Full bibliography

Seafaring and trade across the Indian Ocean have played a pivotal role for Oman and its scholars. Islamic law compendia are reflective of and an important source on the material culture of their times. They discuss all aspects of human life, questions of personal status and trade and international relations. Despite the exposure of Oman and its scholars to the sea and related legal cases, maritime law in the Ibāḍī fiqh encyclopedias is a neglected field of research. This study aspires to close a gap in the literature. It focuses on the earliest extant Omanī fiqh encyclopedias and other relevant material of the 2nd-3rd/8th-9th centuries, mainly the Kitāb Jāmiʿ Abī l-Ḥawwārī (alive in 272/885), Kitāb Jāmiʿ al-Faḍl ibn al-Ḥawwārī (d. 278/891) and Jāmi’ Ibn Jaʿfar al-Izkawī (alive in 277/892), with references to later sources, primarily the Kitāb Bayān al-sharʿ of Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Kindī (d. 508/1115), the Muṣannaf of Abū Bakr al-Kindī (d.557/1162), and others. This research analyses the available material to identify the earliest possible source material and authorities of dicta on Ibāḍī maritime law while referencing later material for clarification. Case studies on different questions, such as hiring ships and vessels for transportation, contract work, shipwreck and jettison, taxation, and persons missing at sea, are analyzed with respect to the sea as spatial factor that may (or may not) impact Islamic legal rule.