Historians interested in Ibadi and other Arabic manuscripts (including me) often treat manuscripts separately from printed materials in private libraries. But in the second half of the 19th century, when Arabic lithography witnessed an explosion of production in urban centers like Cairo and Tunis, Ibadi manuscripts and lithographs (and other types of printing later) existed … Continue reading Intersections between Manuscript and Lithograph Cultures in Private Libraries | التداخلات بين ثقافتَي المخطوطات والطبعات الحجرية في المكتبات الخاصّة
Ibadi History (Other)
Destroy a mosque they prayed in… imprison them, and beat them | هدم مسجد كانوا يصلون فيه…سجنهم وضربهم
This post comes from a handful of fatwas I ran across in the famous Miʿyār al-Muʿrib of the 15th-century North African scholar Aḥmad al-Wansharīsī (d.914/1508). It turns out that this amazing collection of thousands of fatwas, used by many modern historians as a source for legal and social history of the Maghrib, also includes a … Continue reading Destroy a mosque they prayed in… imprison them, and beat them | هدم مسجد كانوا يصلون فيه…سجنهم وضربهم
Unexpected Connections: Musa Bey Grada, the Ottomans, and the Buffalo Agency | روابط غير متوقعة: موسى بيك قرادة، العثمانيون، ووكالة الجاموس
While working on an article on the history of Ibadi manuscripts at the Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale (UNO) in Naples, I ran across an interesting connection between that article and a larger project of mine on Ibadis in early-modern Egypt. Several of the UNO Ibadi manuscripts belonged to an Ottoman prefect in the … Continue reading Unexpected Connections: Musa Bey Grada, the Ottomans, and the Buffalo Agency | روابط غير متوقعة: موسى بيك قرادة، العثمانيون، ووكالة الجاموس
Abū Yazīd Makhlad b. Kaydād, the Jihadist | أبو يزيد مخلد من كيداد، الجهادي
[تنبيه: الترجمة العربية ستأتي بعد] Ibadis appear in surprising places—including late-20th century Jihadist literature. This post is about an unexpected use of the story of the famous 10th-century Ibadi leader of a rebellion against the Fatimid dynasty, Abū Yazīd Makhlad b. Kaydād (d.333/945), which appeared in a Jihadist newsletter from the 1990s called al-Anṣār. I … Continue reading Abū Yazīd Makhlad b. Kaydād, the Jihadist | أبو يزيد مخلد من كيداد، الجهادي
Ibadis in Midrarid Sijilmasa |الإباضية في مدينة سجلماسة المدرارية
Midrarid-era ceramic from Sijilmasa (Messier & Fili, 2011, 132) In 2010, I published an article on the history of the Midrarid dynasty that ruled the city of Sijilmasa in what is today southern Morocco from the mid-8th through the 10th centuries [1]. I have been revisiting the history of this dynasty for a forthcoming collected … Continue reading Ibadis in Midrarid Sijilmasa |الإباضية في مدينة سجلماسة المدرارية
Dissertation Available Online | الأطروحة موجودة في الإنترنت
I am currently preparing another post on private Ibadi manuscript libraries on the island of Djerba in Tunisia but wanted to pass along the link to my PhD dissertation from the University of Michigan. The entire text is now available through the university's online archive: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/133230 أحضّر حاليا مقالا جديدا حول المكتبات الإباضية الخاصّة في … Continue reading Dissertation Available Online | الأطروحة موجودة في الإنترنت
The (Almost) Lost Siyar of Jabal Nafusa | سير مشائخ جبل نفوسة (التي كادت تُفقد)
Manuscript copy of the Kitāb sīrat ahl nafūsa written in the hand of Maḥmūd b. Sālim b. Yaʿqūb and dated 21 August 1974. Source: al-Bughṭūrī, Siyar mashāʾikh jabal nafūsa, ed. T.A. al-Shaqrūnī (Tawalt Editions, 2009), 19. This post is devoted to the very recent manuscript history of a medieval work of siyar known as the … Continue reading The (Almost) Lost Siyar of Jabal Nafusa | سير مشائخ جبل نفوسة (التي كادت تُفقد)
A Letter from the archive about Sedrata and Abū Zakariyā al-Warjalānī | رسالة من الأرشيف حول سدراتة وأبي زكرياء الورجلاني
While working through the private archive of French Orientalist Roger LeTourneau (d. 1971) at the Archives nationales d'outre mer (ANOM) in Aix-en-Provence last year, I came across an unexpected letter. [1] The letter was in a folder containing materials used to prepare LeTourneau and H.R. Idris' translation of the Ibadi text known as the Kitāb … Continue reading A Letter from the archive about Sedrata and Abū Zakariyā al-Warjalānī | رسالة من الأرشيف حول سدراتة وأبي زكرياء الورجلاني
Amr Ennami in Michigan |المرحوم الدكتور عمرو النامي في ميشيغان
One of my first introductions to Ibadi studies was the well-known dissertation of the Libyan historian 'Amr Khalifa Ennami from Cambridge University in 1971. Ennami holds a important place in the history of Ibadi Studies because he introduced many Anglophones to Ibadis for the first time. Like many English-speaking readers, I encountered the book in … Continue reading Amr Ennami in Michigan |المرحوم الدكتور عمرو النامي في ميشيغان
Ibadi Studies | دراسات إباضية 