ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibāḍ al-Tamīmī ( ar, عبدالله بن إباض التميمي; died c. 700) was an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of reli ...

and

Kharijite The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), 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 c ...

from

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

, of the tribe of Banū Saʿd of Tamīm. In traditional Islamic historiography, he is the founder and namesake of Ibāḍī Islam.Wilferd Madelung, "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibāḍ and the Origins of the Ibāḍiyya", in Barbara Michalek-Pikulska and Andrzej Pikulski (eds.), ''Authority, Privacy and Public Order in Islam: Proceedings of the 22nd Congress of L'Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants'' (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 51–58. Ibn Ibāḍ was one of the group of Basran Kharijites who, led by Nāfīʿ ibn al-Azraq, joined the defenders under ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr at the siege of the Kaʿba by the

Umayyads Umayyads may refer to: *Umayyad dynasty, a Muslim ruling family of the Caliphate (661–750) and in Spain (756–1031) *Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) :*Emirate of Córdoba (756–929) :*Caliphate of Córdoba The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خ ...

in 683. After the siege was lifted, the Kharijites were disappointed by Ibn al-Zubayr's refusal to denounce the late Caliph ʿUthmān and returned to Basra. There they were imprisoned by the Umayyad governor ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād. When the Basrans rose up and overthrew Umayyad rule, the prisoners were freed. Ibn al-Azraq led many of them to

Ahvaz Ahvaz ( fa, اهواز, Ahvâz ) is a city in the southwest of Iran and the capital of Khuzestan province. Ahvaz's population is about 1,300,000 and its built-up area with the nearby town of Sheybani is home to 1,136,989 inhabitants. It is hom ...

, denouncing the townsmen as "polytheists". Ibn Ibāḍ remained in Basra, His father, Ibāḍ ibn ʿAmr al-Tamīmī, seems to have been the first leader of the moderates who refused to secede with Ibn al-Azraq.Wilferd Madelung, "Early Ibāḍī Theology", in Sabine Schmidtke (ed.), ''The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 242. Ibn Ibāḍ succeeded his father and wrote a defence of those Kharijites who stayed behind. By defending the Basrans against the charge of polytheism and accusing them of no more than "ingratitude", he justified the decision of true Muslims to live among them. According to Abū Mikhnaf, who died in 774 and is the earliest source on Ibn Ibāḍ's life, Ibn Ibāḍ also wrote against the intermediate position of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṣaffār, founder of the

Sufri The Sufris ( ar, الصفرية ''aṣ-Ṣufriyya'') were Khariji Muslims in the seventh and eighth centuries. They established the Midrarid state at Sijilmassa, now in Morocco. In Tlemcen, Algeria, the Banu Ifran were Sufri Berbers who oppose ...

sect. According to

al-Madāʾinī Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Sayf al-Qurashī l-Madāʾinī () (752/3–843), better known by his ''nisba'' of al-Madāʾinī ("from al-Mada'in"), was a scholar of Iranian descent who wrote in Arabic and was active ...

, Ibn Ibāḍ also received opposition from Abū Bayhas, founder of the Bayhasiyya sect, who took a position closer to Ibn al-Azraq's. The dispute over Ibn al-Azraq's ''

hijra Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to: Islam * Hijrah (often written as ''Hejira'' in older texts), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE * Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers ...

'' to Ahvaz is the last known event in Ibn Ibāḍ's life. Ibāḍī tradition itself contains no further biographical details. It does ascribe to Ibn Ibāḍ two surviving letters addressed to the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik. Recent scholarship has questioned their authenticity. Even Ibn Ibāḍ's position as the leader of the first Ibāḍīs has come into question. His contemporary,

Jābir ibn Zayd Abu al-Sha'tha Jabir ibn Zayd al-Zahrani al-Azdi () was a Muslim theologian and one of the founding figures of the Ibadis,Donald Hawley, ''Oman'', pg. 199. Jubilee edition. Kensington: Stacey International, 1995. the third major denomination of Is ...

(died 712), is given even greater prominence in later tradition. One of the letters ascribed to Ibn Ibāḍ has been reassigned to Jābir ibn Zayd and its recipient identified as ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Muhallab, head of the

Azd The Azd ( ar, أَزْد), or ''Al-Azd'' ( ar, ٱلْأَزْد), are a tribe of Sabaean Arabs. In ancient times, the Sabaeans inhabited Ma'rib, capital city of the Kingdom of Saba' in modern-day Yemen. Their lands were irrigated by the Ma ...

tribe to which Jābir belonged.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdallah ibn Ibad 700s deaths Ibadi Muslims Year of birth unknown 7th-century Arabs People from Basra

See also

References