Alsaidia_828_Modified

section deals with the rules of warfare derived from the Sunna. There follows a lengthy chapter on the Qur'anic duty of Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong. The last section deals in considerable detail with warfare against Muslim rebels (ahl al-baghy). This also involves the legitimacy and obligation to fight an unjust and oppressive Muslim Imam in self-defence. Here again specific Ib??? concerns evidently were at stake، and the author quotes relevant opinions of Ib??? scholars and refers to incidents in the Ib??? Imamate in Oman. The K. al-Mu??raba is most likely to be dated slightly later than the K. al-Rasf، during the last years of Imam al-?alt b. Malik (deposed 272/886).

The Sira presents Abu l-Mundhir's formal legal opinion concerning the abdication of Imam al-?alt b. M?lik al-Khar?s? forced by the armed revolt of the powerful Q??? M?s? b. M?s? b. ‘Al?، who installed Rashid b. al-Nazar al- Faj?? as the Imam in 272/886. The revolt، as Abu l-Mundhir explains، caused a split in the Ib??? community in Oman leading to mutual recrimination. For some time، however، the two sides in the dispute refrained from express dissociation (bar?'a) from opponents، until one of the supporters of the revolt published a letter in which he declared it a religious obligation. The leading opponents of the revolt now assembled to discuss the letter and decided on obligatory dissociation from M?s? b. M?s?، R?shid b. al-Nazar and all their unrepentant supporters. Abu l-Mundhir explains and backs their position. He quotes M?s? b. M?s?'s defense of his actions and refutes his arguments one by one. He affirms that a legitimately installed Imam cannot be deposed except on three grounds: physical disability to perform one of the religious duties of the Imam، incurrence of a divinely ordained. ?add punishment، or refusal to repent of a religious offence known by the public. None of these grounds were valid in the case of al-?alt b. M?lik.

At the end of the S?ra Abu l-Mundhir briefly alludes to further develop- ments of the conflict.3 In 277/890 Rashid b.al-Nazar was overthrown by the opponents of the earlier revolt against the legitimate Imam، and in his place 'Azzan b. Tam?m al-Khar?s? was installed as the Imam. ‘Azz?n demanded public repentance of M?s? b. M?s? and his followers for their rebellion. This led to armed conflict، and M?s? b. M?s? was killed in the battle of Izk? together with many of his supporters in Sha'ban 278/ Dec. 891. Despite this defeat، the party of M?s? was able to establish his close companion al-Fa?l b. al-?aw?r? as counter-Imam. The conflict expanded into bloody warfare between the Yemenite (Qa???n) and Northern (Niz?r) Arab tribes in Oman.

3

See Wilkinson، The Imamate Tradition of Oman، p. 166.