Imam is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, and provide religious guidance. Thus for Sunnis, anyone can study the basic Islamic sciences and become an Imam.
Oman is a site of pre-historic human habitation, stretching back over 100,000 years. The region was impacted by powerful invaders, including other Arab tribes, Portugal and Britain. Oman, at its height, held holdings that ranged from the Persian Gulf all the way south to the island of Madagascar, some notable holdings include; the island of Zanzibar, the city of Mogadishu and the city of Gwadar.
A madhhab refers to any school of thought within Islamic jurisprudence. The major Sunni madhāhib are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all jurists aligned themselves with a particular madhab. These four schools recognize each other's validity and they have interacted in legal debate over the centuries. Rulings of these schools are followed across the Muslim world without exclusive regional restrictions, but they each came to dominate in different parts of the world. For example, the Maliki school is predominant in North and West Africa; the Hanafi school in South and Central Asia; the Shafi'i school in East Africa and Southeast Asia; and the Hanbali school in North and Central Arabia. The first centuries of Islam also witnessed a number of short-lived Sunni madhhabs. The Zahiri school, which is considered to be endangered, continues to exert influence over legal thought. The development of Shia legal schools occurred along the lines of theological differences and resulted in the formation of the Ja'fari madhhab amongst Twelver Shias, as well as the Isma'ili and Zaidi madhhabs amongst Isma'ilis and Zaidis respectively, whose differences from Sunni legal schools are roughly of the same order as the differences among Sunni schools. The Ibadi legal school, distinct from Sunni and Shia madhhabs, is predominant in Oman. Unlike Sunnis, Shias, and Ibadis, non-denominational Muslims are not affiliated with any madhhab.
The Kharijites were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the conflict with his challenger, Mu'awiya, at the Battle of Siffin in 657. They asserted that "judgment belongs to God alone," which became their motto, and that rebels such as Mu'awiya had to be fought and overcome according to Qur'anic injunctions. Ali defeated the Kharijites at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658, but their insurrection continued. Ali was assassinated in 661 by a Kharijite dissident seeking revenge for the defeat at Nahrawan.
The Rashidun are the first four caliphs who led the Muslim community following the death of Muhammad: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.
The Ibadi movement or Ibadism is a branch inside Islam, which many believe is descended from the Kharijites. The followers of Ibadism are known as the Ibadis or, as they call themselves, The People of Truth and Integrity.
The Rustamid dynasty was an Ibadi Persian dynasty centered in present-day Algeria. The dynasty governed as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from its capital Tahert until the Ismaili Fatimid Caliphate defeated it. Rustamid authority extended over what is now central and western Algeria, parts of southern Tunisia, and the Jebel Nafusa and Fezzan regions in Libya as far as Zawila.
A caliphate is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph, a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim world (ummah). Historically, the caliphates were polities based on Islam which developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires.
The Imamate of Oman was a historical state within the Oman proper in the Hajar Mountains, part of the present-day Sultanate of Oman. The capital of the Imamate alternated historically between Rustaq and Nizwa. The Imamate's territory extended north to Ibri and south to the Alsharqiyah region and the Sharqiya Sands. The Imamate was bounded in the east by the Hajar Mountains and in the west by the Rub' al Khali desert. The Al Hajar Mountains separated the Imamate of Oman from Muscat and Oman. The elected Imam (ruler) resided in the capital, and Walis (governors) represented the Imamate in its different regions.
Islam came to Yemen around 630 during Muhammad's lifetime and the rule of the Persian governor Badhan. Thereafter, Yemen was ruled as part of Arab-Islamic caliphates, and became a province in the Islamic empire.
The Ibadi revolt was an Ibadi Kharijite uprising that occurred in ca. 747–748 against the Umayyad Caliphate. It established the first Ibadi imamate, a short-lived state located in the Arabian Peninsula.
Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Rashidun caliph and the first Shia Imam, was assassinated during the morning prayer on 28 January 661 CE, equivalent to 19 Ramadan 40 AH. He died of his wounds about two days after the Kharijite dissident Ibn Muljim struck him over his head with a poison-coated sword at the Great Mosque of Kufa, located in Kufa, in present-day Iraq. He was about sixty-two years of age at the time of his death.
Muḥakkima and al-Haruriyya refer to the Muslims who rejected arbitration between Ali and Mu'awiya I at the Battle of Siffin in 657 CE. The name Muḥakkima derives from their slogan lā ḥukma illā li-llāh, meaning "no judgment (hukm) except God's". The name al-Haruriyya refers to their withdrawal from Ali's army to the village of Harura' near Kufa. This episode marked the start of the Kharijite movement, and the term muḥakkima is often also applied by extension to later Kharijites.
Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam, was the second imam of the Imamate of Tahart and founder of the Wahbi Ibadism movement. He was part of the Rustamid dynasty that ruled a theocracy in Algeria. He became ruler after the death of his father, Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam and founded an external Islamic religious movement called Wahhabism relative to his name Abd al-Wahhab. His Ibadi Kharijite preaching is often incorrectly associated with the modern day Wahhabi movement.
Ibadism, or the Ibadi school of Islam, which has followers in Oman and elsewhere, has been the subject of much academic study. Much of the earlier writings from within the Islamic world presented Ibadism as a heresy. Western academic interest in Ibadism began in the mid-19th century, when translations of Ibadi texts and other literature began to become available. French and Italian scholars focussed mainly on Ibadism in North Africa, while John C. Wilkinson and other British scholars have studied it in Oman, where few texts were accessible until the 1970s.
Al-Salt bin Malik was the seventh Imam of Oman, ruling from 851 until his deposition in 885.
Nur al-Dīn al-Sālimī was an Omani historian and scholar noted for his expertise in Ibāḍī Islam. Al-Sālimī is a very important figure in Oman with reference to his publications. Among his publications are Tuḥfat al-Aʿyān bi-sīrat ahl ʿUmān and Talqīn al-ṣibyān. Both references are taught in public schools.
Al-Julanda bin Masud was an Ibadi religious leader who was elected the first Ibadi imam of Oman, ruling from 749 until his death defending against an Abbasid invasion in 751 CE.
Abu Bilal Mirdas ibn Udayya al-Tamimi was the leader of quietist Kharijites of Basra during the early years of the Umayyad Caliphate. He was the brother of Urwa ibn Udayya, one of the instigator of the Kharijite movement at the Battle of Siffin, in which Abu Bilal himself participated. After the defeat of the Kharijites at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658, he adopted political quietism and opposed the extremist Kharijites. In 680, in response to persecution by the Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, Abu Bilal rose in rebellion and was killed in 681. His piety, military exploits, and death, which was seen by many as martyrdom, immortalized him among the later Kharijite circles. He is counted among the imams of the extinct Sufrism sect of the Kharijites and is venerated in Ibadism to this day.
The Malikization of the Maghreb was the process of encouraging the adoption of the Maliki school of Sunni Islam in the Maghreb, especially in the 11th and 12th centuries, to the detriment of Shia and Kharijite inhabitants of the Maghreb. The process occurred as Maliki scholars increasingly gained influence, resulting in the widespread acceptance of the Maliki legal school and the subsequent marginalization of other forms of Islam. Malikism was considered a more conservative and mainstream variant of Sunni Islam.
