Page 212 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

202 Arabian Studies IV
rulers. Hence, there are really two situations governing their
relationship, with them; i.c., when the Ibatjls are themselves living
openly in a properly constituted state or when their
imamah is in abeyance (kitman) so that the rules of dissimilation
(taqiyyah) apply in some degree.
There is a vast amount of material in the manuscripts for
studying these principles and practices, and many of the major fiqh
works have a sizeable section devoted to the subject. A most
detailed expos6 of how Muslims and their rulers are to be treated
when the IbadI state is expanding is given by A. ’1-HawarI (W.34)
in his letter to the IJadramls, a matter that had not been
punctiliously respected by the Omani IbatJIs themselves when
suppressing the Julanda regime, as witness the first part of the
letter replying to the Hadramls’ charges.
Details of what is permitted when the Imamate is in abeyance
(kitman) are perhaps even more interesting, for there is a long
history of the development of these ideas going back to the earliest
history of Ibadism in Basra. After the overthrow of the ‘First
Imamate’ this matter also took on a new dimension for the Omanis
and there are some fascinating rulings to be found in the writings
of Bashir b. Muhammad al-Rablll (W.40c) cf. in particular J.M. 1;
the unnumbered volume of the Mu$annaf; the Ziyadah to the
Jami‘ A. ’1-Hasan, and in Book V of Jum‘ah al-$a’ighl’s Jawhar
al-athar.

III. POLITICAL HISTORY
From the point of view of histoire 6v6nementiellc a study of these
manuscripts confirms the writer’s previous impression that there is
little that al-Saliml has missed in his Tufrfah (W.21b). In J.M, for
example, we have some of the complete documents from which he
cites, but while a study of these may provide some details to help
sort out the confused history of the Imamate in the late fifth and
sixth centuries A.H., there is not a great deal new to be discovered
about the First Imamate, except perhaps for some fascinating
glimpses on Ibadism in IJadramawt.
Yet to see this material, which al-Saliml frequently quotes
verbatim, in its original context gives a new dimension to this
history. Take, for instance, the history of the relationships of the
Julanda and the Ibadls which the writer touched on at the end of
his article on the ‘Julanda of Oman’.5 Only two new pieces of
information of which the writer was not previously aware came out
of these sources:
(i) from the Jami‘ Ibn Ja'Iar that A. Marwan (who was governor
of Suhar in Muhanna b. Jayfar’s Imamate, 226-37/841-51) bought