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pp. 171-174 (polemic against the Murji’a in the Sīrat Sālim b. Dhakwān (see Cook 1981 and references there); pp. 174-179 (K. al-Irjā’); pp. 405-416 (the Ibāḍī community in Kūfa).

This paper depicts social and cultural life in Zanzibar early 20th century, with special emphasis on the important role played by the Shāfiʿī Qāḍīs Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr b. Sumayṭ (1861-1925), Burhān b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Amawī (1861-1935) and Ṭāhir b. Abī Bakr al-Amawī (1877-1938), and the Ibāḍī Qāḍī ʿAlī b. Muḥ. al-Mundhirī (1866-1925). A description of the Zanzibar legal system at the time is given, and questions like Waqf regulations, religious instruction and the language question (Swahili-Arabic) are treated.

In this article three cases before the Sultan’s Court for Zanzibar and Pemba are presented over inheritance involving the possession of shambas, farms and farmhouses in the agricultural areas (from the Zanzibar National Archive, files HC8/1-140). For the Ibāḍiyya, the main legal text was K. al-Nīl wa-Shifā’ al-ʿAlīl of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Ibr. al-Muṣʿabī al-Thamīnī (1130-1223/1718-1808). To this, the most frequently used commentary was Sharḥ al-Nīl by Muḥ. b. Yūsuf Iṭfayyish (1260-1332/1820-1914). Another much used work on Ibāḍī inheritance law was the Mukhtaṣar by the Omani author Abū ‘l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥ. al-Bisyawī. Pp. 8-9: information on the Ibāḍī Qāḍī ʿAlī b. Muḥ. al-Mundhirī (1866-1925).

At the end of the article, p. 75: among the Mozabites, Wilāya and Barā’a represent a religious transformation of tribal politics. The notables’ authority could not exist without a social structure founded in the clan. Each clan designates its representatives in the Jamāʿa and its notables, who direct the group’s business, form a restricted assembly which meets in the presence of one of the members of the Ḥalqa (Bourdieu 1962, 41-42). This connection between religious solidarity and agnatic groups’ power assures that community ties remain very strong even among emigrants. Particularism and individualism are banished and each Ibāḍī has a strong feeling of belonging to “the chosen people”, distinguished by their rigor and intransigence. In terms of organization of entrepreneurial activity, the solidarity existing among the Mozabites is converted into commercial cooperation. The business establishments in the Tell are generally the property of the family group, and in most cases the employees are members of the owner’s family or else come from the same clan or city. This family organization of the business enterprise, thanks to the very limited costs, allows the Mozabites to sell at competitive prices. Moreover, mutual aid is praticed in every possible occasion (Bourdieu 1962, 48; Chabert 1961, 348). In this way, fidelity to the traditional social structure, far from being an obstacle to their competitiveness in the capitalistic system, rather favours it and makes it easier.

The Ottoman period in Algeria was from 1515-1830. These three letters are from the private library of Muḥ. al-Ḥājj Saʿīd b. Ayyūb in Ghardaïa, Mīzāb. The first letter (Dhū ‘l-Qaʿda 1206/1792) contains a complaint from the Mīzābīs to the Dāy Bābā Ḥasan (1791-1798) about the intention of Ṣāliḥ Bāy, Bāy of Constantine (1771-1792), to subdue the Mīzābīs and their families, to lead their women and children into captivity, and subsequently to exterminate them, probably for no other reason then their belonging to the Ibāḍī Madhhab. The second letter (Muḥarram 1207/Aug. 1792) is a letter of thanks for the Dāy’s help. The third one (end of Ṣafar 1207/1792), to al-Ḥājj ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, Siḥr of the Dāy and their mediator with the Dāy, “expresses the acknowledgment of what is beautiful by its writers”; it contains the aforementioned complaint and the Mīzābīs’ gratitude.

Pp. 41-46 on the MS of Ibr. b. Saʿīd al-ʿIbrī (d. 1975) on the history of the ʿIbriyyūn

On international diplomatic efforts to put an end to the Italian-Turkish conflict. The Dutch initiative took place mid-December 1911.

In the old “stone town” of Zanzibar west of the former creek there are about fifty mosques, mostly built during the 19th century. By studying these mosques, this paper reconstructs the growth and economic and social history of the town. It demonstrates that merchants as well as landowners supported the construction of mosques and that the construction of mosques was an important aspect of urban development. An examiniation of the growth of Zanzibar town shows that, from the latter part of the 18th century, Zanzibar began to develop as the centre of a commercial empire based on the twin foundations of transit trade and plantation agriculture. The history of the mosques can be divided into several phases, of course with some overlap. First the Sunnī mercantile tradition and the mosques built during this phase are described. By the 1840s, a new phase is discernible in mosque construction, a phase dominated by the Ibāḍī tradition with its unique architectural features reflecting Ibāḍī dogmas and practices. Finally, attention is paid to Ibāḍī-Sunnī interaction (Catalogue African Studies Centre, Leiden). At Zanzibar, the Ibāḍīs were a minority sect that tended to be gradually absorbed by the Shāfiʿī denomination. Generally the two denominations lived together in perfect harmony. Only under Sultan Barghash b. Saʿīd (Sultan 1870-1888), who was under the influence of the Ibāḍī Imamate movement in Oman, an Ibāḍī Nahḍa occurred which lead to some tension between Ibāḍīs and Sunnīs (pp. 17-19).

Pp. 48-55 on the MS of Ibr. b. Saʿīd al-ʿIbrī (d. 1975) on the history of the ʿIbriyyūn.

The Yemeni Arab family of al-Muhallab b. Abī Ṣufra and his descendants played a leading role in the early Islamic period under the Umayyad dynasty of Caliphs (661-750), acting as military commanders and governors, and continued to flourish under the succeeding Abbasid dynasty. The Omani historian Salāma b. Muslim al-ʿAwtabī al-Ṣuḥārī probably wrote in the later 11th century A.D., and in his K. al-Ansāb deals with important South- Arabian families such as the Muhallabids. Dr. Martin Hinds has provided a translation of and commentary on the relevant section of this history, utilising four manuscripts of the Ansāb and by his extensive reference to these and by his remedying the deficiencies of the uncritical printed text (Oman, 1981-1984). The whole study throws light on the course of early Islamic history in its phase of conquest and expansion and on the part of the South-Arabian tribal groups within it.

Examination of the biographies of some ʿUlamā’ reveals their tendency to isolate themselves in networks that are very much closed to the original coastal Swahilis, and sometimes without taking into consideration the traditional clivages between Sunnites and Ibadites. Most scholars identify themselves as Arabs and keep the autochtons culturally at a distance. Analysis of the formation of a series of chains of ʿUlamā’ (from the beginning of the 19th century) suggests that the process of education of the ʿUlamā’ is accompanied with great mobility between the centres of religious learning in East Africa (Anjouan, Grand Comores, Lamu, Mombasa, Zanzibar) and in Arabia or Ḥaḍramawt. A great master can claim a long chain of ʿUlamā’ and a great diversity in education. Also kinship relationships play a very important role (Catalogue of the African Studies Centre, Leiden).