Africa.

It is clear that Basrah was the main centre for Ibadhi activities in Iraq. However, there is evidence that other active Ibadhi communities existed in Kufah, Mawsil, Mecca, Medina, and some parts of Khurasan where a good number of great scholars emerged and contributed to the Ibadhi School. The opinions of those scholars were presented side by side with those of Jabir, Zaid, and Abu 'Ubaidah Muslim of Basrah as is evident in the early Ibadhi works such as the Mudawwanah of Abu Ghanim, al-Diwan al-ma'rud, and Riwayat Dumam. Apart from this fact, very little is known about these communities and their contribution to the Ibadhi movement in political and educational activities.78 However, it was a clear policy of the early Ibadhi leaders to direct their activities to the remote parts of the Islamic Empire so that they would not be easily crushed. They carefully avoided attempting any open revolution in Iraq, and concentrated on southern Arabia79 and North Africa. The following pages are aimed at throwing light on the expansion of the Ibadhi teachings in North Africa.

THE EXPANSION OF THE IBADHIYAH IN NORTH AFRICA.

It is not known precisely when the Ibadhi School started gaining followers in North Africa. At the time when the Ibadhi School was established in Basrah during the second half of the first century H., Islam itself gained a stronghold over North Africa in spite of the initial opposition it encountered from the Berbers. According to Lewicki, the people of Jabal Nufusah remained firm Christians after the Muslim conquest until they were converted directly to the Ibadhi school.80 This claim however is contradicted by other sources who claim that the people of Nufusah accepted Islam in mass without any struggle whatsoever.81 It is also a well-established fact that Islam was spread as far as Ghadamas, south-west of Jabal Nufusah, by 'Uqbah b. 'Amr, leader of the army dispatched westwards by 'Amr b. al-'As who conquered Tripoli in 23H. This will lend support to the claim that some of the Nufusis had become Muslims since then, but later adopted Ibadhi views. There is authentic information that a few Nufusi Christian families still existed in Jabal Nufusah after the Ibadhi school established itself in the Jabal.82 Moreover, there is sound evidence that certain Nufusi families remained non-Ibadhi Muslims long after the Ibadhi school predominated in this area. Among these was the family of Abu Mansur Ilyas of Tindimmirah, one of the most important families of Nufusah.83 It is difficult to reach a definite conclusion on this matter with so little and conflicting information to hand.