Ibadi Muslims, a minority religious community, historically inhabited pockets throughout North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the East African coast. Yet less is known about the community of Ibadi Muslims that relocated to Egypt. Focusing on the history of an Ibadi-run trade depot, school and library that operated in Cairo for over three hundred years, this book shows how the Ibadi Muslims operated in and adapted to the legal, religious, commercial, and political realms of the Ottoman Empire from the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries. Using a unique range of sources, including manuscript notes, family histories and archival correspondence, Paul M. Love, Jr. presents an original history of this Muslim minority told from the bottom up. Whilst illuminating the events that shaped the history of Egypt during these centuries, he also brings to life the lived reality of a Muslim minority community in the Ottoman world.

‘… an important contribution to the study of the Ibadiyya and to the burgeoning field of Ottoman Studies. Among other things, the narrative intimacy of its pages allows the reader a glimpse into the daily life of a religious minority in late medieval and early modern Cairo, a feature that stands as a testament to Love’s utilization of his sources. Scholars of the Ottoman Empire, early modernity, and Ibadism alike will find something captivating in its pages. From my own perspective, one of the joys of reading Love’s work lies in discovering the ways that it corrects and re-directs my own assumptions about Ibadis.’

Adam Gaiser Source: Review of Middle East Studies