The decline of the Ibadi Islamic school of thought (madhhab) in the Zanzibar archipelago is often attributed to the island’s tumultuous political history, which came to a head in the revolution of 1964 when residents of Arab and South Asian descent fled the region in fear of persecution at the hands of the new regime. The Zanzibar revolution led to the overthrow of the controversial Omani sultanate and the governing Arab elite in Zanzibar, as well as the subsequent dissolution of various Ibadi institutions. In the mid-1980s, the Grand Mufti of Oman, Ahmad bin Hamad Al-Khalili, called for a revivification of the Ibadi madhhab in eastern Africa. This call was reinforced by pledges from Oman for moral and monetary support in the construction of Ibadi charitable and educational institutions throughout Tanzania and, especially, Zanzibar. Today, Ibadis in Zanzibar welcome this renewed Omani interest in local institutions, which they hope will revitalize what was once, in their view, an intellectually and spiritually vibrant community.
Building on existing scholarship on Ibadi political history and Omani-Zanzibari religious and social networks, this study aims to describe how developments in the community since the 1964 revolution have contributed to the formation of a uniquely Zanzibari conception of the madhhab and of this institution’s place in society. The presenter’s findings are based on an interdisciplinary and comparative analysis of archival and oral sources collected during extensive fieldwork at various national and Ibadi institutions in both Oman and Zanzibar. The paper examines current understandings of the Ibadi maddhab and its relationship to other Muslim groups in Zanzibar, especially those recorded from formal interviews, public lectures, and casual conversations with Islamic leaders and community members on the main islands of Unguja and Pemba. While a self-consciously Ibadi institutional structure does exist in Zanzibar today, unofficial narratives suggest that members of these institutions adopt a more inclusive, non-madhhab, approach to Islamic worship and learning.
Despite the enduring Omani physical and intellectual influences on Ibadi practice in Zanzibar today, the madhhab’s revival in Zanzibar is markedly less political in tone than its equivalent in Oman, where the memory of a former Ibadi political leadership under the imamate is palpable. This paper aims to draw attention to Oman and Zanzibar’s enduring social and economic relationship in the post-revolution era while also reassessing the nature and significance of Islamic institutional identities across time and space.
Religious Studies/Theology