ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr al-Kindī

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ʿAbdallāh ibn Muhammad Bā Kathīr al-Kindī ( Arabic عبد الله بن محمد باكثير الكندي, DMG ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad Bā Kaṯīr al-Kindī born. 1859 in Lamu , d. March 10, 1925 in Zanzibar City ) was an Arab scholar of Hadramitic descent who worked primarily in Zanzibar and founded a madrasa here , where numerous Muslims from East Africa studied. At the turn of the 20th century he played a central role in the hadramitic networks of the Tarīqa ʿAlawīya in the Indian Ocean . Bā Kathīr wrote a travel report about his trip, which he made in the years 1897/98 to the Hadramaut, Egypt and the Hejaz , which attracted a lot of attention.

Life

Early years in Lamu

ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr came from a Hadramaut family who emigrated from Tarīm to Lamu in the late 18th century . Lamu was an important center of Islamic learning on the East African coast in the 19th century, attracting numerous scholars from the Hadramaut. ʿAbdallāh was born in the Mkomoani district of Lamu in 1860 during the reign of Sultan Majid bin Said . His father Muhammad ibn Sālim Bā Kathīr al-Kindī died in 1865, so that he grew up as an orphan. ʿAbdallāh soon earned his living by embroidering kufiyas .

However, due to his hadramitic origins, he was able to study under the leading hadramitic sherif of Lamu. These included in particular the poet Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd ar-Rahmān al-Husainī (alias Saiyid Mansab; 1829-1922) as well as the two scholars from the Jamal-al-Lail family ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdallāh Jamal al-Lail (1825-1915) and his Nephew Sālih ibn ʿAlawī Jamal al-Lail (1844–1935; also known as Habīb Sālih). Bā Kathīr himself married a woman from the Jamal-al-Lail family and married his eldest daughter to the eldest son of Habīb Sālih. His wife bore him three sons, Muhammad, Abū Bakr and Salīm, the first of whom, however, died in childhood.

Habīb Sālih also introduced him to Ahmad ibn Sumait , the leading scholar of the Tarīqa ʿAlawīya in Zanzibar. When Ahmad ibn Sumait resigned from the Qādī office in the autumn of 1885 and secretly returned to his homeland on Grande Comore , Bā Kathīr was pressured by Sultan Barghash ibn Said to take over the Qādī office and was able to dissuade the Sultan from his plan and return to his homeland to return.

Stays in Mecca and Java

At the instigation of Saiyid Mansab, ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr traveled to Mecca for the first time for the Hajj at the age of 19 (around 1879) . In 1887 a second stay in the Holy City followed. This time he studied with various sheikhs of the Tarīqa ʿAlawīya, in particular with ʿUmar ibn Abī Bakr Bā Junaid (1856-1935). The latter sent him to Java at the end of 1887 or beginning of 1888 at the request of Javanese Hadramis who were looking for a teacher . How long he stayed in Java is not known. What is certain, however, is that he then returned to Mecca and continued his studies there.

As a teacher in Zanzibar

Around 1892, during the reign of Sultan ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd , ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr moved to Zanzibar City , which would remain his center of life for the next thirty years. With his classes, which he held in the Gofu Mosque in the Kajifcheni / Ukutani district, he soon attracted a large number of students from the various coastal regions of East Africa . His most important students from this early period were his son Abū Bakr Bā Kathīr (1881–1943), ʿUmar al-Chatīb (1876–1957) and Muhsin ibn ʿAlī al-Barwānī (born 1875), all of whom later became well-known scholars themselves. He also made a name for his public teaching of the basics of the Islamic denomination ( ʿAqīda ) to the general public , which took place regularly in the afternoons of Ramadan . He also became popular in that it in the Ramadan nights Tarawih - and supererogatory held Witr prayers.

During this time, Bā Kathīr lived in the Hamamuni district with ʿUmar ibn Muhammad al-Qahtānī, a friend from the time before he moved to Zanzibar. In 1893 he married his daughter, who gave birth to two girls. During the 1890s, an intensive friendship with Ahmad ibn Sumait developed through teaching and family ties. Bākathīr cultivated this friendship for a lifetime and repeatedly expressed his great admiration for Ahmad ibn Sumait. In addition, from the reign of Hamad ibn Thuwaini ibn Said , Bā Kathīr was also held in very high regard by the Bu-Sa -īdī sultans . Several times he was asked by them to take over the Qādī office , but he refused.

Travel to the Hadramaut, Egypt and the Hejaz

At the end of March 1897, ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr went on a journey of several months to the Hadramaut with his friend Abū Bakr ibn Ahmad Ibn Sālim, his son Abū Bakr and his maternal cousin Muʿāwiya. The primary goal of this trip was to visit those ʿUlamā ' with whom Ahmad ibn Sumait had previously studied. Ahmad ibn Sumait provided Bā Kathīr with a letter of recommendation for this. Bā Kathīr later wrote a detailed Arabic report about this trip, which also took the group to Egypt and Mecca. Based on this, the travel route of the group can be reconstructed relatively precisely. She first traveled by steamship to asch-Schihr , where she arrived in April 1897. From there the men went to different places of the Hadramaut, such as Sai'ūn, al-Ghurfa , Shibam and Tarīm . Here they visited various scholars and sheriffs of the Bā-ʿAlawī family. These included in particular ʿAlī ibn Muhammad al-Hibschī (1843–1915) in Sai'ūn, Muhammad ibn ʿAidarūs al-Hibschī in al-Ghurfa and ʿAbd ar-Rahmān ibn Muhammad al-Mashhūr (1835-1902) in Tarīm. At ʿAlī al-Hibschī, Bā Kathīr was instructed mainly in Sufi subjects. So he studied with him the chapter on the Nīya from al-Ghazālīs Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn and took part in al-Hibschīs Dhikr meetings. In Tarīm, Bā Kathīr and his friend stayed a total of two months and attended the teaching sessions of various scholars. For each of the books read together, Bā Kathīr received an ijāza from these scholars . In addition, the group used their trip to visit well-known holy places, graves and mosques of the Hadramaut. So they performed the ziyara twice at the tomb of the Prophet Hūd .

At the beginning of October 1897, the group ended their Hadramaut tour and traveled on from al-Mukalla to Aden by sailing boat . There they boarded a steamer in early October 1897 that took them to Suez . They spent the first half of November on a short tour of Egypt: they visited the Azhar , the Husain mosque and the tombs of Saiyida Zainab and Imam al-Shafiī . They then traveled to Mecca, where they stayed for three months. In between, the group made a detour to Medina for three weeks , where Bā Kathīr again attended the teaching sessions of various scholars and was exhibited by Ijāzas. Then they returned to Zanzibar by steamer, where they arrived again in June 1898.

The Bā-Kathīr Madrasa

The trip to the centers of learning of the Tarīqa ʿAlawīya in the Hadramaut and in the Hejaz brought Bā Kathīr great prestige. In 1902 he bought a house across from the Gofu Mosque on a piece of land belonging to the Husainī family. Here he continued his teaching on the religious sciences and the traditions of the ʿAlawīya. In 1909, during the reign of Sultan Ali ibn Hammud , he added an annex to this house, in which he now taught higher Islamic studies for advanced students according to the curriculum of the Ribāt ar-Riyād of Sai'ūn and the Ribāt in Tarīm . His school, now known as Madrasat Bā Kathīr (" Madrasa of Bā Kathīr"), included Fiqh , Tafsīr, and Arabic language and grammar. The premises of the school were also used by Ahmad ibn Sumait for teaching.

Trips to South Africa and Buganda

At the end of 1913, Bā Kathīr traveled to Cape Town on behalf of his Meccan teacher Bā Junaid to settle a dispute between the Muslims of the Bo-Kaap district there. This was about the Friday prayer , which was held in several mosques due to tensions between the various Shafiite imams, but was then only very poorly attended. Bā Kathīr was able to reach an agreement at a meeting of all Shafiite imams at the end of January 1914, which provided that the Friday prayer was always held in one mosque, while the imams took turns at the Chutba . Bā Kathīr was accompanied on the trip by his disciple ʿUmar al-Chatīb and by Raschīd ibn Sālim al-Mazrūʿī, who acted as the English interpreter. The group returned to Zanzibar in February.

A few weeks later, Bā Kathīr traveled to Buganda with several students . There he gave lectures on Islam at the court of the Kabaka and instructed various courtiers, including Prince Mbogo, in the Islamic doctrines. After a two-month stay, the group returned to Zanzibar in June 1914.

Last years and death

In the last years of his life, Bā Kathīr increasingly left the lessons in his school to his previous students. For example, Muhsin ibn ʿAlī al-Barwānī took over the central morning lessons from 1917.

ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr died on March 10, 1925 after a long illness. He was buried behind his school. The educational institution he founded was continued by al-Barwānī after his death and became so well known that it was supported by the British colonial government and renamed the Ukutuni Institute . ʿAbdallāh's son Abū Bakr continued teaching Ramadan at the Gofu Mosque until 1943.

Works

ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr wrote a total of only two works, a small book on the glorification of the Prophet Mohammed , which was not published, as well as the report on his trip to the Hadramaut, to Egypt, Mecca and Medina in the years 1897-98. Bā Kathīr made this report afterwards in 1911, when ʿAlawī ibn ʿAbd ar-Rahmān al-Mashhūr, the son of one of his hosts in the Hadramaut, came to Zanzibar and encouraged him to do so. It was probably based on notes he had already made during the trip. The work was edited in 1939 by ʿAbdallāh ibn Muhammad as-Saqqāf under the title Riḥlat al-ašwāq al-qawīya ilā mawāṭin as-sāda al-ʿAlawīya ("Journey of the great longings to the homelands of the ʿAlawī Saiyids "). Friedhelm Hartwig suspects that as-Saqqāf with his edition of Bā Kathīr's travelogue primarily aimed to defend the high position of the ʿAlawī Saiyids within the hadramitic society, which was exposed to strong attacks from the secularist side in the 1930s .

literature

  • Anne K. Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. Family networks in East Africa, 1860-1925 . Routledge Shorton, London and New York, 2003. pp. 97-115.
  • Abdallah Salih Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa, c. 1830-1970. A hagiographical account. Transl. and ed. Randall L. Pouwels. Madison WI 1989. pp. 63-147.
  • Friedhelm Hartwig: "Contemplation, social reform and the recollection of identity: Hadrami migrants and travelers between 1896 and 1972" in Die Welt des Islams 41 (2001) 311–347.
  • Roman Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. The Politics of Islamic Education in 20th Century Zanzibar . Brill, Leiden, 2009. pp. 100-109, 513-514.
  • Randall L. Pouwels: Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam on the East African Coast, 800-1900 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987. pp. 152-158.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cf. Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, p. 104.
  2. ↑ See Hartwig: "Contemplation, social reform and the recollection of identity". 2001, p. 314.
  3. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 64.
  4. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, pp. 64, 66.
  5. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 140.
  6. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, pp. 97-100.
  7. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, p. 108.
  8. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, p. 98.
  9. ↑ a b c Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 98.
  10. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, pp. 98f.
  11. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 136.
  12. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 86.
  13. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 88.
  14. ↑ See e.g. B. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, pp. 88, 90.
  15. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, pp. 104-106.
  16. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 92.
  17. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, p. 106.
  18. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, p. 147.
  19. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, pp. 104, 513f.
  20. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 84.
  21. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. 2003, p. 114f.
  22. ↑ a b Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 134.
  23. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, p. 105.
  24. ↑ a b Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 104.
  25. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 142.
  26. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, p. 104f.
  27. ↑ See Hartwig: "Contemplation, social reform and the recollection of identity". 2001, p. 317.
  28. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 130.
  29. ↑ See Hartwig: "Contemplation, social reform and the recollection of identity". 2001, p. 318.
personal data
SURNAME ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr al-Kindī
ALTERNATIVE NAMES ʿAbdallāh ibn Muhammad Bā Kathīr al-Kindī (full name); عبد الله بن محمد باكثير الكندي (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Arab scholar of hadramite descent
DATE OF BIRTH 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Lamu
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1925
Place of death Zanzibar City