Ibadites

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Beni Isguen , holy city of the Mozabites

The Ibadites ( Arabic الإباضية, DMG al-Ibāḍīya ) are a special religious community of Islam , neither the Sunni Islam nor the Shia belongs. Other Muslims assign the Ibadis to the Kharijites , but they themselves reject this assignment. However, they see themselves as the heirs of the Muhakkima , from which the Kharijites arose . The Ibadis follow their own school of law , which they trace back to Jabir ibn Zaid . Its name goes back to ʿAbdallāh ibn Ibād , whose identity is, however, in the dark.

Most of the Ibadites now live in Oman on the Arabian Peninsula . Oman is also the only country where they make up a larger proportion of the population (around 45%). There are also smaller Ibadi communities in the Algerian M'zab , on the Tunisian island of Jerba , in Libya in the Jabal Nafusa and in the city of Zuwara as well as in the coastal regions of East Africa . The Ibadites in Algeria are also called Mozabites . Overall, the Ibadites, with almost 2 million followers, are only a small minority among Muslims.

Special features in doctrine of faith and norms

Fundamental to the Ibadite teaching the four "paths of religion" are (masālik ad dīn): Emergence (zuhur), defense (difā'), self-sacrifice (širā') and secrecy (Kitman), which regarded as stages in the history of their own community which can be repeated and for which their own rules apply. They are also assigned to different types of imamate . Another important doctrine is the teaching of Walāya and Barā'a . According to this, the Ibadite believers have to practice loyalty and solidarity (walāya) only towards the members of their own community; towards all other Muslims they should, on the other hand, show renunciation and avoidance (barāʾa) . The Ibadis see themselves as the "family of the upright" (ahl al-istiqāma) , while other Muslims regard them as kuffār niʿma ("ungrateful"), who should be avoided.

Special features of the Ibadites on the theological level are the dogma of the constitution of the Koran and the rejection of the "seeing God in the hereafter" (ruʾyat Allāh fī l-āḫira) . They associate both beliefs with the Muʿtazila .

In the field of normative theory , the Ibadis are distinguished, among other things, by the fact that, unlike the Sunnis, but like the Shiites, they refuse to rub their shoes during the small wash . There are three main differences with regard to the ritual prayer : 1. In the noon and afternoon prayer, the first two and last two rakʿas are limited to the reading of the Fātiha , 2. Ibadis reject the Qunūt and believe that a prayer that starts with Qunūt has been performed must be repeated; 3. According to Ibadi teaching, it is a Fard obligation to shorten the prayer on the journey. The most important peculiarity of fasting is that the Ibadis are of the opinion that the believer in a state of great impurity (ǧanāba) can not fast, but must first perform a full washing in order for his fast to be valid. In the other disciplines, this requirement is limited to prayer. There are also differences in the calculation and distribution of zakāt . It is to be distributed primarily to Ibadites.

A special feature of marriage law is that, according to Ibadi teaching, extramarital intercourse between two people is a permanent obstacle to marriage between them. The Sunni law schools, on the other hand, consider it permissible for the two people to marry later, when they have completed the tauba and have returned to a righteous way of life. In the area of ​​criminal law, one of the most important peculiarities is that the hadd punishments are considered suspended during the period of secrecy and that the Ibadis, like the Twelve Shiites in qisās and diya, value a woman half as high as that of a man.

Beginnings and Spread

Beginnings in Basra

The beginnings of the Ibadite community lie in the city of Basra , which was a center of the Kharijites from the 680s. From 679 the scholar Jabir ibn Zaid from Oman worked here. He was a student of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās and issued legal opinions from Basra , in which he relied primarily on Ra'y . Jābir, who died in 712, is regarded by the Ibādites as one of their most important authorities to this day, although he was probably not an Ibādit himself, because he was also recognized outside of Ibādite circles. It is unclear whether the Ibādites even used this name for themselves at that time and clearly defined themselves as a community.

A tighter organization of the community can only be seen around the middle of the 8th century, when Abū ʿUbaida Muslim ibn Abī Karīma became its head. The Ibādites of Basra used the expression “community of Muslims” (Jamāʿat al-muslimīn) as a self-designation at this time ; the other Muslims only recognized the status of ahl al- qibla , people who pray in the correct direction of prayer. Abū ʿUbaida converted his community into a mission network and sent advertisers known as “knowledge carriers ” (hamalat al-ʿilm) to the various provinces of the Islamic empire with the task of founding Ibaadite communities there. The messengers appeared not only in Arab regions such as the Hejaz or southern Arabia and Bahrain , but also in Egypt, North Africa, Khorasan , Khorezm and even India. Most of these advertisers were also active as dealers. With the money they generated, a cash register was set up in Basra, with which the community achieved financial independence.

Most of the Ibadites belonged to Arab tribes, which were not particularly respected, so the ideal of equality was a high priority in their propaganda. Like the other Kharijites, the Ibadis were of the opinion that the imamate was not limited to the Quraish tribe , but belonged to anyone chosen by the Muslims to run their state. The hamalat al-ʿilm preached the principle of al-Walāya wa-l-barā'a , friendship and solidarity with all who lived in the spirit of Islam, and renunciation of those who did not keep the commandments. When it came to the latter, one thought primarily of the representatives of the Umayyad government.

Establishment of imamats

In the various outposts of the Ibadite community there were riots from 745 onwards. In 746, a first Ibadite imamate was founded in Hadramaut , whose troops were able to take Sanaa , the capital of southern Arabia, as well as Mecca and Medina in 747 . Around 750 the Ibādites of Oman paid homage to al-Dschulandā ibn Masʿūd, a descendant of the former ruling family there, as the first "imam of emergence" ( imām aẓ-ẓuhūr ). And in 757 the Ibādite Berbers near Tripoli elected the Yemenite Abū l-Chattāb al-Maʿāfirī as imam. With his supporters he was able to conquer all of Tripolitania and Ifrīqiya in a few months . All these imamates collapsed after a short time, but in 778, with the Rustamid imamate of Tāhart, a first stable state with an Ibādite orientation emerged. Until the beginning of the 10th century it covered large areas of present-day Algeria.

In Basra itself, the Ibadites kept secrecy. In the second half of the 8th century, Rabīʿ ibn Habīb al-Farāhīdī, who also came from Oman, took over the leadership of the Basrian community. He also got involved in the politics of the rustamid state when tensions arose there after the death of the first rustamid ʿAbd ar-Rahmān ibn Rustam in 784. The ruler's son, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, had only been able to prevail over another candidate on the electoral body by promising to resign if they were dissatisfied. After taking power, he no longer adhered to this condition because he believed that once an imam was elected, he had absolute authority. He had this approved by Rabīʿ in a legal opinion. The opponents of the new Rustamid ruler rallied around a Berber who had already belonged to the electoral body, and separated themselves as a separate community called the Nukkār.

After Rabīʿ ibn Habīb had sent new hamalat al-ʿilm to Oman, there was a revitalization of the Ibadite movement. He himself returned to Oman before his death in 786 and settled in the city of Nizwa . After defeating the Abbasid governor of Oman in December 793 Ibadit fighters of the Banū Yahmad from the Azd tribe, they elected Muhammad ibn Abī ʿAffān, who belongs to the Banū Yahmad, to be the new imam at a meeting in Manh, thus establishing the second Ibadit imamate in Oman. Muhammad ibn Abī ʿAffān was deposed two years later because of his harsh behavior towards previous opponents. Al-Wārith ibn Kaʿb (ruled 795-807), under whose rule Oman achieved relative stability, proved to be much more capable. During his time, the leading personalities of the Ibadite community emigrated from Basra to Oman, so that it became the new religious center of the Ibadites.

In Iraq itself, smaller Ibadite communities in Kufa and Baghdad continued to exist until the early 9th century. Some members of these congregations also appeared at the Abbasid court, in particular the theologian Ibn Yazīd al-Fazārī, who took part in the Kalām discussions of the Barmakids at the end of the 8th century .

History of the Ibadites in the different regions

Oman

Nizwa , the center of the Ibadites in Oman

In the 9th century, Oman was ruled successively by the Ibadite imams Ghassān ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Yahmadī (r. 808-823), ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Humaid (r. 823-840) and al-Muhannā ibn Jaifar (r. 840-851 ). The latter was able to extend the authority of the Imamate to the Hadramaut. The leading Ibadite theologians here in the first half of the 9th century were Hārūn ibn al-Yamān and Mahbūb ibn ar-Rahīl, who argued in letters about the position of the great sinner and the assessment of anthropomorphism . During the reign of Imam al-Salt ibn Mālik (r. 851-885), violent political disputes broke out in Oman, which ultimately led to the deposition of al-Salts and the installation of Imam Rāschid ibn an-Nadr in 885. During his reign the clashes between the two parties intensified and increasingly took on the character of a tribal war. The tribal battles eventually led to the Abbasids intervening with troops in 893 and putting an end to the second Ibadit imamate.

After the collapse of the second imamate, heated debates broke out within the Ibaadite community of Oman about its causes, which ultimately led to the community splitting into two parties - that of ar-Rustāq and that of Nizwa  - which were also dogmatic, ethical and different represented political positions. While the Nizwa was more pragmatic and wanted to concentrate on the fight against external intruders, in ar-Rustāq the old internal conflict was retained and the members of the other school were excommunicated in 1052. In the 11th and 12th centuries, both parties also elected their own rival imams. The imamate crisis resulted in many Arab tribes on the territory of what is now the United Arab Emirates , who were Ibādites, turning away from this direction of Islam and becoming Shafiite Sunnis.

North africa

The empire of the Ibadite rustamids in the 9th century

In the 9th century, the rustamid state comprised large parts of what is now Algeria and Libya, as well as the southern part of what is now Tunisia. The most important economic basis of this state was the Trans-Saharan trade , which was largely in the hands of Ibadi traders. The split among the North African Ibadites that had arisen after the death of the first imam was not overcome, but was intensified by differences on theological and legal level. The Nukkār who withdrew to Tripolitania claimed to be following the ancient doctrine established by Abū ʿUbaida, while they regarded the doctrine propagated by the Rustamid State, for which the name Wahbīya became common, as heresy. At the end of the 9th century they began extensive propaganda activities and set up their own imamate. After the fall of the Rustamid states and the establishment of the Fatimid caliphate in the early 10th century, their teaching became predominant among the Ibadites.

In the 940s, Abū Yazīd Machlad ibn Kaidād, a member of the Nukkār, organized an Ibādite uprising that almost brought down the Fatimid caliphate. Around 968 another Ibadite revolt against the Fatimids broke out in the Bilād al-Jarīd . The first leader of this uprising, Abū l-Qāsim Yazīd ibn Machlad, was killed that same year. His companion Abū Chazar managed to take Tripolitania, southern Tunisia, the island of Jerba and the Ouargla oasis at times . Abū Chazar had an army of 12,000 mounted men, appointed governors in various places and established relationships with the Umayyads in Spain. But this uprising also collapsed after a battle with the Fatimid army west of Kairouan, with which the Ibādīya in North Africa finally lost its political role as the religious doctrine that supported the state.

Smaller Ibadite communities remained in the area of ​​the former Rustamid Imamate. Here, a tradition-steeped Ibadite scholarship developed, which, however, returned to the Wahbitic doctrine. An Ibadite scholar from the Jabal Nafūsa, Sulaimān al-Bārūnī (1870–1940), played an important role in organizing the Berber resistance against the Italian occupation of Libya in the early 20th century . He continued the resistance against the Italians after the Turkish-Italian peace of Ouchy (October 1912) and was appointed governor-general of Tripolitania by the Turks at the end of 1916 . In November 1918 he and three other scholars proclaimed the "Tripolitan Republic".

East Africa

Through traders from Oman, the Ibadi doctrine spread to the coastal regions of East Africa as early as the 9th century. Members of the ruling Omani families emigrated to these areas, and some of them founded small principalities. Another phase in the spread of the Ibaditic doctrine came from the middle of the 17th century when the Omanis drove the Portuguese from the coastal areas of East Africa. After Sultan Said ibn Sultan had established Omani sovereignty over the Zanzibar archipelago in the early 19th century , Ibadi Qadis were also employed here.

Ibadite literature

The Ibadis have their own hadith literature. The most important collection of hadiths is the Musnad of Rabīʿ ibn Habīb. The Ibadis of today do not use the original version of the work, but the adaptation of Abū Yaʿqūb al-Wardschilānī (d. 1174), which contains additional traditions from this and is also known under the title al-Ǧāmiʿ aṣ-ṣaḥīḥ . It contains a total of 1005 traditions. In terms of content, the hadith material largely corresponds to the material in the Sunni hadith collections, but only those hadiths are included whose isnaad leads back to the Prophet via Jabir ibn Zaid.

Both in North Africa and in Oman, the Ibadis developed an extensive theological and legal literature. One of the first theological treatises of the Ibadites was the Kitāb Usūl ad-dīn by Tibghūrīn (12th century) from the Jabal Nafusa . The Muṣannaf by Abū Bakr Ahmad ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Kindī an-Nizwī (d. 1162) is one of the most important legal works of the Ibadis. It occupies 32 volumes in the modern print edition.

Several scholars of the North African Ibadis of the Middle Ages such as Abū r-Rabīʿ al-Wisyānī (12th century) and Abū l-Fadl al-Barrādī (14th century) wrote collections of biographies of Ibadi personalities. On the basis of the work of al-Barrādī, which also contains a section on early Islamic history, Laura Veccia Vaglieri has tried to reconstruct the Karijite view of the conflict between ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib and Muʿāwiya I.

Ibadites in Germany

According to the Federal Statistical Office, 571 Omani citizens were living in Germany on December 31, 2014 . Of these, it is estimated that between 40% and 80% belonged to the Ibadite religious community. According to this, between 228 and 456 Ibadis lived in Germany in 2014. According to REMID, there are around 270 Ibadites in Germany. The country of origin of the Ibadites living in Germany is almost without exception Oman.

See also

literature

  • Isam al-Rawas: Oman in early Islamic history . Reading 2000.
  • Pierre Cuperly: Introduction a l'étude de l'Ibāḍisme et de sa theologie . Office des publications universitaires, Alger, 1984.
  • Amr Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism (al-Ibāḍīyah) . Muscat: Sultanate of Oman, Ministry of Endowments & Religious Affairs 2008.
  • Josef van Ess : Theology and society in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Hijra. A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam . 6 vols. De Gruyter, Berlin 1991–97.
  • Heinz Gaube : The Ibadis in the region of the Indian Ocean . Section 1: East Africa . Olms, Hildesheim, 2013.
  • Tadeusz Lewicki : Art. Al-Ibāḍīya in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. III, pp. 648a-660b.
  • Wilferd Madelung: ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Ibāḍ and the origins of the Ibāḍiyya. In Barbara Michalek-Pikulska, Andrzej Pikulski (ed.): Authority, Privacy and Public Order in Islam: Proceedings of the 22nd Congress of L'Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants . Leuven 2006. pp. 51-57.
  • Ulrich Rebstock: The Ibāḍites in the Maġrib (2nd / 8th - 4th / 10th centuries). The story of a Berber movement in the guise of Islam. Berlin 1983. Digitized
  • R. Rubinacci: “Il califfo ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān e gli Ibāditi ”in Annali dell 'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli. Sezione Filologico-Letteraria - AION 5 (1953) 99-121.
  • Eduard Sachau: On the religious beliefs of the Ibadi Muhammadans in Oman and East Africa. In: Communications from the Seminar for Oriental Languages ​​in Berlin 2, 2nd Dept. (1899) 47–82. Digitized
  • Werner Schwartz: The beginnings of the Ibadites in North Africa. Wiesbaden 1983.
  • Percy Smith: The Ibadhites. In The Muslim World 12 (1922) pp. 276-288. Digitized
  • Rudolf Strothmann : Berbers and Ibāḍites. In: Der Islam 17 (1928) 258-279.
  • Brannon Wheeler: Ibāḍī Fiqh Scholarship in Context. In: Paul Cobb (ed.): The Lineaments of Islam. Studies in Honor of Fred McGraw Donner . Brill, Leiden, 2012. pp. 321-349.
  • John C. Wilkinson: The Early Development of the Ibāḍī Movement in Baṣra. In: GHA Juynboll (ed.): Studies on the First Century of Islamic Society . Carbondale / Edwardsville 1982. pp. 125-144.
  • John C. Wilkinson: Ibāḍī theological literature. In: MJL Young, JD Latham, RB Serjeant (eds.): Religion, Learning and Science in the ʿAbbasid Period . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990. pp. 33-39.
  • John C. Wilkinson: Ibāḍism: Origins and Early Development in Oman . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010.
  • Miklós Murányi : The first compendium of Ibadi law. The Mudawwana by Abu Ghanim Bishr b. Ghanim al-Khurasani (= Studies on Ibadism and Oman . Vol. 14). Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zurich 2018, ISBN 978-3-487-15678-1 .

supporting documents

  1. ^ Cuperly: Introduction a l'étude de l'Ibāḍisme . 1984. p. 15.
  2. ↑ See Smith: The Ibadhites 1922, p. 284 and Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism (al-Ibāḍīyah) . 2008, pp. 335-351.
  3. ↑ On the latter cf. Sachau: About the religious beliefs of the Ibadite Muhammadans . 1899, pp. 71, 75 f.
  4. ↑ Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism . 2008, pp. 165-167.
  5. ↑ Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism . 2008, pp. 167-170.
  6. ↑ Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism . 2008, pp. 170-172.
  7. ↑ Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism . 2008, pp. 173-174.
  8. ↑ Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism . 2008, p. 174.
  9. ↑ Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism . 2008, pp. 175-177.
  10. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . 1992, Vol. II, pp. 190 f.
  11. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . 1992, Vol. II, pp. 193-196.
  12. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . 1992, Vol. II, p. 195.
  13. ↑ On this, see Josef van Ess II 197.
  14. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . 1992, Vol. II, pp. 198 f.
  15. ↑ Cf. al-Rawas 134.
  16. ↑ See Lewicki 652b.
  17. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . 1990, Vol. I, pp. 405-411.
  18. ↑ See al-Rawas 129-163.
  19. ↑ See John C. Wilkinson: The Imamate Tradition in Oman . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987, 164 f. and van Ess II 212.
  20. ↑ Al-Rawas 190-197.
  21. ↑ On the split of the Omani Ibadis into the parties of ar-Rustāq and Nizwā, cf. Wilkinson 2010, 334-43.
  22. ↑ See Lewicki: Art. Al-Ibāḍīya in EI², p. 657a.
  23. ↑ See T. Lewicki: Art. Al-Nukkār in The Encyclopaedia of Islam Vol. VIII, pp. 112b – 114a.
  24. ↑ See Lewicki: Art. Al-Ibāḍīya in EI² Vol. III, p. 656a.
  25. ↑ See Laura Veccia Vaglieri: Art. Al-Bārūnī in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. I, pp. 1070b-1071b.
  26. ↑ See Lewicki: Art. Al-Ibāḍīya in EI² Vol. III, p. 653a.
  27. ↑ See Anne K. Bang: Sufis and scholars of the sea. Family networks in East Africa, 1860-1925 . Routledge Shorton, London and New York, 2003. pp. 154-155, 161-165.
  28. ↑ Ennami: Studies in Ibadhism . 2008, pp. 139-141.
  29. ↑ See Pierre Cuperly: Le Kitâb Usûl al-dîn de Tibġûrîn in Studia Islamica 56 (1982) 69-96, and Cuperly: Introduction a l'étude de l'Ibāḍisme . 1984. pp. 73-91.
  30. ↑ See Wheeler: Ibāḍī Fiqh Scholarship . 2012, p. 323.
  31. ↑ See on him KS Vikør: Art. Al-Wisyānī 3. in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. XI, pp. 212b-213a.
  32. ↑ On him, see R. Rubinacci: Art. Al-Barrādī in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. I, p. 1053.
  33. ↑ See Laura Veccia Vaglieri: Il conflitto ʿAlī-Muʿāwiya e la secessione khārigita riesaminati alla luce di fonti ibāḍite . Rome 1952.
  34. ↑ Population and employment - Foreign population - Results of the Central Register of Foreigners , from: Federal Statistical Office , from March 16, 2015, accessed on January 29, 2016
  35. ^ Membership numbers : Islam , in: Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst e. V. (Abbreviation: REMID) , accessed on January 29, 2016

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