Abdulrahman al-Salimi, Early Islamic Law in Basra in The 2nd/8th Century, Aqwal Qatadah b. Da’amah al-Sadusi, Leyde, Brill, ("Islamic History and Civilization; 142"), 2017, 350 p. ISBN 9789004339538

The author

Abdulrahman al-Salimi (Ph.D. Durham 2001) is the editor in chief of the Omani journal al-Tafahom. As an editor, author and co-author he has written and published books and articles on Omani studies and early Islamic theology. He is the author of Ibadism in East Mesopotamia. Early Islamic Iran, Central Asia and India (Beirut: German Oriental Institute, 2016) and the recent Early Ibāḍī Theology (Leiden: Brill, 2017).

Presentation

The manuscript of the Aqwāl Qatāda has repeatedly attracted particular interest among modern scholars, as it raises questions concerning the early development of the Ibāḍī Basran community and the emergence of Islamic jurisprudence in Iraq. It is a unique document because it attests to the existence of a scholarly link between Sunnīs and Ibāḍīs during the early development of Islamic law. The fact that the legal responsa and traditions of Qatāda b. Daʿama al-Sadusi (60/680-117/735) are part of an Ibāḍī collection, in which the traditions of Ibāḍī Imam Jābir b. Zayd (d.93/ 711) have been transmitted through ʿAmr b. Harim and ʿAmr b. Dīnār, proves that the Ibāḍī lawyers of the first generations considered Qatāda to be a faithful upholder of Jābir’s doctrine. Given the lack of material available for Jābir, instructions must have been given to collect whatever was transmitted through Qatāda. Qatāda’s legal responsa must have corresponded to those of the first Ibāḍī authorities, thereby explaining why the collator of the Aqwāl Qatāda (probably Abū Ghānim al-Khurāsānī, who lived between the end of the 2nd/8th century and the first decades of the 3rd/9th century) included them in an Ibāḍī manuscript. This affinity is attested by brief annotations at the foot of Qatāda’s traditions and legal responses where the collator emphasises the fact that Qatāda’s opinion coincides with those of an Ibāḍī authority (al-Rabī, Abū Ubayda, Jābir). Abū Ghānim probably related the Aqwāl from al-Rabī b. Ḥabīb, as proved by the expression wa-ḥaddathanī bi-hādhā al-Rabī, which we find on occasion in the manuscripts. This explains why the Aqwāl preserves also responsa from al-Rabī (in sections II, III, and IV) and traditions related by al-Rabī from Abū Ubayda and Jābir (mainly in sections I and II).

Contents

Introduction
Arabic Texts
a. Part One
b. Part Two
c. Part Three
d. Part Four
e. Part Five
f. Part Six
g. Part Seven
Indices