Ibāḍī Studies in Naples. Rereading the Works of Last Century Italian Scholars

The last century Italian ‘Orientalists’ (Laura Veccia Vaglieri, Carlo Alfonso Nallino, Mario Martino Moreno and Roberto Rubinacci, together with Vanna Cremonesi and Generosa Crupi La Rosa) were among the first scholars to underline that the Ibāḍis made an important contribution to Islamic thought and to the whole formation of Islamic culture. As Rubinacci states in his work on ritual purity among the Ibāḍis, they had a dominant role in developing both the law and the dogma, as they were driven by a particularly strict ethical code, inflamed by an intense religiosity. The early definitions of the Khārijis and the points they brought up for discussion may have provided the first impulse for the formation of the oldest juridical schools as well as spurred the debate from which the Mu‘tazilī dogma originated. What is certain is that in the field of dogma as well as in the legal field, the Ibāḍis elaborated a system of their own.