The First Compendium of Ibadi Law: The Mudawwana by Abu Ghanim Bishr b. Ghanim al-Khurasani.

• Author: Francesca, Ersilia

The First Compendium of Ibadi Law: The Mudawwana by Abu Ghanim Bishr b. Ghanim al-Khurasani. By MlKLOS MURANYI. Studies on Ibadism and Oman, vol. 14. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2018. Pp. 159. [euro]38.

This book by Miklos Muranyi is welcome as it provides a thorough analysis of one of the earliest sources for the studies on the formative period of Ibadi law and jurisprudence, the Mudawwana by Abu Ghanim Bishr b. Ghanim al-Khurasan T. The (alleged) author was a prominent Ibadi scholar and jurist from Khurasan who lived between the second half of the second/eighth century and the early decades of the third/ninth century (see my entry in EB). The Ibadi biographical sources reports that he traveled to Tahart with a copy of his work, which he offered to the second Rustamid Imam, (c) Abd al-Wahhab b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Rustam (d. 208/823), for his library, the renowned al-maktaba al-ma'suma, destroyed by fire in 296/909 when Tahart fell to the Fatimid army. The Mudawwana has only survived thanks to a copy made by the Ibadi qadi Abu Hafs (c) Amrus b. Fath, whom Abu Ghanim reportedly met in Jabal Nafusa on his way to Imam (c) Abd al-Wahhab.

In fourteen chapters of differing lengths the Mudawwana deals with religious and legal matters. collecting traditions and opinions from the oldest Ibadi authorities. Abu Ghanim relies in particular on the sayings of Abu (c) Ubayda--the second Imam of the Ibadi community in Basra--and of other contemporary scholars, including Abu Nuh Salih al-Dahhan, as transmitted by jurists who were their pupils: al-Rabf b. HabTb, Abu Ghassan Makhlad b. al-'Amarrad, Abu al-Muhajir Hashim b. al-Muhajir, Abu Ayyub Wa'il b. Ayyub al-Hadraml, Hatim b. al-Mansur, Abu Sufyan Mahbub b. al-RahTl, Abu al-Mu'arrij (c) Amr al-SadusT, and Abu Sa (c) Td (c) Abd Allah b. (c) Abd al- (c) AzTz. These latter scholars--Abu

Ghanim's primary sources--broke with the majority of the members of the Basran community and argued with the Imam al-RabT over inter alia the use of rational criteria and analogical reasoning (ra'y and qiyds). Their legal doctrines were adopted and developed by the Ibadi subsect of the Nukkar (deniers), who followed the Mu (c) tazili rationalist theories of (c) Abd Allah b. YazTd al-Fazari in theology. They opposed the Rustamid dynasty and were progressively written out of the lbadi Maghribi tradition, which followed the mainstream Ibadism, called wahhabiyya after the Rustamid (c) Abd al-Wahhab. Though the Mudawwana does not...