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This article explores Talāq, which refers to the right of men in Islam to divorce their wives, with particular emphasis upon triple Talāq. This article seeks to answer the question of how triple Talāq at one time is applied in modern-day Muslim societies, in light of contemporary socio-economic conditions. The historical events surrounding the emergence of triple Talāq in Islam demonstrates the possibility of its renewal in Islamic law. This is significant because it demonstrates that, contrary to the teaching of many Muslim scholars including contemporary Ibadī scholars in Oman, change and renewal are not inimical to Islam but rather intrinsic to it. I argue here that the inflexibility of Ibadī scholars regarding triple Talāq at one time promotes gender inequality and discriminatory practices in Oman, especially towards women. This article begins by exploring the different methods of Talāq in Islamic law. It then focuses on triple Talāq at one time (in one event). The discussion of triple Talāq at one time aims to explore the interaction between legal, economic and social factors, on one hand, and how these factors have affected the law of triple Talāq during both pre-modern and contemporary Muslim societies. Subsequently, the article will examine how contemporary Muslim scholars react to the new social and economic factors associated with triple Talāq at one time.

berian Umayyad relations with the Ibāḍī Rustumids and the Ṣufrī Midrārids have not been well understood. After an initial period of Khārijite rebellion against the Umayyads in the 120s/740s, in which Khārijite revolutions in North Africa spilled over into the Iberian Peninsula, profound ties developed between the Umayyad amīrs, and the Midrārid and Rustumid imāms. In the far Maghrib, where ‘Abbāsid power did not reach, trade—especially the trade in human beings—brought these erstwhile political and religious enemies together. Relationships between these groups lasted well beyond the destruction of the Midrārid and Rustumid dynasties in the early fourth/tenth century. This paper re-examines the textual and numismatic evidence for Ibāḍī, Ṣufrī, Iberian Umayyad (and even early ‘Abbāsid) relations in order to propose that strong economic interests based primarily in the slave trade underlay the political ties that developed in the late second/eighth century between these groups.

Emily Ruete’s Memoirs of an Arabian Princess was first published, in German, in 1886, on the threshold of the nineteenth-century imperialist “Scramble for Africa.” Ruete’s exilic relationship with both Europe and Africa made her an insider-outsider, well positioned to capture the imperial stage of Enlightenment Orientalism in flux and transmit it across the oceans to a public who would have found the life she describes unimaginable. In relaying the story of how Sayyida Salme became Emily Ruete, the Memoirs employs a mode of translation that is simultaneously linguistic, cultural, religious, and material. In Ruete’s case, translation is an embodied act. As a translator, Salme/Ruete critically and comparatively translates Zanzibar, and by extension the “Orient,” for a Western audience by virtue of her body being able to enter into and to pass through multiple social and cultural spaces.

The role of Iranian merchants in the maritime trade of the Indian Ocean basin from antiquity up to the 16th century is often underestimated. From scholarly histories to popular culture the “Muslim sailor” is typically portrayed as being an Arab. In fact, from pre-Islamic times the principal actors in Indian Ocean trade were predominantly Persian, as attested by the archaeological data, local written records, and the names of places and individuals.

Through a multi-sited ethnological lens, this article highlights the influences of political and economic dynamics on the Omani-Zanzibari family construction. It explores the fluid nature of the Omani-Swahili identity, the role of the family institution in regulating morality and sexuality, and the impacts of political events and forces on the development of multiple family configurations. It further analyzes key societal concepts such as marriage, legitimacy, succession, post-forced-displacement adaptation, and evolutionary identity. Through a qualitative study, the author uses fieldwork in Oman and Zanzibar, a range of primary archival sources, dialogues with prominent Omani-Zanzibari personalities, and published and private personal memoirs reflecting key historical periods in the development of Omani-Zanzibari identities to speak to the themes of the Omani polity that are unique to the Gulf.

Omani and British reforms of Zanzibar’s judiciary date back to the 1820s, when the abolition of the slave trade justified Western control of the sultanate’s political economy. The sultan enacted the abolition of slavery as a legal status in 1897, seven years after Zanzibar had become a British protectorate. Through the lens of a 1948 inheritance case, I analyze how colonial judicial reforms shaped the negotiation of grievances and the judges’ interpretations of social equality. As members of the colonial elite, both Muslim and British judges were embedded in a racialized social hierarchy. Their reasoning not only exposes the continuous marginalization of former slaves but also attests to ex-slaves’ ability to assert material power. While a Muslim and a British judge used different hermeneutics, both validated the marriage of a Hadrami water carrier to a former slave, thereby affirming his entitlement to a share of his wife’s estate.

Abstract While every year the people of the United Republic of Tanzania witness the new anniversary of the Union between the former Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, this paper intends to examine how strong its legal foundation stands. The union was established by the two leaders; Nyerere for Tanganyika and Karume for Zanzibar. After their signatures, the agreement was required for ratification at Zanzibar and Tanganyika legislative bodies. Only Tanganyika ratified. Surprisingly, even though Zanzibar did not ratify, the union was made. On this background foundation, the union legality has been repeatedly criticized. While those who question the legality of the union stick on the point of ratification, those who consider its legitimacy, assert that the question of validity has waned due to the period the union has survived. The findings in this article argue otherwise, in fact, the issue has grown to such extent that it haunts everyone in Tanzania.

Abstract Judicial khuluu (<Ar. khulʿ ) in Zanzibar differs from judicial khulʿ in Arab countries that have recently introduced it through legislative reform. In Zanzibar’s Islamic courts, khuluu is used primarily as a judicial mechanism for ending a marriage when a judge determines a wife to be responsible for the breakdown of the marriage. Zanzibari women rarely file for khuluu because it is expensive and is associated with a woman’s failure in her marriage. Herein, I explain why judges in Zanzibar regard khuluu as a punitive measure that can be used to end a marriage when a woman is determined to be responsible for the marital discord, or when there are no grounds for judicial dissolution through fasikhi (<Ar. faskh , annulment). I also show that judges view khuluu as a right that a woman can exercise to extricate herself from marriage, a right that judges sometimes encourage in court.

The objective of this paper is to shed the light to the series of manuscripts of the treatise al-Mutashabih fi al-Qur’an ( Ambiguous [ayat] in the Qur’an ) by Abu Tahir al-Turaythithi, Mu'tazilte scholar of Baghdad. The problem discussed is the exaggeration of the Qur’an which was the point of sharp theological debates. We know comparatively well the Mu'tazilte works produced in Basra while the work by Abu Tahir al-Turaythithi reflects comprehensively the school of Baghdad. The journey of the treatise through the Muslim world as presented by its manuscripts started from Central Asia, they appeared in Yemen and Oman and finally in one of the European libraries.

The article is devoted to the achievements and approaches of specialists, mostly American, British, German, French and Italian in the analysis of Ibadi siyar and the new perspectives of the research connected with the analysis of the MSS material. The general tendency in the field now is to follow the footsteps of Van Ess, Madelung and Cook, and rather than developing new theories and hypotheses, to seek out and identify well documented texts that will offer a reliable picture of Islamic thought before the 3rd/9th century. To provide a clearer general context, the texts could also be rearranged in historical order and grouped on the basis of the ideas they present. Most works produced by the different Ibadi groups during the early period are not representative of particular literary genre. However, we do not have precise data on the Islamic material on ‘ilm al-kalam that has been discovered so far from the period up to the end of the 3rd/9th century. Because of the importance attached to siyar by Ibadi ‘ulama’ during the 10th/16th and 11th/17th centuries Ibabi schools began to seek out their roots and collect early manuscripts and works of literature on the Ibadi legacy... The article is devoted to the achievements and approaches of specialists, mostly American, British, German, French and Italian in the analysis of Ibadi siyar and the new perspectives of the research connected with the analysis of the MSS material. The general tendency in the field now is to follow the footsteps of Van Ess, Madelung and Cook, and rather than developing new theories and hypotheses, to seek out and identify well documented texts that will offer a reliable picture of Islamic thought before the 3rd/9th century. To provide a clearer general context, the texts could also be rearranged in historical order and grouped on the basis of the ideas they present. Most works produced by the different Ibadi groups during the early period are not representative of particular literary genre. However, we do not have precise data on the Islamic material on ‘ilm al-kalam that has been discovered so far from the period up to the end of the 3rd/9th century. Because of the importance attached to siyar by Ibadi ‘ulama’ during the 10th/16th and 11th/17th centuries Ibabi schools began to seek out their roots and collect early manuscripts and works of literature on the Ibadi legacy. The latter were copied and preserved per se without diluting them or considering them in the context of the other Islamic schools. That is why the Ibadi school was able to remain united and steadfast in the face of the contemporary modernization movements which continue to this day. Most of the compilations of the texts that are currently in our possession comprise not more than ten volumes in all. Scholars and copyists have rearranged each of these manuscripts, so that each copy has a different number and sequence of siyar texts. The existing text formats raise the important question of whether Ibabi siyar are actually a literary genre. Until now nobody has really studied siyar in such a way that their specific genre characteristics have been defined in detail.