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Abstract This article aims at shedding light on the late medieval trading system in the western part of the Indian Ocean between the Gulf and the east coast of Africa, in order to offer new evidence on the so-called “Shirazi question”. I will dispute the alleged early tenth/eleventh century date of the (possibly fictitious) “Shirazi migration” to East Africa by examining the background of the socio-economic and political changes which took place between the tenth and the fifteenth century. The trade network in which Hormuz – including Qalhat – played an important part is well documented by a homogenous pottery assemblage, which combines finds from the Makran/Baluchistan coast, the Gulf, Hormuz-Qalhat, Tiwi and farther south with many places on and off the coast of East Africa. This is important for our suggestion that the Shirazi-legend should be placed in the Hormuz-Qalhat period between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. A quantity analysis of the recorded sites between the Lamu region in the north and the Kilwa region in the south testifies to a constant rise of settlement activity or settlement expansion between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, reaching a peak in the fourteenth century (43 out of 116 examined places) and the fifteenth century (53 out of 116 examined places). Taking these facts together, we shall turn again to the grey area between legend and historical fact.

Abstract This study examines two late 2nd/8th century books that have been edited and published recently: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Yazīd al-Fazārī (d. c.185/800)’s Kitāb al-Rudūd (The Book of Responses) and Ḍirār b. ʿAmr al-Ġaṭāfānī’s (d. c.200/810) Kitāb al-Taḥrīš (The Book of Provocation). Both texts shed light on the emergence of ʿilm al-kalām (scholastic theology) in early Islam and its relationship to books and treatises on the Islamic firaq (sects) – a relationship which until now has not been sufficiently examined. In comparing these two texts, we focus on the specific topics they share, the methodologies they use, and the technical terms they employ. We conclude that the emergence of ʿilm al-kalām, as well as the Islamic “contemplative disciplines” in general, occurred not primarily, as is often surmised, as a result of external Greek philosophical influence but rather as the result of a politico-theological debate that took place within Muslim communities. We also reconsider the nature of intellectual life during the early Abbasid period.

This volume contains twenty-three texts, most of which were written between the end of the 2nd/8th century and the end of the 3rd/9th century. The majority of them reflect the early stages of the development of the First Ibadi Imamate in 132/750 – established when the Omanis fully seceded from the central state in Baghdad until the Imamate was collapsed by the Abbasids in 280/893. The source value of these Ibadi texts for researchers and scholars specialised in Islamic studies far outweighs any importance they might attach to sectarian history per se. 1 The Epistle of Mūsā b. Abī Jābir سيرة موسى بن أبي جابر 2 Letter of Abū Mawdūd to Imam Ghassān b. ʿAbdallāh نصيحة أبي مودود للإمام غسّان بن عبد الله 3 Epistle of Abū Mawdūd Ḥabīb b. Ḥafṣ al-Hilālī to Imam Ghassān b. ʿAbdallāh سيرة أبي مودود حبيب بن حفص الهلالي إلى الإمام غسان بن عبد الله 4 Epistle of Munīr b. al-Nayyīr al-Riyāmī al-Jaʿlānī to Imam Ghassān b. ʿAbdallāh سيرة المنير بن النيّر الريامي الجعلاني إلى الإمام غسان بن عبدالله 5 Epistle of Abū Sufyān Maḥbūb b. al-Raḥīl to Imam al-Muhannāʾ b. Jayfar about Hārūn b. al-Yamān سيرة أبي سفيان محبوب بن الرحيل إلى الإمام المهناء بن جيفر بشأن هارون بن اليمان 6 Epistle of Abū Sufyān Maḥbūb b. al-Raḥīl to the People of Ḥaḍramawt about Hārūn b. al-Yamān سيرة أبي سفيان محبوب بن الرحيل إلى أهل حضرموت بشأن هارون بن اليمان 7 Epistle of Hārūn b. al-Yamān to Imam al-Muhannāʾ b. Jayfar about Abū Sufyān Maḥbūb b. al-Raḥīl سيرة هارون بن اليمان إلى الإمام المهناء بشأن أبي سفيان محبوب بن الرحيل 8 Letter from Hāshim b. Ghaylān al-Humaymī to Imam ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥumayd جواب مِن هاشم بن غيلان إلى الإمام عبد الملك بن حُمَيْد\سيرة 9 Epistle of Abū ʿAlī [Mūsā b. ʿAlī] to the shurāt سيرة لأبي علي للشراة 10 Letter from Hāshim b. Ghaylān al-Humaymī to Imam ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥumayd سيرة هاشم بن غيلان إلى الإمام عبد الملك بن حُمَيد 11 Letter from Mūsā b. ʿAlī to Imam ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥumayd سيرة موسى بن علي إلى الإمام عبد الملك بن حُمَيد 12 Letter from Mūsā b. ʿAlī [b. ʿAzra], Hāshim b. Ghaylān and the People of Izkī to Imam ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥumayd موسى بن عليّ و هاشم بن غيلان وأهل إزكي إلى الإمام عبد الملك بن حُمَيْد سيرة 13 Letter from Hāshim b. Ghaylān, Muḥammad b. Mūsā, al-Azhar b. ʿAlī, al-ʿAbbās b. al-Azhar, Mūsā b. Muḥammad and Saʿīd b. Jaʿfar to Imam ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥumayd سيرة من هاشم بن غيلان ومحمّد بن موسى والأزهر بن علي والعبّاس بن الأزهر ومحمّد ابني عليّ وسعيد بن جعفر إلى الإمام عبد الملك بن حُمَيد 14 Epistle of Imam al-Muhannāʾ b. Jayfar to Maʿādh b. Ḥarb سيرة الإمام المهناء بن جيفر إلى معاذ بن حرب 15 Letter from Imam al-Ṣalt b. Mālik and Muḥammad b. Maḥbūb to Aḥmad b. Sulaymān, the Imam of Ḥaḍramawt جواب من الإمام الصلت بن مالك ومحمّد بن محبوب إلى أحمد بن سليمان إمام\سيرة حضرموت 16 Epistle of Muḥammad b. Maḥbūb to the People of the Maghreb (North Africa) سيرة محمد بن محبوب لأهل المغرب 17 Epistle of Imam al-Ṣalt b. Mālik سيرة الإمام الصلت بن مالك 18 Epistle of Muḥammad b. Maḥbūb [b. al-Raḥīl] to Abū Ziyād Khalaf b. ʿAzra سيرة محمّد بن محبوب إلى أبي زياد خلف بن عزرة 19 Letter from Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Maḥbūb to Imam al-Ṣalt b. Mālik Regarding the People in Prison الصلت بن مالك في أهل السجن[الإمام]جواب مِن أبي عبدالله محمّد بن محبوب إلى 20 Epistle of Shaykh ʿAzzān b. al-Ṣaqr سيرة أبي معاوية عزّان بن الصقر 21 Epistle of Imam [Abū l-Yaqẓān] Muḥammad b. Aflaḥ رسالة الإمام محمد بن أفلح 22 Epistle of Abū l-Muʾthir al-Ṣalt b. Khamīs al-Kharūṣī سيرة أبي المؤثر الصلت بن خميس 23 Epistle of Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Basyāwī Regarding Monotheism and the Imamate سيرة الشيخ أبي الحسن البسيوي

‘Abd Allāh b. Yazīd al-Fazārī (2nd/8th century) was one of the leading early Islamic theologians. His works are still among the most reliable and accessible to scholars and this text is a significant new addition to al Fazari’s texts that were previously published (IHC. 104/IHC. 182). This present study is based on a discussion of al-Fazārī’s teachings with the title Kitāb fī al-Tawḥīd, which is a commentary on his lost work by an anonymous North African Ibadi theologian and is unique because it is among the few known works which describe the doctrine of the early Ibadis. The addition of this text to al -Fazārī’s previously discovered writings provides us with further information about the early Ibadis’ theological views; more importantly, however, it also enables us to trace the development of the terminology they used and understand how and why it changed, as well as the intellectual aspects of the Islamic theological debates during the 2nd/8th century. This study successfully establishes that the opinions of this Ibadi school of theology have remained the same from one generation to the next - among the eastern Ibadis in Oman, Yemen and Hadhramawt as well as the western Ibadis in North Africa. It refutes previous speculation which maintained that al Fazārī’s views were on the decline in Ibadi circles from the middle of the 5th/11th century, since the evidence shows that the precise opposite was the case. In fact, this study shows that his theological teachings were still being followed in the 20th century by the Ibadis in Oman and North Africa.

The Nabhānī State first appeared in Oman in the 6th/12th century and lasted till the 11th/17th century. During this period the fall of Baghdad, which occurred in 656/1258, led to a number of radical political and cultural changes in the Gulf region, and the aim of the present study is to re-evaluate the conclusions of the (2002) study against a wider background. In doing so it will firstly re-evaluate the original and modern sources dealing with that period. Secondly, it will take a broader look at the political and regional situation at that time and its impact on the course of Oman’s historical development – in other words, it will consider Omani history within a regional context. Thirdly, it will look for the roots of that state and relate it more accurately to Oman’s historical chronology and regional context.

This study examines the theological debates surrounding the Ibāḍī epistle of Khalaf b. Ziyād al-Baḥrānī, written in the early 2nd/8th century. The epistle, which focuses on the theological concept of al-asmāʾ wa-l-aḥkām (names and rulings), represents one of the earliest known discussions of faith classifications and their legal implications in Islam. Khalaf’s work is compared to Kitāb al-Irjāʾ and the Epistle of Sālim ibn Dhakwān, highlighting how early Islamic sects, particularly the Ibāḍīs, Murjiʾites, and Muʿtazilites, debated the definitions of īmān (faith) and kufr (unbelief). The study situates Khalaf’s epistle within the broader theological discourse of the period, showing how his classification of faith-related rulings influenced later Ibāḍī thought. It also challenges the assumption that Ibāḍism only matured as a structured doctrine in the 6th/12th century, demonstrating its continuous evolution from the early Islamic period.

The recent publication of a new edition of the Qurʾanic exegesis al-Tahḏīb fī ʾl-Tafsīr by al-Ḥākim al-Ǧišumī (d. 494/1101) highlights the topic of naẓm (coherence/consistency/order/ correspondence) as a subject essential to understanding the concept of iʿǧāz al-Qurʾān, the uniqueness of the Qurʾanic text, which is central to conceiving its early exegesis. The present article investigates al-Ǧišumī’s theory of naẓm in the Qur’ ān, while attempting to distinguish his theory from that of his contemporary al-Ǧurǧānī (d. 471/1074). In this article, we compile evidence of al-Ǧišumī’s novel philological theory and offer a broader historical evaluation of the concept of naẓm among Qurʾanic exegetes. Finally, this article examines for the first time how to take account of al-Ǧišumī’s methodology in our understanding of the conceptual structure of the Qurʾanic corpus. While the main focus of this article is on al-Ǧišumī’s approach to the theory of naẓm, it also considers the theory in a wider context. Moreover, although it touches on al-Ǧurǧānī’s views on naẓm, it does not discuss him in any detail, particularly since his ideas have already been examined extensively in numerous other books and academic papers.

This is the first, timely account of the modern Oman over the entire reign of Sultan Qaboos (1970-2020). The book provides unique, wide-ranging interdisciplinary and international perspectives on modern Oman by specialists in a variety of fields from Oman, Europe and North America. Utilising a range of perspectives, all chapters connect to the theme of rebirth, of the connections between the past and the future pursued by Sultan Qaboos and his government in fields as diverse as health, religion, law, economy, heritage and diplomacy. Not overlooking the many challenges faced during Sultan Qaboos' reign and still faced by Oman, the book engages various theories and perspectives about Oman's economic, religious, educational and cultural transformations under Qaboos (d. 2020 CE)