Acknowledgments

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Istiqaama Muslim Community in mainland Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Oman, for welcoming me into their mosques, schools, offices, and homes during my research for this book. I am moved by the dedication of the Tanzanian, Omani, and Algerian teachers, students, administrators, and scholars I met at the branches of Istiqaama I visited. My best wishes to them in their educational endeavors. My appreciation extends to the many people who took the time to sit and speak with me at Ahlul Bayt Foundation, Madrasat al-Noor, and the Mufti’s Office in Unguja and Pemba.

Special thanks to Said El-Gheithy, at the Princess Salme Gallery in Stone Town, for introducing me to the work of Istiqaama and facilitating my initial connections with the community and its leadership in Zanzibar. I am grateful to my dear friend Sabrina Zahor for helping me connect with Ibadhi communities in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, and for her constant support throughout my research and writing. Without her insights and assistance in various aspects of the research process, this work would not have been possible.

I have great appreciation for Salim al-Mugheiry and family in Zanzibar, Bi Moza and family in Pemba, Shamsa al-Habsy and family in Dar es Salaam, and Bwana Nassor for the many connections he helped me make with Ibadhi communities in the rural northwest. I am beholden to Baba and Mama Sabrina in Mwanza for treating me like family and being so generous with their time.

I want to thank Bethany Mowry at the University of Indiana Press (IUP) for unreservedly acknowledging the value of my work and helping me bring this interdisciplinary project to life. To Lesley Bolton, my production editor at IUP, and Laura Abrams at Amnet, thank you for guiding me through the final stages of production. This book could not have been published without the generous feedback of the two blind reviewers and copy editor of my manuscript and the support of the board for the Framing the Global series at IUP. I appreciate the editorial insights of Lynn Everett throughout the manuscript and Sylvia Benvenuto’s development of the index.

This book originally started as my doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, and I am thankful to have had the gift of time to expand on the ideas presented in it and to enhance its overall presentation. I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation advisor, professor, and mentor Ousmane Kane, for consistently advocating for and guiding me in a challenging academic environment. I acknowledge the support and encouragement given by Professor Jacob Olupona in my study of religion in Africa. The mentorship and dedication of you both in centering African ways of knowing have truly made a difference in my academic pursuits. I am grateful to the late Professor Anne Monius for her tremendous investment in my success and to Professors Malika Zeghal and Kai Kresse for their valuable feedback on my dissertation.

I am also thankful for the various institutions and organizations that have provided me with funding for my research. At Wake Forest University, the Study of Religions, the Archie Fund for Faculty Research, the Provost’s Travel Grant, and the Dean’s Office Research and Publication Grant have all generously supported this work. Additionally, the Wake Forest Humanities Institute’s Summer Writing Grant, Wabash Center’s Workshop for Early Career Religion Faculty Teaching Undergraduates, and the African Studies Review Pipeline for Emerging African Studies Scholars Workshop have provided valuable resources for my professional development and research.

The Harvard Loeb Summer Research Fellowship, Fulbright Institute of International Education, and Harvard Sheldon Fellowship supported my year of research in Tanzania between 2015 and 2016, and several Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships in Arabic and Swahili, which have all contributed to my growth as a scholar and allowed me to pursue my research interests. In the end, my research in Tanzania would not have been possible without the permissions and assistance of the staff and administrators at the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), the Zanzibar National Archives (ZNA), and the Tanzanian National Archives (TNA). I am particularly grateful to Mussa Shehe of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania and Sumait University and Vice Chancellor Hamed R.H. Hikmany for providing an institutional home for my project while in Zanzibar.

I am thankful to the Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs for providing me with office space, funding, and a supportive community of faculty, student colleagues, and staff. I would also like to thank the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP) for identifying my potential as a scholar and for sparking my passion for research and setting me on this academic path.

I would like to recognize and thank the organizers and attendees of the various conferences and invited talks where I have presented my research on Ibadhi Muslim transnationalism, and Islam in East Africa and the Indian Ocean World. Among them are Farah El-Sharif, Kai Kresse, Mauro Nobili, Neelofer Qadir, Oludamini Ogunnaike, Scott Reese, Shankar Nair, Terje Østebø, and Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem, Benjamin Pontzen, Benjamin Soares, Noah Solomon, and Macodou Fall. These opportunities have allowed me to engage in fruitful discussions and receive valuable feedback, significantly contributing to the development and refinement of my ideas for my book.

I am thankful for the support and funding from various conferences and institutions for some of these talks, such as the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the African Studies Association (ASA), the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Swahili Studies Workshop at Columbia University, Institute for Islamic Thought in Africa at Northwestern University (ISITA), The Center for Global Islamic Studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Hamilton Lugar: School of Global and International Studies, Berlin, “Timbuktu Talks” at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Stanford University’s Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, among others.

The knowledge and insights gained from these forums have been crucial in shaping my understanding of Ibadhi society and have played a vital role in the writing of my book. I am particularly grateful for the invitations to participate in the annual international Ibadhi Studies conferences, which were made possible by scholars like Abdurrahman al-Salimi and Angeliki Ziaka. I fondly remember my experience learning from mentors in this small but vibrant sub-field of Islamic and religious studies, including Adam Gaiser, who spent countless hours reading my chapters and guiding me through the final stages of this book. I want to express my gratitude to Valerie Hoffman and Amal Ghazal whose works have been critical starting points for my own research. I am grateful for the guidance and feedback on selected chapters in this book from my respected colleagues in anthropology and the history of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula specifically, Mandana Limbert, and Dodi McDow, whose work that imagines the Indian Ocean world as extending to Lake Victoria has been a great inspiration in my writing. The generous feedback and works of Augustin Jomier and Paul Love on chapter four helped me better understand and articulate the historical context of Ibadhi intellectual history and reform in North Africa. Richard Allen’s thoughtful comments on the overall framing of the project have also been helpful.

Having the opportunity to conduct the research and writing for this book has been an immense privilege, as well as rewarding, and transformative, expanding my horizons and understanding of the life worlds I study and teach. However, this work can be a lonely endeavor which I could not have accomplished without the friendship and care of two colleagues, Drs. Neelam Khoja and Michal Hasson. The hours we spent discussing work and life over coffee, dinner, and at our regular stations in Widener library are some of fondest memories from writing this dissertation turned book.

I have enjoyed conversations about aspects of this book with Rabiat Akande, Lina Benabdallah, Deirdre DeBruyn Rubio, Alexander Fattal, Laura Goffman, Zachary Green, Sonia Hazard, Alisha Hines, Jieun Lee, Jodi Marshall, Nathaniel Mathews, Ryan Scroth, Ari Schriber, Matt Steele, and Lydia Walker, and thank them all for their camaraderie.

I deeply appreciate all my colleagues in the Study of Religions at Wake Forest University for their guidance, and support. I especially want to thank Lynn Neal, Mary Foskett, Segun Ilesanmi, Nelly van Doorn Harder, Tanisha Ramachandran, Annalise Glauz-Todrank, and Luke Johnston, for their mentorship, feedback, and encouragement in the most challenging stages of bringing this book to fruition.

To my parents, Dr. Charles and Tina Wortmann, to whom this book is dedicated, thank you for supporting my unconventional career path. I am grateful for your trust in my instincts, for reading my work, and affirming its importance and potential. To Chris, Joan, their partners, and Maya baby, thank you for expanding my vision of what is possible in life, and the memory of all my grandparents. I am thankful for my extended family in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, especially Mama Mkubwa and Shomari, Baba na Mama Wile, and Baba na Mama Joyce. Finally, thanks to Theodore (Teddy) Wooly Wortmann for being my delightful and playful muse in the final stages of the production of this book. I love you all and without your guidance, encouragement, and faith in me, I would not have been able to succeed on this journey to completion of Society of the Righteous.

While this work is the result of many conversations with numerous international interlocutors, the framing and narration of the events, figures, and histories in this book are ultimately mine. It is my hope that I have represented them with the nuance and care they deserve.