Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

1
• Zanjibār (Zanzibar)
The Ibāḍī Khawārij existed there. This dogma had entered this area after
some people of ʿUmmān migrated to it and increased, to the extent that:
إن قبائل زنجبار فروع من عمان،‏ قل أن توجد فبيلة في عمان إل وقسم منها في زنجبار
The tribes of Zanjibār are offshoots of ʿUmmān. There is hardly a tribe in
ʿUmmān but that a portion of it is based in Zanjibār. 2
3
• Ardkū
Aḥmad ibn Fuḍlān 4 has made mention of the presence of the Khawārij
there in his famous letter:
وبها قرية على يوم،‏ يقال لها:‏ أردكو أهلها يقال لهم:‏ الكردلية،‏ كالمهم أشبه بيفيق الضفدع،‏ وهم يتبروؤؤن
من أمير المؤمنين علي بن أبي طالب في دبر كل صالة.‏
In Khawārizm 5 there is a village till today which is known as Ardkū and its
people are known as the Kardaliyyah. Their language is very similar to the
1 Zanjibār refers to a group of islands which are under Tanzania but enjoy independent and
autonomous rule. It is made up of two big islands: Zanjibār and Bambā, and twenty seven small islands
which are all scattered around Bambā and are about thirty five kilometres away from the eastern
African shores.
2 Isʿāf al-Aʿyān fī Ansāb Ahl ʿUmmān: p. 22.
3 I have not found a detailed description of this place in the books I have at my disposal. However, Ibn
Fuḍlān and al-Ḥamawī have mentioned that it is one of the villages of Khawārizm. Riḥlah Ibn Fuḍlān
1/113; Muʿjam al-Buldān 2/397.
4 Aḥmad Ibn Fuḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāshid ibn Ḥammād. One of the freed slaves of the Abbasid
Khalīfah al-Muqtadir. He earned acclaim because of his famous travels to the lands of the Turks, Khazr
(in present day Kazakhstan), Russia and Ṣaqālibah. Al-Muqtadir had sent him to the dynasty of the
Ṣaqālibah (which was at the side of the Volga River) with a group of commanders and an army after
accepting the request of the Bulgarians of the Volga who had accepted Islam and wanted someone
to instruct them in their Dīn. He passed away in 310 A.H. See: al-Aʿlām 1/195; Muʿjam al-Maṭbūʿāt al-
ʿArabiyyah 1/205.
5 Khawārizm is a historical location situated in Transoxiana, in Central Asia, upon the banks of the
Amu River. It is presently situated in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Its lands are plain and flat. For
more details see: Muʿjam mā Ustuʿjim 2/515.
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