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This chapter analyses the causes of the civil war sparked off by the deposing of Imam al–Salt in 272/886 and which ended up with the collapse of the First Imamate in a Caliphate invasion. It was not really Yaman versus Nizâr conflict, but an increasing marginalization of the northern tribes in manoeuvres over power and patronage in the Imamate system. The actual deposing and replacement of the Imam led to a growing dispute between the so-called Rustâq and Nizwâ parties, which is examined and shown as less to do with politics than principles in the early days of its formulation by Abû Sa'îd al–Kudami and Ibn Baraka. An attempt is made to resolve the confusion over dating events and personalities involved in the complex relationship between interior Oman and the occupying powers on the coast (Saffarids, Bûyids, Qarâmita and their Omani vassals) in the ensuing period, to understand how the (Second) major Imamate was re-established, Rustâq party dogma declared official, causing the Hadrami Imam Abû Ishâq Ibrâhîm b. al–Qays to break away as well as finally alienating the northern Omanis.

This chapter continues with the pre-Islamic period and explains the tribal background with which the Imamate had to come to terms on Oman, its role in the Yaman–Nizâr civil war, and the alienation of northern Oman from the core of the Ibâḍi state. Basic relationships were rooted in the territorial distribution of Arab migration waves in eastern Arabia and the domination of the Azd and Kinda clans, under whose leadership the first Imamates were set up in southern Arabia. Oman formed part of the Persian Empire and as its importance grew in Indian Ocean trade, it was directly occupied and developed under the name of Mazûn in late Sasanid times. The subject and marginalized status of the Arab tribesmen was a matter for scorn for the over-weaning Hijazis, but gave the Arabs a certain empathy with the peasants and under-privileged. Ibâḍi, like all Khariji ideology, was rooted in the notion of equality before God and this led eventually leading to a remarkable assimilation of the tribes and villagers after the Imamate was established in Oman.

This chapter starts with a failed attempt to set up an Ibâḍi state in Oman at the very start of the 'Abbasid period, and the resulting feud with the Julandâ. It continues with a study of how Ibâḍism was diffused from Basra through the Hajj, merchant and tribal networks, missionary activities, and the written word (important for the Maghrib). It then considers two fundamental concepts, walâya, the cement binding the community through association with God; and its opposite barâ'a, dissociation. The fundamental dogmas and schisms with which it dissociates are then examined, notably Mu'tazilism, the Qadariyya, Murji'a, and Khawârij (now a pejorative term), and a major internal schism, that of the Shu'aybiyya which had wide ramifications in that of the Nukkarites in North Africa, as also the breakaway of the Yemen community. The chapter concludes with a brief historical survey of Ibâḍism in North Africa and establishing the Rustamid Imamate at Tahert.

This chapter explains how the tribal rivalry of the Julandâ feud was exploited by the Ibâḍi missionaries to win victory at the battle of Majâza (177/793) and establish the Imamate. It analyses the basic balance of power between various potential factions and how and why the first main Imams were selected, along with a brief description of their rule. The chapter ends with Omani overseas expansion, showing how an Omani navy was organized, the piratical menace of the bawârij who had menaced Indian Ocean trade since the collapse of Sasanid power were dealt with, and Sohar became a major entrepôt.

This chapter describes the establishment of the new Imamate state order, and in particular the role of Abû 'Abdullah, son of the last Basran leader, Abu Sufyân. The confrontation with the conservative Omani ‘ulama’ is characterized by the acrimonious theological debate over the Creation of the Qur'ân and the suspect nature of Mu'tazili influence. Abû 'Abdullâh's role in developing the principles for selecting an Imam, the issue of wuqûf (suspending judgment), advising other Ibâḍi communities, but above all in harmonizing Islamic principles with the pragmatic needs of daily life in Oman are illustrated. The establishment of a maritime legal code commensurate with expanding maritime trade is described, including discussion of the re-conquest of Socotra as a base on the African coast, whose interest in the Muslim world at this time was as a source of slaves from both Abyssinia and increasingly Bilâd al–Zanj. An attempt is also made to reconstruct the early history of the Imamate in Hadramawt.

This chapter discusses how the Ibadi Imamate's establishment in 1913 was considered to be a culmination of three processes: (1) the British regulation and blockade of trade in enslaved people and arms into the region, (2) the active presence of British troops and naval squadrons, and (3) increasingly strident protests against what was widely considered the tyrannical regime of the British-supported sultan. The chapter looks at these policies, exploring the ways in which they were understood and acted upon according to two distinctive concepts of historical time. The first was the British understanding of progressive historicity that aimed to extend “civilization” across the region. This understanding entailed total transformation of the land and social order to leave behind the “tribal anarchy” and “xenophobic religiosity” of the past. The second was the Ibadi Imamate's, in which tradition, in accordance with Ibadi sharīʿa, was not the enemy of change but the ground on which change could occur. Historical logic was incorporated into thought and action by both sides to condition a moral relationship that brought about a confrontation of cultures with different modes of conceptualizing the relationship between religion and politics.

This chapter focuses on two forms of material heritage once integral to the governance of the twentieth-century Ibadi Imamate: Nizwa Fort and the dalla. These modes of governance were presided over by the hulking contours of the fort, in its role as sharīʿa adjudicator, and circulated by the form and function of the dalla as part of daily social interactions in the sabla. The past became a knowledge that was read, recited, and debated while being sedimented in an embodied disposition. Through daily readings and discussion, local affairs and conflicts were addressed by honing a relationship to the past that cultivated and amended disposition, thought, and action on the basis of exempla. It was a past that was primarily moral, oriented toward God, and grounded in tribal mores and Ibadi doctrine and practice. Both material forms facilitated a history that held that life's interactions and relationships could be sanctioned and critiqued based on past forms that also held templates for future action. This conception of history formed the foundation of religiosity, law, governance, and ethics.

This chapter examines how, in Nizwa, socioeconomic instabilities and their effects are powerfully shaped by the felt gap between national historical narratives and the utopian aspirations and civic values that are intimately associated with them. Memories of life during the imamate and the violence that followed were managed and contained by the sultanic state through the concrete practices of heritage discursive practices, tourism, and historic preservation acts that made the last physical traces of the imamate and tribal histories meaningful through a national-modernist temporality. But this new sense of time, the history and imagery it conveys, assumes a performative dimension. Among laypeople, the language of heritage becomes a discursive medium and a practical enterprise for economic and political claims making through such ethical principles as social solidarity, generosity, and interpersonal consultation, which are continually undermined by the state's restructuring of the urban fabric of the city. Through tracking people's relationships to the old residential quarters, the fort, and the souq of Nizwa, the chapter considers how this contradictory state of affairs has opened a space for alternative memory practices that invoke the Ibadi Imamate, while acting as a broader critique of the sultanate's governance practices.

This chapter discusses the concept of sovereignty and its role in Omani history, offering relevant historical background and context. Providing an overview of the history of Omani political structures including Imamates, dynastic states, and tribal confederations, the chapter illustrates the fact that Oman had historically boasted a polycentric political reality. The arrival of British imperialism to the territory and the imposition of imperial sovereignty is shown to have completely altered local dynamics. In the raj period, this process entailed transforming local rulers into British vassals while dually protecting them from growing local threats. In this post-raj period, the geographic reach of the local Sultans was expanded so as to serve Britain's oil and geostrategic interests. The nature of their rule was also transformed from princely state autocracy to monarchical absolutism. This required suppressing local alternatives whose resistance was expressed in such events as the Jabal al-Akhdar revolt of 1957-59.

This introductory chapter sets out the book’s purpose, which is to question the inevitability and naturalness of a unified Yemen by engaging in a type of history of spaces/powers. It does so by looking anew at the history of colonialism in the South and the history of the Zaydi Imamate in the North. The chapter also reviews spatial histories of modern Yemen and provides an overview of the subsequent chapters.

This chapter examines Twelver Shī‘ī scholarly treatments of martyrdom, with a particular focus on historical and theological discussions surrounding the figure of the Imām. Shī‘ī scholars attempted to reconcile two potentially contradictory positions: (1) a maximalist notion of the Imām’s knowledge; and (2) a belief that many (if not all) of the Imāms were murdered by their enemies. If both of these premises are true, then is an Imām ultimately complicit in his own death? If he takes no steps to avoid his own murder, then is this suicide? This chapter addresses these questions through a case study centered on the seventh Twelver Shī‘ī Imām, Mūsā al-Kāẓim (d. 183/799) as discussed by three early Shī‘a scholars: Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṣaffār al-Qummī (d. 290/902–03); Muḥammad b. Ya‘qūb al-Kulaynī (d. 329/940–41); and Ibn Bābawayh (d. 381/991–92).

McMurray’s chapter argues that law is a profoundly sonic medium, acting in, through, against, and modeled on sound—and more particularly, voice. Legal and cultural reforms in Islamicate societies in the Black Sea region during and around the time of the Crimean War illustrate these dynamics especially well. The first part of the chapter compares the legal reforms of the Caucasian Imamate (in North Daghestan and Chechnya) and the Ottoman Empire, showing how sound played a central role in negotiating new meanings of Islamic shari‘a law within those societies. Law thus becomes a critical archive for histories of sound, vocality, and listening. The latter part then reflects on the ontologies of law as a medium, considering both its sonic qualities—a recurring motif in both Anglo-American and Islamic jurisprudence—and its relation to the telegraph in particular, as a communications technology that simultaneously facilitated and challenged extant legal regimes.

This chapter begins with a note on the rise of religion and religiosity in recent decades, and then reviews a number of Islamic principles that seek to integrate moderation in its theology and legal rules. Islam’s identification of itself as an upright (hanif) religion of the Abrahamic family that upholds forbearance (samahah) and dignified resistance to temptation and sensationalism (hilm) help to introduce elements of moderation and tolerance in the religion. This is further substantiated by the grant of numerous concessions in order to make the practice of religion easier. The chapter also reviews the struggle for moderation and combat of extremism in Shi’i thought. The Shi’i ulama have denounced the ghulat (extremists), moderated many of the exaggerated claims for Shi’ite imams, and confronted political oppression through the issuance of fatwas.

The present chapter aims to provide insights into Oman’s political culture, with particular attention to the status of tribes and tribalism in the modern state and the influence of tribal values on Oman's domestic and foreign policy. It argues that the reduced power of tribes in the political arena of contemporary Oman has largely been a result of deliberate policies on the part of Sultan Qabus, designed to preserve the cultural values of tribes while at the same time neutralize the tribes' ability to harm his regime. It concludes with an appraisal of the steps taken to broaden political participation in Oman after the outbreak and continuation of unrest that has typified the Middle East since 2011, and the impact of these measures on tribal identification in contemporary Oman. An examination of Oman’s cautious political reforms reveals that tribal identification is alive and well, but so too is a distinct Omani national ethos which was made possible by the Omani renaissance ushered in by Sultan Qabus.