A Reading in the Applied Ibāḍī Fiqh of International Relations: The Directive of Imām al-Ṣalt (d. 275/888) to His Army Concerning Socotra

A Reading in the Applied Ibāḍī Fiqh of International Relations: The Directive of Imām al-Ṣalt (d. 275/888) to His Army Concerning Socotra

The directive of the Omani Ibāḍī Imām al-Ṣalt ibn Khamīs al-Kharūṣī, read out to his army upon their deployment to the island of Socotra, is a document of 3rd/9th century Islamic international law. The local Christian community, being under covenant (dhimmah) with the Muslims, had broken their treaty by rebelling against Muslim rule and killing the Imām’s governor. This article analyzes the available historical sources and the directive as contained in Tuḥfat al-aʿyān bi-ṣīrat ahl ʿUmān, by the 13th/19th-century Omani scholar Imām al-Sālimī. It covers questions of authorship, details surrounding the campaign, and Islamic rules on international relations according to the Ibāḍī school. It provides insight into military organization and administration in al-Ṣalt’s imamate and allows an assessment of Muslim-Christian and international relations as well as those between followers of Ibāḍism and other schools. Al-Ṣalt’s legacy sets high ethical standards for warfare and anticipates a number of deliberations commonly considered as modern.

___

  • al-Aghbarī, Ismāʿīl ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥamdān. “ʿAhd al-Imām al-Ṣalt ibn Mālik wa-ʿumuquhū l-ḥaḍārī.” In Aʿmāl nadwat taṭawwur al-ʿulūm al-fiqhiyyah fī ʿUmān. Al-Fiqh al-ḥaḍārī, fiqh al-ʿumrān, 73-104. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Dīniyyah, 2012.
  • al-Bār, Muḥammad ʿAlī. “Yawm al-Muʿtaṣim fī ʿAmūriyyah wa-yawm al-Ṣalt fī Suqaṭrá,” Star Times, 02.06.2009. http://www.startimes.com/?t=17172523. Accessed August 8, 2017.
  • al-Anbālī, Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Khamīs. “Tārīkh jazīrat Suqaṭrá.” n.p., n.d. http://www.soqotra.org/books/ahmedalanbali/historysocotrailand.pdf. Accessed September 25, 2017.
  • Bābā ʿAmmī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá, Ibrāhīm ibn Bakīr Bahāz, Muṣṭafá ibn Ṣāliḥ Bājū, and Muṣṭafá ibn Muḥammad Sharīfī. Muʿjam aʿlām al-Ibāḍiyyah min al-qarn al-awwal al-hijrī ilá l-ʿaṣr al-ḥāḍir: Qism al-maghrib al-Islāmī. Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 2000.
  • al-Baṭṭāshī, Muḥammad ibn Shāmis. Salāsil al-dhahab fī l-furūʿ wa-l-fuṣūl. Salṭanat ʿUmān: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 2002.
  • al-Bisyawī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī. Jāmiʿ Abī l-Ḥasan al-Bisyawī. Salṭanat ʿUmān: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1984.
  • Bouzenita, Anke. ʿAbdarraḥmān al-Auzāʿī – ein Rechtsgelehrter des 2. Jahrhunderts d.H. und sein Beitrag zu den Siyar. Erarbeitet auf der Grundlage des k. ar-Radd ʿalá siyar al-Auzāʿī. Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, Band 240. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2001.
  • Bouzenita, Anke. The Political Legacy of Abd al-Raḥmān al-Awzāʿī. Kuala Lumpur: International Islamic University Malaysia, 2008.
  • Ennami, Amr. Studies in Ibadhism (al-Ibāḍiyah). Muscat: Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, 2008.
  • al-Ḥamawī, Shihāb al-Dīn Yāqūt al-Rūmī al-Baghdādī. Muʿjam al-buldān. 5 vols. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1977.
  • al-Hamdānī, Lisān al-Yaman al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb. Ṣifat jazīrat al-ʿArab. Edited by Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Akwaʿ al-Ḥawālī. Cairo: Dār al-Āfāq al-ʿArabiyyah, 2001.
  • al-Ḥārthī, Saʿīd ibn Ḥamad ibn Sulaymān. “Muqaddimah.” In al-Yusrá fī inqādh jazīrat Suqaṭrá, by Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh and Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumayd al-Sālimī, 1-3. Muscat: Maktabat al-Ḍāmirī li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ, 1992.
  • Hāshim, Mahdī Ṭālib. al-Ḥarakah al-Ibāḍiyyah fī l-mashriq al-ʿArabī. 2nd ed. London: Dār al-Ḥikmah, 2003.
  • al-Hāshimī, Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad. “Qirāʾah fī sīrat al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Maḥbūb ilá ahl al-Maghrib.” In Aʿmāl nadwat taṭawwur al-ʿulūm al-fiqhiyyah, 95-111. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Dīniyyah, 2002.
  • Hoffman, Valerie J. “Ibāḍī Scholars on Association and Dissociation, from the 10th to the 21st Century.” In Ibāḍī Jurisprudence: Origins, Developments and Cases, edited by Barbara Michalak-Pikulska and Reinhard Eisener, vol. 6 of Studies on Ibadism and Oman, edited by Abdulrahman Al Salimi and Heinz Gaube, 185-193. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2015.
  • Ibn al-Ḥawwārī, al-Faḍl. Jāmiʿ al-Faḍl ibn al-Ḥawwārī. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1985.
  • Ibn al-Ḥawwārī, Muḥammad. Jāmiʿ Abī l-Ḥawwārī. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1985.
  • al-Izkawī, Abū Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar. al-Jāmiʿ. Edited by ʿAbd al-Munʿim ʿĀmir. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyyah, 1981.
  • al-Jaʿbīrī, Farḥāt ibn ʿAlī. “Al-Tadwīn al-fiqhī: al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Maḥbūb namūdhajan.” In Aʿmāl nadwat taṭawwur al-ʿulūm al-fiqhiyyah, 17-71. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Dīniyyah, 2002.
  • al-Jaʿbīrī, Farḥāt ibn ʿAlī. Shakhṣiyyāt Ibāḍiyyah. al-Sīb, Oman: Maktabat al-Ḍāmirī li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ, 2010.
  • Kāshif, Sayyidah Ismāʿīl, ed. al-Siyar wa-l-jawābāt li-ʿulamāʾ wa-aʾimmat ʿUmān. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1986.
  • al-Kindī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsá al-Nizwānī. Al-Muṣannaf fī l-adyān wa-l-aḥkām. 42 vols. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1984.
  • al-Kindī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsá al-Nizwānī. Kitāb al-ihtidāʾ wa-l-muntakhab min sīrat al-Rasūl (a.ṣ.s.) wa-aʾimmat wa-ʿulamāʾ ʿUmān. Edited by Sayyidah Ismāʿīl Kāshif. Salṭanat ʿUmān: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1985.
  • al-Kindī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Bayān al-sharʿ. 71 vols. Salṭanat ʿUmān: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1993.
  • al-Kiyūmī, Sulaymān ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥabīb. “Maṣādir al-Shaykh al-Sālimī wa-manhajuhū fī l-kitābah al-tārīkhiyyah min khilāl kitābat ‘Tuḥfat al-aʿyān bi-sīrat ahl ʿUmān’.” Master’s thesis, Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University, 2009.
  • Kondo, Yohei. “Ibāḍī Discussions on Conversion and Commitment.” Muslim World 105, no. 2 (2015): 224-235. https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.12093.
  • Majmūʿah min al-bāḥithīn. Muʿjam muṣṭalaḥāt al-Ibāḍiyyah. 2 vols. 2nd ed. Salṭanat ʿUmān: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Dīniyyah, 2012.
  • al-Masʿūdī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī. Murūj al-dhahab wa-maʿādin al-jawhar. 4 vols. Introduction and commentary by Mufīd Muḥammad Qumayḥah. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1986.
  • al-Nabhānī, Badriyyah bint Muḥammad ibn Shāmis. “Āl al-Ruḥayl wa-dawruhum al-siyāsī wa-l-fikrī fī ʿUmān min al-qarn 3h/8m - 4H/10M.” PhD Diss., Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University, 2017.
  • al-Nadābī, Nāṣir. “Imāmat al-Imām al-ʿUmānī al-Ṣalt ibn Mālik al-Kharūṣī.” Public lecture held at Markaz Dār al-Qurʾān, al-Sīb, Oman. Video published Feb 8, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSo43_R-2nc.
  • Nāṣir, Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, and Ṣulṭān ibn Mubārak al-Shaybānī. Muʿjam aʿlām al-Ibāḍiyyah min al-qarn al-awwal al-hijrī ilā l-ʿaṣr al-ḥāḍir: Qism al-mashriq. Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 2006.
  • al-Rawas, Isam Ali Ahmad. “Early Islamic Oman (ca. -622/280-893): A Political History.” PhD diss., Durham: Durham University, 1990.
  • al-Rawwāḥī, Sālim ibn Muḥammad ibn Sālim. al-Imāmah wa-l-aʾimmah fī ʿUmān. Muscat: Maktabat al-Ḍāmirī li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ, 2016.
  • al-Riyāmī, ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd. Qaḍiyyat ʿazl al-Imām al-Ṣalt ibn Mālik al-Kharūṣī. Muscat: Bayt al-Ghashshām li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tarjamah, 2015.
  • al-Saʿdī, Jumayyil ibn Khamīs. Qāmūs al-sharīʿah al-ḥāwī ṭuruqahā al-wasīʿah: mawsūʿah ḍakhmah taḍumm tisʿīn juzʾan fī mukhtalaf funūn al-sharīʿah muqābalatan ʿalá makhṭūṭātihā. 90 vols. Muscat: Maktabat al-Jīl al-Wāʿid, 2015.
  • al-Sālimī, Abdulrahman and Wilferd Madelung, eds. Early Ibāḍī Literature: Abu l-Mundhir Bashīr ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥbūb: Kitāb al-Raṣf fī l-tawḥīd, Kitāb al-muḥārabah and Sīra. Vol. 75 of Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. Edited by Florian C. Reiter. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2011.
  • al-Sālimī, Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumayyid. Tuḥfat al-aʿyān bi-sīrat ahl ʿUmān. 2 vols. Edited by Abū Isḥāq Aṭfayyish. Rūwī, Muscat: al-Maṭābiʿ al-Dhahabiyyah, 1983.
  • al-Shaqṣī, Khamīs ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī ibn Masʿūd. Manhaj al-ṭālibīn wa-balāgh al-rāghibīn. 10 vols. in 5 vols. Edited and commented by Muḥammad Kamāl al-Dīn Imām. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Dīniyyah, 2011.
  • al-Shaqṣiyyah, Badriyyah bint Ḥamad. al-Sīrah al-zakiyyah li-l-marʾah al-Ibāḍiyyah. Muscat: Maktabat al-Jīl al-Wāʿid, 2014.
  • al-Shaybānī, Sulṭān ibn Mubārak. Muʿjam aʿlām al-nisāʾ al-Ibāḍiyyāt (qism al-mashriq). al-Sīb, Oman: Maktabat al-Sayyid Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, 2001.
  • al-Shaybānī, Sulṭān ibn Mubārak. Amālī l-turāth. Naẓarāt naqdiyyah wa-qirāʾāt fī jadīd al-turāth al-ʿUmānī makhṭūṭihī wa-maṭbūʿihī. Muscat: Dhākirat ʿUmān, 2015.
  • al-Siyābī, Sālim ibn Ḥammūd ibn Shāmis. ʿUmān ʿabra-l-tārīkh. 2 vols. 5th ed. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth wa-l-Thaqāfah, 2014.
  • al-ʿUbaydlī, Aḥmad. “Ḥamlat al-Imām al-Ṣalt ibn Mālik ʿalá jazīrat Suqaṭrá wa-l-ʿalāqāt al-ʿUmāniyyah al-Mihriyyah.” Nizwá: Majallah faṣliyyah thaqāfiyyah 13 (January 1998), 96-102.
  • al-Warjalānī, Sulaymān ibn Ibrāhīm Bābzīz. al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Maḥbūb al-Ruḥaylī, ḥayātuhū wa-āthāruhū (t. 260 AH) [Commentary on Abwāb min al-sunnah mukhtaṣarah]. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 2009.