams
encouraged written scholarship. In Oman, the old tradition died hard and
56
) In Jawhar al-Muqtofir (op. cü.).
57
) Cook (op. cü.) eh. L
58
) Ibn Saghir, Chrcmiqm d'Ibn $aghir. . . (text and trans. A. de C. Motylineki)
in Actes du XIV Congres Int. Alger, 1905 pt. iii, 3-132, Paris 1908, p. 73; cf. also
Lewicki (op. cü.) and Ennami J. S. S. 1970 item 14.
254 J. C. Wilkinson

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

opinions and judgements (direct, or related fatäwä and riwäyät). Basic

dicta are Qur'änic or well known sunna practises established by leading
authorities who, by their reliabiltiy, create a living tradition of 'iZmbuilding
on previous generations. "Sunna" could thus still be "created" but
obviously the basic principles were established by the founders of the 'Um
chain and the only formal sunna was the sunna of the Prophet. The lack of
isnäds, the importance attached to Ibn 'Abbäs äs a fönt of knowledge, and
the fact that men like Dumäm are cited äs behavioural precedents indicates
that Shäfi'i criteria for establishing what that sunna was, were still far from
accepted in Ibäcji circles.
Rationalization must, nevertheless, have followed on soon, for it was
automatically bound up (in some measure) with the process of recording
itself. Inevitably too it must have been seriously influenced by the intellec-
tual developments occurring elsewhere in the Muslim world, for there is no
reason to suppose that at this time the tradition of the Ibädis was particu-
larly "closed" äs was the case after the sixth Century A. H. On the contrary,
at the height of their Imamates the Rustamids and Omanis were increa-
singly in contact with the Sunni world63) whilst the sudden collapse of their
Imamates at the end of the third Century meant that the outside world with
its new standardized approach to jurisprudence was formally impressed on
these regions. It was in reaction to foreign influence following occupation
that the Ibäcjis began to develop their school into a madhhab, äs notions of
religious and national entity began to identify. Unfortunately they did so
by accepting the basic methodology of their opponents.
Thus began to gel a new form of Ibädi literature which started to come
to terms with the norms of what was becoming conventional Islamic scho-
larship elsewhere. In the Maghrib this process seems to have been more
advanced and we find that the legal work of <Amrüs b. al-Fath (d. 283/896)
is structured around at least the basic notions that *ilm has three compo-
nents, tanzil, sunna and ra'y.64) In Oman the first major legal compendium,
written probably a decade or two after that of <Amrüs, is the Jämi* of (A. Jä-
bir Muhammad) Ibn Ja'far. This is much less structured and is still in many
ways a Jämi* in the hifz tradition, preserving the oral problem and answer

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

titutional form that it never had, whilst inconveniences and inconsistencies

can always be smoothed out by invoking taqiyya (dissimulation) and kit-
män (secrecy).
Whether is was A. Ya'qüb who was responsible for all this or not, and
whether or not he did it by the processes suggested does not really matter.
What does matter is that by the end of the 6th/12th Century Ibädism had
been normalized in the Maghrib and in the process, from somewhere or
other, a hadtth tradition had appeared. To some extent a parallel develop-
ment occurred in Oman but it does not go nearly so far and certainly there
is no hadtth scholarship there at the time of A. Ya'qüb. The real feed back
from the Maghrib probably does not occur until the end of the eighteenth
Century. There is a fascinating letter, written probably about 1780, from
the Shaykhs of the Mzäb, Nafusa and Jerba addressed to the Imam Ahmad
b. Sa'id (d. 1783), alongwithtwoofhis sons and one of the leading idema of
the time, calling on them to renew an Ibädi da*wa.69) In this we find all the
standardized form of a scdaßyya Ibädi movement appearing. The Maghribis
reminded the Omanis, äs the only Ibädi group capable of taking any effec-
tive action, of the role their great men of the past had played. It is, I believe,
from the time of the response to this appeal at the beginning of the nine-
teenth Century that the hadtth collection found circulation in Oman,
although copies may have existed earlier there. Under the leaders of the
renaissance in both countries, a new scholarship was forged and Omani
Ibädism, inspired by the Maghribis, came into line and elaborated the stan-
dardized approach that the Maghribis had already developed.
The tragedy is that in this (misguided?) attempt Ibädism had tried to
make itself respectable by forcing its early development into the straight-
jacket of Sunhi scholastic tradition. The artificialness becomes obvious the
moment one begins to study the later sources so that one naturally con-
cludes with Schacht70) that "Whereas the political history of the Ibädis
goes back to the middle of the first Century A. H. their law was derived from
the orthodox schools at a much later date." Deeper analysis will shaw that
the political history of the Ibädis Starts more than half a Century later than
Schacht süggests but that their law was only made to conform at a relati-
vely late date to the orthodox schools. How far in its early period it did in
fact develop an originality of its own or preserve certain traditions of say,
perhaps, the Meccan and Basran schools that the Sunnis themselves lost in
their own process of normalization, is something which must be left to more
qualified scholars than I to discover. What l have done, I hope, is to clear

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.