personal memories revolutionary states and indian ocean migrations

Qur’an, Abu Bakr still waited a few days to bury Muhammad’s corpse. In view of the many
inconsistencies concerning the death of Muhammad, it is quite possible that there were Muslim hadith
in al-Kindi’s day which reported that he was to be resurrected in a manner similar to Jesus. Moreover,
it appears that none of the later Muslim apologists even tried to respond to al-Kindi’s charge, though
they must certainly have known of it at least through al-Biruni. Be that as it may, the matter of
Muhammad’s resurrection has long been a subject of dispute in Muslim circles, see Fritz Meier, ‘Eine
auferstehung Mohammeds bei Suyuti,’ Der Islam, vol. 62 (1985): 20-58.
57 Mundhiri, Kitab fi ’l-radd ‘ala ’l-nasara, 128-9.
58 Cf. Irfan Shahid and A.F.L. Beeston, “Kinda,” Encyclopaedia of Islam, CD-ROM version, Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 2002.
59 Imru’ al-Qays, considered the most distinguished Arab poet of the pre-Islamic period, was a Kindī.
60 Tien, “Apology of al-Kindi,” 463.
61 Literally, “Mundhir son of the water of the sky.” This is Mundhir III, who reigned from 503-54. Cf.
Irfan Shahid, “Lakhmids,” Encyclopaedia of Islam, CD-ROM version.
62 Mundhiri, 185-192, includes Imru’ al-Qays’s poems on these events,. Cf. S. Boustany, “Imru’ al-
Kays b. Hudjr,” Encyclopaedia of Islam, CD-ROM version. Boustany tells the story in a manner close to
Mundhiri’s version, identifying the emperor as Justinian in Constantinople, and saying that the
poisoned shirt was allegedly a punishment for Imru’ al-Qays’ seduction of Justinian’s daughter,
although “in fact history does not mention that Justinian had a daughter.”
63 Mundhiri, 173-188.
64 Tien, “Apology of al-Kindi,” 471.
65 Mundhiri, 202.
66 Arabic version, 163.
67 Mundhiri, 206.
68 Ibid., 207.
69 Ibid., 208-9.
70 Kindi, Arabic version, 162-3.
71 Mundhiri, 219-230. Anne K. Bang points out that his obituary (Supplement to the Zanzibar Gazette, 2
January 1926) states that ‘Ali b. Muhammad never left Zanzibar. She comments, “If this is correct, it
was highly unusual for a member of a scholarly family, Ibadi as well as Shafi‘i. Most of them would at
one point of their life perform the hajj, often combined with a period of study in the Hijaz. For the
Ibadi Omanis, a sojourn in Oman was also common.” Sufis and Scholars of the Sea: Family Networks in
East Africa, 1860-1925 (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 154. Mundhiri’s comment here about the
light appearing over the graves of the Imams in Nizwa would lead us to believe that he did travel to
Oman.
72 Nasir b. Abi Nabhan was the greatest Ibadi scholar of his generation in Oman, and the son of the
greatest scholar of the previous generation, he lived from 1778 to 1847. Abu Nabhan and his son
Nasir were very critical of the ruling dynasty. After his father’s death in 1822, Sayyid Sa‘id launched an
attack on the family estate, but Nasir was able to counterattack through the use of powerful talismans.
This supposedly frightened Sayyid Sa‘id so much that he took Nasir into his inner circle and never let
him out of his sight, even taking him into battle, and taking him to Zanzibar, where Nasir died with
his head on the Sayyid’s lap. Nur al-Din ‘Abdallah b. Humayyid al-Salimi, Tuhfat al-a'yan bi sirat ahl
'Uman [The Gem of the Eminent in the History of the People of Oman], 2 vols. in one (Sib, Oman:
Maktabat al-Imam Nur al-Din al-Salimi, 2000), 2: 179, 216-229.
73 ‘Abdallāh b. Salih al-Farisi, Al-Bu Sa‘idiyyun, hukkām Zinjibar, anomonously translated from English,
3rd ed. (Muscat: Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, 1415/1994), 90.
74 Anne K. Bang and Knut S. Vikor, “A Tale of Three shambas: Shafi‘i-Ibadi legal cooperation in the
Zanzibar Protectorate,” Part I, Sudanic Africa: A Journal of Historical Sources 10 (1999): 1-26.
75 Nur al-Din ‘Abdallah b. Humayyid al-Salimi, Badhl al-majhud fi mukhalafat al-nasara wa ’l-yahud (Sib:
Maktabat al-Imam Nur al-Din al-Salimi/ Matabi‘ al-Batina, 1995).
76 Yusuf b. Isma‘il al-Nabhani, Hadha kitab irshad al-hayara fi tahdhir al-muslimin min madaris al-nasara
(Beirut: n.p., 1901).
77 Muhammad Tal‘at Harb, Tarbiyat al-mar’a wa ’l-hijab [Women’s Education and the Veil] (Cairo: n.p.,
1899). This book was written in response to Qasim al-Amin’s famous Tahrir al-mar’a [The
Emancipation of Women] (Cairo: Maktabat al-Tarqi, 1899). Both books have been republished
numerous times. Ironically, Harb’s book was reissued in 1905 by Matba‘at al-Manar, the publishing
company established by Muhammad ‘Abduh’s disciple, Muhammad Rashid Rida. It is ironic because
some believe Amin’s book actually to have been the work of ‘Abduh, and was certainly written under
‘Abduh’s influence. Rida, however, became more conservative than his master, and admired the
Wahhabi movement of Arabia. Significantly, a recent edition of Harb’s book was published in Riyad,
http://web.mit.edu/cis/www/mitejmes/
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