Your search

The Khārijites are usually regarded as the first faction to separate from the early Islamic community. They are viewed as rebels and heretics, constituting the first sect within early Islam. This thesis seeks to examine the narrative role and function of Khārijism in the historiographical tradition of the formative period of Islam. To that end, it looks at the major Islamic chronicles of the 3rd and 4th centuries AH/9th and 10th centuries CE and investigates their portrayal of Khārijite history. The analysis covers the period from the apparent emergence of the Khārijites at the Battle of Ṣiffīn in 37 AH/657 CE until the death of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān in 86 AH/705 CE. The thesis’ methodological approach is based on the premise that the historiographical works under study need to be approached as literary artefacts, as texts rather than databanks that can be mined for hard facts in order to reconstruct early Islamic and thus Khārijite history ‘as it really was’. This literary analysis of the source material on Khārijism leads to two major conclusions: first, there is hardly any narrative substance to the Khārijites as presented in the sources. Instead, the reports on Khārijite activities are mostly made up of structural components such as names and dates on the one hand, and topoi and schemata on the other. Consequently, no distinct and tangible identity, literary or otherwise, emerges from the material, pointing out the pitfalls of positivist approaches to Khārijite history and by extension early Islamic history in general. This phenomenon is directly connected to the second conclusion: the historiographical sources approach Khārijism not as an end in itself, but as a narrative tool with which to illustrate, discuss and criticize other actors and subject matters. The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapters One and Two address those characteristics of and topoi in the representation of Khārijism that pervade the source material across the entire period investigated here. It emerges that the historiographers’ major concern in the depiction of Khārijism is the discussion of the perils of the rebels’ militant piety that threatens the unity and stability of the Islamic community. Chapters Three to Five look at the periods of ʿAlī’s caliphate, Muʿāwiya’s rule and the second fitna as well as t he reign of ʿAbd al-Malik, respectively, and identify the specific narrative purposes of Khārijism in the portrayal of each period. Chapter Six offers a number of observations on the early historiographical tradition as derived from the analysis over the preceding five chapters, addressing issues such as whether it makes sense to distinguish between proto-Sunnī and proto-Shīʿī sources. The Conclusion summarizes the main findings of this thesis and provides some suggestions regarding future research on Khārijite history and thought as well as early Islamic history in general.

Beaucoup de collègues et d’amis, de part et d’autre de la Méditerranée, sont impatients de lire le volume que nous avons dirigé avec Patrice Cressier et Sophie Gilotte sur Sedrata, histoire et archéologique d’un carrefour du Sahara médiéval. Il est terminé, a été relu et approuvé par deux examinateurs anonymes, et se trouve donc en … Continuer la lecture de Où en est le volume sur Sedrata ? →

La Fondation de la Maison de Tunisie et Beit el Bennani ont le plaisir de vous inviter au vernissage de l’exposition Les Tunisiens juifs de Djerba de Frank J. Scherschel, réalisée avec le fonds Beit el Bennani. Présentation de l’exposition La vie quotidienne des juifs de Djerba, sous l’objectif du photographe américain du magazine Life Frank J. Scherschel (1907-1981). Après avoir couvert la deuxième guerre mondiale, en Europe, pour Life, Frank J. Scherschel est venu en Tunisie entre 1956 et 1957 pour photographier les événements en rapport avec l’indépendance de la Tunisie. C’est à cette occasion, qu’il a réalisé le présent reportage sur les quartiers juifs de Djerba. Présentation de Beil el Bennani Beit el Bennani est un centre de documentation sur le patrimoine tunisien situé dans La Médina de Tunis et ouvert aux étudiants et aux chercheurs. En plus d’une riche bibliothèque, ce centre dispose aussi d’un fonds photographique et archivistique, inédit pour la plupart, axé sur des sujets liés à l’histoire et au patrimoine. Le vernissage aura lieu le mercredi 6 décembre à partir de 19h30, dans le cadre d’Art-Hop-Polis, le art hopping à la Cité internationale. Maisons participantes : Suède, Suisse, Tunisie et Etats-Unis.

Since becoming a nation-state in 1970, Oman's expanding heritage industry has included the restoration of castles and citadels, including the fort at Nizwa. The fort was once the administrative and juridical center of the Ibadi Imamate (1913–58). As the site of sharia adjudication, it sanctioned a past of primarily moral nature, oriented toward God and salvation and grounded in Ibadi doctrine and practice. This mode of history implied that everyday interactions and relationships could be assessed through exemplary forms of morality, as embodied by virtuous forbears. Yet the heritage project in modern Oman has treated history and Islam as seemingly separate, erasing formal awareness of the sociopolitical and ethical relationships that once characterized Ibadi rule. Today, the historical work done by the fort as a heritage site entails a progress-oriented future, reconfiguring Ibadi Islam in the process.

"Book review: The Ibadis in the Region of the Indian Ocean. Section One : East Africa, written by Heinz Gaube" published on 04 Mar 2015 by Brill.

"Book review: Oman and Overseas éd. Michaela Hoffmann-Ruf et Abdulrahman al-Salimi, written by Oman and Overseas" published on 04 Mar 2015 by Brill.

This article offers descriptions of a handful of manuscripts by Ibāḍī Muslim authors held in the Bibliothèque nationale de Tunisie (BnT). In addition to the manuscript descriptions, it discusses some of the implications of these and other Ibāḍī manuscripts for the study of the medieval and early modern Ibāḍī traditions in Northern Africa. More specifically, it highlights the previously overlooked potential of manuscript evidence to illuminate our understanding of the formation and long-term maintenance of the Ibāḍī tradition in the Maghrib from the medieval period up to the 20th century.

"Ibadi Theology. Rereading sources and scholarly works, written by Ersilia Francesca" published on 18 Nov 2016 by Brill.

In 'Ibāḍī Texts from the 2nd/8th Century' Abdulrahman Al-Salimi and Wilferd Madelung present an edition of fourteen 'Ibāḍī' religious texts and explain their contents and extraordinary source value for the early history of Islam. The 'Ibāḍīs' constitutes the moderate wing of the Kharijite opposition movement to the Umayyad and ʿAbbasid caliphates. The texts edited are mostly polemical letters to opponents or exhortatory to followers by ʿAbd Allah b. Ibāḍ, Abu l-ʿUbayda Muslim b. Abi Karima and other Ibāḍī leaders in Basra, Oman and Hadramawt. An epistle detailing the offences of the caliph ʿUthman is by the early Kufan historiographer al-Haytham b. ʿAdi. By their early date and independence of the mainstream historical tradition these txts offer the modern historian of Islam an invaluable complement to the well-known literary sources