When the British declared the Zanzibar Protectorate in 1890, they embarked on a gradual policy of transforming kadhis’ training that was based on the traditional system of Islamic learning. The British had earlier implemented the policy of transforming Islamic traditional institutions in India by establishing the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in
Aligarh.114 Similarly in Nigeria, the British adopted a gradual policy of transforming the Islamic judicial system to conform to the British legal system. In Northern Nigeria, local judicial staff were recruited and then sent to Britain for legal training.115 In 1934 the British established a law school in Northern Nigeria in order to provide legal education to train alkalis (kadhis) in the modern English legal system. Establishment of the law school in Kano aimed at transforming Islamic legal training and replacing the traditional training offered to alkalis.116
Towards the later part of the 20th century, the British colonial authorities in Zanzibar had adopted a gradual policy of formalising the system of training kadhis. British administrators found that kadhis trained in the traditional centres of Islamic learning in the Busa‘idi Sultanate could not cope with the growing demand of new judicial reforms introduced by the colonial order, and therefore embarked on a policy of establishing a training seminary school for kadhis.
Muslim members of the Legislative Council in Zanzibar pressurised the government to send potential students abroad so as to be trained as kadhis. Legislative Council member Muhammad Nasir S. Lamki asked the government whether it had considered the necessity of sending some students to Egypt or Arabia in order to study Islamic law. G.C. Grant
114 Metcalf, 2007, 186.
115 Yadudu, A.H “Colonialism and the Transformation of Substance and Form of Islamic Law in the Northern States of Nigeria” (1991) 9 (1) Journal of Law and Religion 38.
116 Oba, A.A “Lawyers, Legal Education and the Shariah Courts in Nigeria” (2004) 49 Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 133.
replied on behalf of the British Protectorate, that the government had already taken the matter under consideration.117 Another member of the Legislative Council, Sa‘id b. Ali al-Mughayri, proposed that the government send students to Egypt or elsewhere to be trained as kadhis. Despite the sympathy of the Chief Justice of Zanzibar with al-Mughayri’s proposal, he ruled out the possibility of sending students outside Zanzibar. The Chief Justice justified his position by noting that training students in Islamic law in Britain was based on the Hanafi and Shia law which were not relevant to Zanzibari students. The Chief Justice also pointed out that it would be difficult to train ibadhi kadhis due to the fact that ibadhi law was not taught at Cairo University which was considered to the nearest available university in the British Empire.118 British colonial officials were concerned with the issues raised by Muslim members of the Legislative Council in Zanzibar who preferred to send students to Muslim universities in order to train them in Islamic law and become future kadhis of Zanzibar. However, the British authorities considered the financial implications before sending the students outside Zanzibar. In order to cut the cost, the British first proposed to send a few students to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
The British Secretary of State consulted Prof. S. Versy Fitzgerald of the SOAS and proposed that students from Zanzibar should go to the School in order to be trained in
117 Proceedings of the Legislative Council at a meeting held on 16 June 1947 in Zanzibar Supplement to the Official Gazette of the Zanzibar Government No.3062 of 21 June 1947.
118 ZA/AB62/150/14, letter from the British Resident, Zanzibar, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated 29 November 1947.
Arabic and Islamic law.119 Prof. S. Versy Fitzgerald proposed that the students should join the regular lectures on Islamic law in the LL.B course and remarked: “it is essential to give these young men some general grounding in English legal ideas and in the comparative theory of law. These courses will have to be specially prepared for them, and as they do not form part of the regular LL.B curriculum, they will have to be prepared at this school.”
120
As the process of sending students to the SOAS continued, the British Resident in Zanzibar proposed the establishment of a Muslim seminary in Zanzibar that “would provide for education in Moslem law, religion and culture for a limited number of pupils. Besides being of value here, it would assist us in the provision of kadhis both here and on the mainland”.121 Based on this proposal, the Zanzibar Director of Education wrote a comprehensive report on the establishment of a Muslim seminary in Zanzibar and noted:
“the chief object in teaching Islamic law would be to produce men capable of filling the posts of Kadhis and Liwalis throughout East Africa. When the present holders retire there appears to be no local candidates whatever for these posts and the only alternative to local training would be the appointment of men from outside East Africa at very considerable costs or to send every potential candidate away for training.”122
119 ZA/AB62/150/16, reply by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, to the British Resident, Zanzibar, dated 30 January 1948.
120 ZA/AB62/150/30C, letter from Prof. S. Versy Fitzgerald, to the Colonial Office, dated 3 June 1948.
121 ZNA/AB62/150/27, letter from the British Resident, Zanzibar, to H.E. Sir Reginald Champion, dated 3 April 1948.
122 ZNA/AB/23/17, British Counicl Reports.
Based on this new proposal for establishing a Muslim seminary in Zanzibar, the initiative of sending students to the SOAS was abandoned and instead, the British Resident in Zanzibar suggested that Sh. Omar b. ‘Abdallah to be sent to SOAS with a view to becoming the principal of the Muslim seminary upon completion of his studies. In a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the British Resident remarked:
“it has now been decided that Shaykh Omar Abdallah should receive training, not with a view to his becoming a Kadhi as originally contemplated, but as a teacher in the Muslim Academy, Zanzibar. A course suggested by Prof. Fitzgerald would not be wholly suitable; it is most desirable for Shaykh Omar to pursue his studies in an essentially Mohammedan atmosphere and environment.” 123
Among the difficulties that faced the British administration in establishing the Muslim seminary was the search for a local scholar to head the institution. The British consulted a renowned scholar and Legislative Councuil member, Amer Tajo, in 1949 to assist in recruiting teaching staff for the proposed Muslim seminary.
When the search for a local candidate to head the institution proved difficult, the British administration appointed a scholar from Azhar University, Muhammad Muhammad al-Dahhan to the post of Principal of the Muslim Academy on 27th September 1951.124 The Muslim Academy was opened on 21st April 1952 under the headship of Shaykh al-Dahhan with 25 students who were required to enrol for a five year course in Arabic and Islamic
123 ZA/AB62/150/50, letter from the British Resident, Zanzibar, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated 2 December 1948.
124 Ibid.
studies.125 Establishment of the Muslim Academy was based on an Indian model that was introduced in Sudan in the 1930s and then in Nigeria in the late 1940s. The British found that Islamic learning provided in mosques and madrasas could not provide graduates that would fit into the colonial administrative and judicial structures. Therefore, the colonial administration aimed at introducing a new system of learning that differed from the traditional centres of Islamic learning. When the Academy started in 1952, teaching was based on a five year study programme that covered Islamic subjects and the Arabic language. Additional subjects offered were calligraphy and English language as optional subjects from the third year, and in 1957 subjects, such as, elementary mathematics, were included. Inclusion of new subjects in the curriculum of the Muslim Academy, such as English language, was meant to gradually orient kadhis on the language in order to use in their future career. The Muslim Academy was meant to serve as a channel through which the British colonial administration could recruit kadhis.126
Despite of the fact that the Academy exposed kadhis to a different system of training, compared to the traditional training offered in mosques and madrasa, it can be noted that influence of such training on kadhis did not achieve the intended objective set by British colonial administration to transform functioning of kadhi courts. In my topical discussion
125 ZNA/AB/5/22, Exchange of information on native affairs. For a comprehensive study on of Islamic education and the establishment of the Muslim Academy in Zanzibar, see Loimeier, R. (2009) Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills: The Politics of Islamic Education in 20th Century Zanzibar Leiden: Brill.
126 Further development of the syllabus was done in 1972 when the Zanzibar government incorporated subjects such as Kiswahili, Geography, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The Muslim Academy was closed by the Zanzibar government in 2007 and became a campus of the State University of Zanzibar.
with the former chief kadhi of Zanzibar, Sh. Musa Makungu (d.2007) who studied at the Muslim Academy and later became its Principal, I noted that he relied on classical Islamic law texts in his judgments and followed Islamic rules of procedure.127 Generation of kadhis who studied at the Academy after the Zanzibar Revolution were still attached to the traditional Islamic learning offered in the mosques and scholars’ residences. The British colonial policy of transforming training of kadhis in Zanzibar did not succeed partly due to the existence of traditional centres of Islamic learning which operated parallel to the Muslim Academy.