Early Ibāḍī Literature: Abu l-Mundhir Bashīr b. Muḥammad b. Maḥbūb Kitāb al-Raṣf fi l-Tawḥīd, Kitāb al-Muḥāraba and Sīra, introduced and edited by Abdulrahman al-Salimi and Wilferd Madelung

Early Ibāḍī Literature: Abu l-Mundhir Bashīr b. Muḥammad b. Maḥbūb Kitāb al-Raṣf fi l-Tawḥīd, Kitāb al-Muḥāraba and Sīra, introduced and edited by Abdulrahman al-Salimi and Wilferd Madelung, (Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2011), xi + 80 pp., ISBN: 9783447064354, 19.80 EUR (paperback) (First paragraph) Scholars of Islamic studies have increasingly come to recognize the importance of the Ibāḍiyya as a group that preserves a unique perspective on Islam: as the only surviving sectarian relatives of the Khārijites, the Ibāḍiyya offer important non-Sunnī and non-Shīʿī views on early Islamic history, theology and law. Contemporary Ibāḍīs of North Africa and Oman possess a remarkable corpus of texts, some of which date back to the early medieval period of Is-lamic history. Large collections of Ibāḍī manuscripts can also be found in Egypt and Tanzania (specifically in Zanzibar). Many impor-tant Ibāḍī works have become available to researchers in recent decades, due in part to the efforts of individual Ibāḍī and non-Ibāḍī scholars, but especially to the Omani Ministry of National Heritage and Culture (Wizārat al-turāth al-qawmī wa-l-thaqāfa). Neverthe-less, and despite these welcome strides forward, much Ibāḍī material remains in manuscript form. In the work under review, Drs. Madelung and al-Salimi present in critical Arabic edition three heretofore unpublished early Ibāḍī works by Abū l-Mundhir Bashīr ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥbūb (d. ca. 290/908): the Kitāb al-raṣf fī l-tawḥīd (Book of Paving about Divine Unity), Kitāb al-muḥāraba (Book of Warfare) and the Sīra (Epistle). In addition, the authors supply a short five page introduction, in English, discussing the author, the texts and manuscripts consulted for the edition, as well as a list of works cited (in Arabic).