and 'the people of the mission', 'Ahl el-da'wah. The name Ibadhis is not mentioned in early Ibadhi works such as the Mudawanah of Abu Ghanim or any other early works. Later, however, they recognised and accepted this name. It first appears in Maghribi Ibadhi works in the treatise of 'Amrus b. Fath 200 H.17

It seems that 'Abdullah b. Ibadh became a public figure because of his views and activities and certain groups other than the Ibadhis such as al-'Umariyah 18 claimed his leadership. It is also reported that al-Harithiyah, the followers of al-Harith b. Mazyad al-Ibadhi claim that they recognised none but the Imamate of 'Abdullah b. Ibadh after the death of Abu Bilal Mirdas.19

It is not clear whether 'Abdullah b. Ibadh took any active part in the military revolts which took place during his lifetime, al-Kadmi included him in one list together with Abu Bilal and 'Abdullah b. Yahya al-Kindi, and described them as al-Khawarij20. According to al-Qazwini, Ibn Ibadh revolted during the time of Marwan b. Muhammad b. 'Atiyah in Tabalah21. Shahrastani also stated that Ibn Ibadh was with 'Abdullah b. Yahya in his revolt, and in all his activities.22 Both Omani authors, al-Qalhati, and Ahmad b. Abdullah al-Ruqaishi mentioned that Ibn Ibadh lived up to the time of 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan to whom he wrote the famous letters23. But, like other Ibadhi authorities, they did not mentioned whether he lived afterwards or took part in the revolt of Abdullah b. Yahya al-Kindi. It is unlikely that Ibn Ibadh took part in those wars without being mentioned by Ibadhi authors or other historians who reported those wars such as al-Tabari, al-Isfahani and others.24

The list of early Ibadhi authorities given by al-Qalhati showed Abdullah b. Ibadh and 'Urwah b. Hadir as students of Jabir b. Zaid, 'Abdullah b. Wahb al-Rasibi, and Zaid b. Sawhan and showed Abu 'Ubaidah Muslim b. Abi Karimah, Farwah b. Nawfal, and Wida b. Hawtharah as students of 'Abdullah b. Ibadh and his contemporaries, while 'Abdullah b. Yahya al-Kindi and al-Mukhtar b. 'Awf were listed among the students of Abu 'Ubaidah Muslim.25 It seems that either Ibn Ibadh was dead when Jabir died and was succeeded by Abu 'Ubaidah, or else he was not important enough to take over the leadership of the movement. The first view seems to be more convincing, and can be supported by the information given by al-Baghdadi that al-Harith al-Ibadhi headed his group as successor of 'Abdullah b. Ibadh. Accordingly, Ibn Ibadh must have been dead when al-Harith started propagating his views on qadar in which he opposed the Ibadhi authorities. It is hard to believe that Ibn Ibadh was still alive, for if he was he would have refuted the views of al-Harith. Ibadhi authorities reported that the burden of refuting al-Harith was borne by Abu 'Ubaidah Muslim.26 All these facts support the views of Lewicki who pointed out that the information reported by both al-Shahrastani and al-Qazwini