A Reading in the Applied Ibāḍī Fiqh of International Relations: The Directive of Imām al-Ṣalt (d. 275/888) to His Army Concerning Socotra

Abstract

The directive of the Omani Ibāḍī Imām al-Ṣalt ibn Khamīs al-Kharūṣī, read out to his army upon their deployment to the island of Socotra, is a document of 3rd/9th century Islamic international law. The local Christian community, being under covenant (dhimmah) with the Muslims, had broken their treaty by rebelling against Muslim rule and killing the Imām’s governor. This article analyzes the available historical sources and the directive as contained in Tuḥfat al-aʿyān bi-ṣīrat ahl ʿUmān, by the 13th/19th-century Omani scholar Imām al-Sālimī. It covers questions of authorship, details surrounding the campaign, and Islamic rules on international relations according to the Ibāḍī school. It provides insight into military organization and administration in al-Ṣalt’s imamate and allows an assessment of Muslim-Christian and international relations as well as those between followers of Ibāḍism and other schools. Al-Ṣalt’s legacy sets high ethical standards for warfare and anticipates a number of deliberations commonly considered as modern.

Keywords

• International law
• Ibāḍism
• Imām al-Ṣalt
• Oman
• Socotra
• dhimmah

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