The Āthār al-Rabīʿ b. Ḥabīb represents the earliest stages of the legal thought of the Ibāḍī community in Basra in the eighth century. This work is, along with few others (the rasāʾil by Jābir b. Zayd, ed. F. al-Jaʿbirī in 2013; the Aqwāl Qatāda b. Diʿāma, ed. A. al-Salimi in 2017, the Mudawwana by Abū Ghānim al-Khurāsānī, ed. I. al-ʿAsākir in 2006 and M. Bājū in 2007, and the Futyā al-Rabīʿ), among the oldest collections of Ibāḍī juridical material. These works prove crucial for the understanding not only of early Ibadism but also of the initial phase of Sunni law and jurisprudence. In fact, the most significant feature of the early Ibāḍī collections of legal questions is the diversity of the juridical themes and the frequent presentation of the ikhtilāf (disagreement) among the Ibāḍī scholars and between Ibāḍīs and non-Ibāḍī jurists. In the Āthār, the opinions of the “Kufans” are frequently quoted as examples of divergence between the doctrine held by the Basran Ibāḍī jurists and that held by other groups of jurists in Kufa, which later developed into the Hanafi school.
As long ago as the 1970s both Ennami (“A description of new Ibāḍī manuscripts from North Africa”, Journal of Semitic Studies 15, 1970; “Studies in Ibāḍism”, PhD Thesis, Cambridge, 1971, publ. Libya, 1972–73) and van Ess (“Untersuchungen zu einigen ibāḍitischen Handschrifte”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 126, 1976) highlighted the importance of the manuscript called Āthār al-Rabīʿ b. Ḥabīb or Kitāb Ḍumām or Kitāb Abī Ṣufra after the names of the transmitters who appear in the first riwāya (transmission). In recent decades the work has attracted the attention of several scholars interested in early Ibadism, including John Wilkinson and myself.
The present book by K. al-Kharusi is a revised version of a DPhil thesis originally accepted at the University of Oxford in 2003. It provides the critical edition of the Āthār al-Rabī b. Ḥabīb (ch. 2) along with an introduction on the work and its significance (ch. 1), the notes on the edited text (ch. 3), and a final chapter on the dating of the work, the authorities transmitting, and the evaluation of the content. The book is welcome as it makes available to a broader audience a masterpiece of early Ibāḍī law, which collects mainly traditions of Jābir b. Zayd (died circa 711–12), the founding father of the Ibāḍī school, transmitted by al-Rabīʿ b. Ḥabīb (died circa 796–806), a key figure of the Ibāḍī movement and the third Basran imām. He was responsible for the first moves of Ibadism towards the collection of the ḥadīth. At the end of his life, having handed over the leadership of the movement in Basra to Abū Ayyūb Wā’il al-Ḥaḍramī, he moved to Oman, where he died at his home at Ghaḍfān, near Ṣuḥār. Al-Rabīʿ's traditions and legal responses, together with those of the other Ibāḍī authorities of the eighth century, can be found in the Ᾱthār, in the Futyā al-Rabīʿ and in the Aqwāl Qatāda b. Diʿāma. A Musnad, known as al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ, which has been attributed to al-Rabīʿ, has survived only in a late arrangement (tartīb) by Abū Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm al-Warjlānī who died in 1174 (ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥumayd al-Sālimī, Damascus, 1963).
The author's main sources for the present edition are three manuscripts: an Egyptian manuscript from Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, and two manuscripts from Tunisia (Jerba island, Maktaba al-Bārūniyya), showing slight differences from one another. They are part of a larger collection of Ibāḍī manuscripts titled al-Diwān al-maʿrūḍ ʿalā al-ʿulamā’ al-ibāḍiyya, which Ennami quotes as the principal source for information on Ibāḍī jurisprudence in the first centuries of Islam. In chapters 3 and 4 the author provides an overview on the material collected in the Āthār along with useful biographical information on the transmitters. Finally he deals with the vexata quaestio of the authenticity. As is well known, there is no easy way to affirm the authenticity of the ancient sources of Islamic law. The risk of having been manipulated is very large, but the Āthār, as other ancient Ibāḍī sources, shows a primitive structure with traditions only on occasion supported by an incomplete isnād going back to the Companions. Traditions from the Prophet appear sporadically. The concept of sunna comprising the exemplary behaviour of the Prophet is conspicuously absent in the works compiled by the early Ibāḍī jurisprudents as in the early Sunni sources. This pattern of ḥadīth transmission is not unique to the Ibāḍī school; it has been commonly practised in the formative period by other schools of law. The themes treated in the Āthār reflect the legal debate during the first two centuries of Islam. Thus the work provides us with valuable raw data for assessing the Ibāḍī jurists’ contribution in the developing process of Islamic law.
The last few years have testified to a growing interest in the Ibāḍī juridical and theological literary patrimony with the publication of several editions of early works, thus making available to scholars new sources for the understanding of the history and early development of Ibāḍī Islam. In fact, Ibadism remains little known and has often been misunderstood. However, despite the increasing interest in the literary products of the early Ibāḍiyya, we need more than the existing small repertoire of Ibāḍī early sources to give us a rounded view of the life of this important movement within the general history of Islam. The book by K. al-Kharusi is particularly welcome as it makes accessible a text of a great historical and legal value, though a thorough analysis of its content is still needed. The edition and critical study of the Āthār al-Rabīʿ b. Ḥabīb is an inspiring work essential to stimulate thinking and generate a healthy community-wide discussion on the beginning of the Ibāḍī school of law.
