Glossary

al-tasāmuḥ

—religious “tolerance”; Ibadhi generosity or prudent association with non-Ibadhis. See also: walāya.

‘abaya (Ar.); buibui (Sw.)

—long, loose overgarment, usually black, worn by Muslim women.

‘ulama’

—classically trained Muslim scholars.

uṣūl (al-fiqh)

—sources of the Islamic legal tradition.

Ahl al-Ḥaqq w’al-Istiqāma

—the People of Truth and Righteousness; Ibadhi self-designation.

Al-Busaidi Dynasty

—the ruling family of Oman based in Muscat; the royal household of the Zanzibar sultanate (1830s–1964).

islāḥ

—reform.

al-Naḥḍa

—lit., “the awakening”; the Ibadhi and Omani “renaissance.”

al-shūrā

—the principle of consultation; the council that elects the leader of the Ibadhi imamate.

al-taʻaṣṣub

—religious fanaticism or sectarianism.

furū’ (Ar.); matawi (Sw.)

—“branches” of religion.

musliḥ, pl. musliḥīn

—Muslim reformer.

bara (Sw.)

—mainland Tanzania (Tanganyika).

Zanzibar archipelago

—a group of islands in the western Indian Ocean that, with its two main administrative centers, Unguja Island and Pemba Island, forms part of the United Republic of Tanzania.

baraza (Sw.)

—concrete bench part of the exterior wall of a classical Swahili home; a meeting place.

bidʿa

—unlawful or reprehensible innovation to Islam.

daʿwa

—Islamic outreach or missionary activity.

Omani diaspora

—people of Omani ancestry who live in Tanzania, specifically those who practice Ibadhi Islam.

dishdāsha (Gulf Ar.)

—ankle-length (typically white) Islamic shirt worn by men in the Arabian Gulf.

diwān

—chief administrative office; the sultan’s cabinet of officials.

dāʻī/ dāʻīyya; pl. duʻāt

—Muslim missionaries or preachers; one who performs daʿwa.

duka (Sw.)

—small shop or kiosk.

elimu (Sw.)

—secular education.

fiqh

—Islamic jurisprudence.

firqa

—sect of Islam.

ifṭār (Ar.), futari (Sw.)

—the meal that breaks the fast every day at sunset during Ramadan.

hafla

—party or celebration.

ḥalqa (Ar.)

—Islamic study circle.

harambee (Sw.)

—“pulling together”; community self-help events.

hijab

—cloth head covering worn by Muslim women.

Ibadhi/Ibadhiyya

—a branch of Islam and school of law (madhab) found primarily in Oman, North Africa, and among the Omani diaspora in East Africa that predates and is neither Sunni nor Shiʿa. Modern Ibadhi thought centers of principles of just religious rule, consultation, strict religious observance, and religious tolerance.

ijāza

—certificate of achievement; diploma from a traditional Islamic school.

imām

—prayer leader or religious sovereign.

imamate

—Islamic theocracy; sovereign polity of the imam.

jāhiliyya

—the age of “ignorance” before the revelation of the Qur’an and the prophecy of Muhammad.

Jamiʿi Zinjibar

—the Zanzibar Congregation Mosque (a.k.a. Masjid Sultan Qaboos)

jamʿiyya

—association, organization, or society.

jumʻa

—Friday congregational prayers, typically held at a mosque and includes the weekly sermon (khuṭba).

jumuiya (Sw.)

—community or association.

qabīla (Ar.); kabila (Sw.)

—tribe or clan; genealogical affiliation usually determined by patrilineage.

kanuni (Sw.)

—lit., “rule” or “doctrine”; common law in Tanzania.

kanzu (Sw)

—ankle-length (typically white) shirt worn primarily by Muslim men in East Africa.

khalīfa

—caliph or successor of Prophet Muhammad; historical leader of a caliphate.

khawārij

—lit., “those who separated”; an early Islamic secessionist movement, sometimes called a sect, which emerged during a dispute over who should lead the Islamic caliphate following the Battle of Siffin in 657 CE; precursor to the Ibadhi movement.

khayr

—charitable deeds.

khilāfa

—lit., “successor state”; caliphate.

kitmān

—lit., “secrecy” or “concealment”; one of the four stages of religion in Ibadhism that obliges Ibadhis to hide their teachings and practices in the face of persecution.

kofia (Sw.)

—round embroidered cloth hat with no brim worn by Muslim men in East Africa.

kuamsha (Sw.)

—to awaken.

kujitegemea (Sw.)

—to depend on oneself, self-reliance.

maʻhad

—Islamic educational institute.

madhab, pl. madhāhib (Ar.); madhehebu (Sw.)

—school of Islamic law.

madrasa

—religious school or place of higher education.

Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar

—the Zanzibar Revolution (1964).

mawaidha (Sw.)

—advice or counsel, often delivered as a lecture or sermon.

mawlā

—a “client” or protected person and convert to Islam who was incorporated into an Arab family or tribal network.

mihrab

—recess in the wall of a mosque that marks the direction of prayer towards Mecca.

msikiti (Sw.)

—mosque.

masjid jāmiʿ (Ar.); msikiti wa ijumaa (Sw.)

—Friday Congregational Mosque.

mtemi, pl. batemi (Sw.)

—Bantu African ruler or chief.

muezzin

—person who performs the call to prayer.

mufti

—Muslim jurist who issues a legal opinion (fatwa).

mwalimu (Sw.)

—secular or religious teacher; respected member of a community.

niẓām al-‘azzāba

—network and council of Ibadhi Muslim scholars in North Africa.

qadi

—a judge in Islamic law.

qunūt

—supplicatory prayer recited while standing. A debated practice in Islamic traditions.

Quran

—the Islamic book of revelations received by the Prophet Muhammad.

al-ru’ya

—the beatific vision; the doctrine pertaining to seeing God in the afterlife.

ṣadaqa

—voluntary almsgiving; charity.

ṣaḥāba

—the close companions of the Prophet Muhammad.

al-salaf

—lit., “the predecessors”; referring to the pious first generations of Islam.

Salafism

—a global Islamic interpretive tradition that aims to purify the faith by following the pious ancestors of Islam and rejecting unlawful innovations, Islamic revivalism.

ṣalāt al-safar

—the travel prayer.

sebleh

—meeting space or community gathering in Omani culture.

shahāda

—the Islamic proclamation of faith that states, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

Shariʻa

—lit., “path” or “way”; Islamic law.

sharīf, pl. shurafā’

—descendant of Prophet Muhammad; patrician individuals or families often endowed with exceptional religious authority.

Shiʿa

—one of the two main branches of Islam that rejects the authority of the first three caliphs and regards ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib and his male descendants as the true successors of Prophet Muhammad.

Sufism

—a mystical and devotional branch of Islam. Its practitioners aim to seek spiritual truth and establish a direct and personal connection with God. Sufism is divided into different orders (tariqas), each with its unique teachings, practices, and lineages. However, certain Sufi rituals and practices, including forms of meditation involving song and dance, recitation of poetry, and the honoring of saints, are criticized by some Muslim scholars and fundamentalist movements like Wahhabism. These critics consider these practices as unauthorized innovations (bidʿa).

Sunni or ahl al-sunna wa al-jamaʿa

—those who adhere to the customs of Prophet Muhammad (the Sunna); one of the two main branches of Islam and the religious affiliation of the majority of Muslims in the world.

taʻāyush

—peaceful coexistence.

tabia (Sw.)

—good behavior; obedient.

taʻlīm

—lit., “teaching” or “education.”

taqiyya

—religious dissimulation or denial of religious beliefs and associations in times of persecution.

taqwā

—Muslim piety or religious consciousness.

tarāwīḥ

—special prayers performed nightly at a mosque during Ramadan that include recitations of long portions of the Qur’an.

tarbiyya

—moral education; guidance for a good upbringing.

tawḥīd

—Islamic conception of monotheism; the idea that God has no partners.

Turāth (Ar.); Urithi (Sw.)

—heritage.

Ujamaa (Sw.)

—“familyhood” or “brotherhood”; a postcolonial African socialist ideology focused on social and economic development during the leadership of Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, between 1964 and 1985.

Ummah

—the Muslim community.

umoja (Sw.)

—unity.

ustaarabu (Sw.)

—lit., “becoming an Arab”; gentility; civilized behavior.

visiwani (Sw.)

—the island region off the coast of Tanzania that includes the Zanzibar archipelago and its two main islands of Unguja and Pemba.

Wahhabism

—movement of Islamic puritanism based on the teachings of the eighteenth century scholar Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb from Najd.

walāya and barā’a

—association and dissociation; the Ibadhi obligation to practice association with other Ibadhis and dissociate with but also tolerate non-Ibadhis.

wamanga (Sw.)

—underprivileged Omani Arabs who emigrated to East Africa especially during the first half of the twentieth century.

waqf; awqāf

—Islamic endowment.

Zakat

—almsgiving; one of the five pillars of Sunni Islam.

Zinjibāris

—term used to refer to the Swahili-speaking diaspora of Omani heritage in the Sultanate of Oman.