The putative author of our source is a shadowy figure of the second/eighth century. The Sistanis remembered a local boy by the name of Salim b. Dhakwan who had been captured by the Arabs at Bust in 30/650 f and later risen to prominence among them. The Ibadis knew a co-religionist of the same name from the letters of Jabir b. Zayd, the first leader of the Basran Ibadis (d. between 93/711 and 104/722): one of Jabir’s letters is addressed to him. But Jabir apart, the first Ibadi to mention Salim b. Dhakwan seems to be al-Bisyani, a fourth/tenth-century Omani, who lists him among the scholars of the past in one of his epistles. Of Salim’s epistle, with or without his name, there appears to be no trace in the Ibadi literature down to the fifth/eleventh century
The putative author of our source is a shadowy figure of the second/eighth century. The Sistanis remembered a local boy by the name of Salim b. Dhakwan who had been captured by the Arabs at Bust in 30/650 f and later risen to prominence among them. The Ibadis knew a co-religionist of the same name f...