The Essentials of Ibadi Islam

Biographical Dictionary

291 biographical dictionary ‘Abbād b. Sulaymān al-D  aymarī/al-S  aymarī (d. 250/864): a Mu‘tazilite of Basra, a student of Hishām b. ‘Amr al-Fuwat  ī. al-‘Abbās (d. ca. 32/653): uncle of the Prophet and ancestor of the ‘Abbāsid dynasty. He fought against the Prophet at the battle of Badr, was captured, and later released. Some reports say he was released for ransom, while others say he was released without ransom. He embraced Islam in 8/630. ‘Abdallāh b. Ibād  /Abād  : the eponymous founder of Ibād  ism, who purportedly became the leader of the quietist Khawārij after the death of Abū Bilāl in 61/680–681 and broke with the Azāriqa in 65/684–685. ‘Abdallāh b. Wahb al-Rāsibī: the first Khārijite Imām, given an oath of allegiance at H  arūrā’ on 20 Sha‘bān 37/30 January 658. He was killed at the battle of al-Nahrawān on 9 S  afar 38/17 July 658. ‘Abdallāh b. Yah  yā al-Kindī: known as T  ālib al-H  aqq (seeker of the truth), in 128/745 he founded the first Ibād  ī state, in the H  ad  ramawt, and was able to conquer S  an‘ā’, Mecca, and Medina before being killed in battle in 139/748. ‘Abdallāh b. Yazīd al-Fazārī: an early second/eighth-century scholar who was expelled from the Ibād  ī assembly in Basra by Abū ‘Ubayda b. Abī Karīma for a book he wrote, Kitāb al-rudūd, one of the oldest works on Muslim theology. ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān: one of the most capable of the Umayyad caliphs, he ruled from 65/685 to 86/705. ‘Abd al-Malik b. al-Muhallab: less important than his father, the Umayyad commander, Muhallab b. Abī S  ufra (d. 82/702), he participated in his father’s campaigns against the Azāriqa. Nonetheless, he may have had Ibād  ī sympathies, and is the probable recipient of a letter written by ‘Abdallāh b. Ibād  that has usually thought to have been written to ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān (Cook 1980, 63). 292 • Biographical Dictionary ‘Abdal-Rah  mānb.H  abībb.Abī‘Ubaydaal-Fihrī(d.137/755): a great-grandson of ‘Uqba b. Nāfi‘, he seized Qayrawān, the capital of Ifrīqiyā (modern-day Tunisia), in 129/747, and ruled as an independent governor, until he was assassinated by his own brother. ‘Abd al-Rah  mān b. Rustam b. Bahrām (d. 171/788): an Ibād  ī of Persian origin, but grew up in Qayrawān (Kairouan, in present-day Tunisia). He studied in Basra with Abū ‘Ubayda Muslim b. Abī Karīma, and was one of the missionaries sent to North Africa with Abū ’l-Khat  t  āb al-Ma‘ārif, for whom he served as governor of Qayrawān. He survived the battle that killed the latter in 144/761, fleeing Qayrawān into the central Maghrib, where, in 161/778, he founded a new Ibād  ī imāmate at Tāhart, six miles west of present-day Tihert in western Algeria. His imāmate was highly regarded for its justice and order, attracting migrants from other cities. When he died in 171/788, his son, ‘Abd al-Wahhāb, was selected as imām, and the Rustamid dynasty ruled the imāmate until it was defeat by the Fāt  imids in 296/909. ‘Abd al-Wahhāb b. ‘Abd al-Rah  mān b. Rustam: the second Rustamid imām, he ruled from 171/788 to 208/824. Abū ’l-‘Abbās Ah  mad b. Muh  ammad b. Bakr (d. 15 Dhū ’l-H  ijja 504/18 June 1111): Ibād  ī scholar originally from the Nafūsa Mountains in Libya, though later he moved to southern Tunisia and Ouargla, Algeria, where he is said to have written twenty-five books on Ibād  ī law and theology. Abū ‘Ammār ‘Abd al-Kāfī b. Abī Ya‘qūb Yūsuf b. Ismā‘īl b. Yūsuf b. Muh  ammad al-Tanāwutī al-Wārjilānī (d. before 570/1174): Ibād  ī scholar of the Algerian oasis town of Ouargla, he is credited with stimulating an Ibād  ī intellectual florescence, attracting students from throughout the Maghrib, especially Jirba. His most important work is Kitāb al-Mūjaz...