Ahmad ibn Sumait

Ahmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Sumait ( Arabic أحمد بن أبي بكر بن سميط, DMG Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Sumayṭ , b. January 16, 1861 in Itsandraa, Grande Comore , died May 7, 1925 in Zanzibar City ) was one of the most important Arab - Islamic scholars of Zanzibar during the time of the British Protectorate . He served as Qādī in Zanzibar for about 40 years and from 1908 also held the office of Mufti of Zanzibar. Ahmad ibn Sumait was a Shafiite and Sufi and belonged to the Tarīqa ʿAlawīya .

Life

Parentage and education

Ahmad's family, the Āl ibn Sumait, belong to the Bā-ʿAlawī families of the Hadramaut who consider themselves to be descendants of the Prophet Mohammed . The Ibn Sumait family can be identified in the Hadramaut itself since the 16th century. Ahmad's father, Dau captain Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Sumait, had emigrated from Tarīm to Grande Comore in the 1850s and settled in Itsandraa, a small town north of Moroni on the western coast of the island. Here Ahmad ibn Sumait was born on the 5th Rajab 1277 (= 16th January 1861).

Ahmad received his first training from his father, who, however, died in 1874. He then took lessons from the scholar Abū l-Hasan ibn Ahmad Jamāl al-Lail, also known as Mwinyi Bahasani (1801-1883), who also came from the Hadramaut. In the latter, he studied several works, including the Koran commentary Tafsīr al-Jalālain by Jalāl ad-Dīn al-Mahallī (1389-1459) and Jalāl ad-Dīn as-Suyūtī (1445-1505).

In 1880/81 he made his first trip to the Hadramaut, the home of his father's family, to study Sufik under the leading ʿAlawī sheikhs of his time . Among them were ʿAidarūs ibn ʿUmar al-Hibschī (1821–1896) from al-Ghurfa , ʿAlī ibn Muhammad al-Hibschī (1843–1915) in Sai'ūn, Ahmad al-ʿAttās (1841–1915) in al-Huraida and ʿAbd ar -Rahmān ibn Muhammad al-Mashhūr (1834-1902). Most of the time he stayed in Shibam , the city of the Sumait family.

First appointment as Qādī in Zanzibar and years of travel

After his return from the Hadramaut to East Africa in 1883, Ahmad ibn Sumait was appointed Qādī of Zanzibar City by Sultan Barghasch ibn Said despite his young age . Due to the low status that Shafiite Qadis had at the court of the Ibadite sultan, he gave up his position in 1885 and returned to his hometown Itsandraa. Barghash then declared him a persona non grata .

From Itsandraa Ahmad ibn Sumait traveled to Istanbul in 1886 , where he was received by the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II . The Sultan equipped him with medals of honor, granted him a scholarship and entrusted him to his advisor Fadl ibn ʿAlawī ibn Sahl (1824–1900, also known as Fadl Pasha) , who also came from the Hadramaut . Ahmad ibn Sumayt himself wrote a hagiographic work in Arabic about Fadl's father, the Saiyid ʿAlawī ibn Muhammad ibn Sahl, who died in India in 1844. This work contained numerous accounts of miracles ( karāmāt ) allegedly performed by Fadl. While Ahmad ibn Sumait was staying in Istanbul, his son ʿUmar was born in Itsandraa in October 1886.

At the end of 1886 or beginning of 1887, Ahmad ibn Sumait left Istanbul again and traveled on to Cairo , where he taught at the Azhar for a time. He then traveled to Mecca to perform the Hajj .

In the service of the Bū-Sadīdī sultans and the British

After Chalīfa ibn Saʿīd came to power in 1888, Ahmad ibn Sumait returned to Zanzibar. Under the rule of Chalīfa (1888–1890), who installed him as Qādī of Zanzibar City , and his successor ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd (1890–1893), his influence at the court of the Bu Sa -īdī sultans reached a climax. In 1898 he traveled again to the Hadramaut, this time accompanied by his two sons Saiyid ʿUmar and Saiyid Abū Bakr.

When Ahmad ibn Sumait announced a fatwa against the Dhikr of the Qādirīya brotherhood in 1903/04 , this led to the fact that the chief Qādī of Zanzibar Burhān ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Amawī, who was and as one of the leading scholars of the Qādirīya Advisor to Sultan ʿAlī ibn Hammūd acted and intrigued against him. He achieved that Ibn Sumait was deposed as Qādī of Zanzibar City and his jurisdiction was limited to the rural areas.

In the course of the legal reforms of 1908 ( Zanzibar Courts Decree ), which removed the Sultan's control of the legal system, the British reinstated Ahmad ibn Sumait in 1908 as Qādī of Zanzibar City. They also made him the official Muftī of Zanzibar. Ahmad ibn Sumait retained the two positions until his death.

His closest student and companion was ʿAbdallāh Bā Kathīr al-Kindī , who later founded the first academy for higher Islamic education in Zanzibar. Other students of his were Muhammad ibn ʿUmar al-Chatīb (1876–1957), Muhammad ibn ʿAlawī Jamal al-Lail (1886–1962) and Saʿīd ibn Muhammad ibn Dahmām (1877–1926) as well as his son ʿUmar ibn Ahmad Sumait (1886– 1976). Ahmad ibn Sumait died on 13th Schauwāl 1343 (= 7th May 1925) with his family. He was buried in a tomb behind the Malindi Friday Mosque in Zanzibar City.

Works

In addition to the hagiographic work on ʿAlawī ibn Muhammad ibn Sahl, which he wrote in Istanbul, Ahmad ibn Sumait wrote commentaries on various Sufi poems. The most important of these were Tuḥfat al-labīb šarḥ ʿalā Lāmīyat al-Ḥabīb ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAlawī al-Ḥaddād (printed in Cairo 1913-14), in which he explained the origins and beliefs of the Tarīqa ʿālawīya f , and Manhal al-wur amdād bi-šarḥ Abyāt al-Quṭb ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAlawī al-Ḥaddād (printed in Mecca 1897-98).

literature

• Anne K. Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. Family networks in East Africa, 1860-1925 . Routledge Shorton, London and New York, 2003.
• 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. 147-209.
• Roman Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. The Politics of Islamic Education in 20th Century Zanzibar . Brill, Leiden, 2009. pp. 94-111.
• 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. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 150.
2. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, pp. 35-46.
3. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, p. 100.
4. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, p. 47.
5. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, p. 48.
6. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 148.
7. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, p. 51.
8. ↑ See Pouwels: Horn and Crescent . 1987, p. 155.
9. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, pp. 64-69.
10. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 186.
11. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, pp. 204f.
12. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, p. 89.
13. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, p. 101.
14. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 158.
15. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, p. 101.
16. ↑ See Pouwels: Horn and Crescent . 1987, p. 156.
17. ↑ Cf. Farsy: The Shafiʿi ulama of East Africa . 1989, p. 186.
18. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, p. 102f.
19. ↑ See Pouwels: Horn and Crescent . 1987, pp. 157, 176.
20. ↑ See Pouwels: Horn and Crescent . 1987, p. 158.
21. ↑ See Loimeier: Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills. 2009, pp. 105-107.
22. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, pp. 189f.
23. ↑ See Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea . 2003, pp. 204-206.