'History of the imâms and seyyids of 'Omân by Salîl-ibn-Razîk, from A.D. 661-1856; translated from the original Arabic, and edited with notes, appendices, and an introduction, continuing the history down to 1870, by George Percy Badger, F.R.G.S., late chaplain in the Presidency of Bombay.' [‎398] (559/612)

398
APPENDIX B.
terior, especially the district of ezh-Zlxahirah, has led to its being
regarded in the light of a questionable indulgence even by their
Ibadhiyah neighbours.
In point of morals, I am persuaded that the Ibadhiyah are on
a par with Muslims generally. If they are less moral, as some
writers seem to hold, it cannot fairly be attributed to their
peculiar tenets, which, if anything, inculcate greater se%erity
of conduct under more awful sanctions. Hie reproach about the
indifference of husbands and wives to the conjugal tie, which
Ibn-Batuta charged them with four centuries ago, has been re
peated in modern times, but Ibn-Uatuta as an orthodox Muslim
was hardly an impartial judge of the heretical Khawarij, and
scarcely any European has had any experience of the country
beyond the sea-coast, with the exception oi Wellsted, whose free-
spoken narrative contains nothing which can lead the reader to
believe that the inhabitants, male and female, were conspicuous
for laxity of conduct either in social intercourse among them
selves or towards strangers.
On the whole, the Ibadhiyah, as regards faith and practice,
seem to me to hold a position towards Islam orthodoxy not
unlike that of the Nonconformist Calvinistic bodies in this coun
try towards the community of the Established Church. In their
religious toleration of all other sects, which, as Wellsted justly
remarks, "forms one of the most prominent features of the
government," they are—to use an Arabic phrase—a conspicuous
example to those who possess discernment.