ABSTRACT
The incorporation of the Zanzibari legal system into the colonial state went hand in hand with a similar institutionalisation of other sectors of society. As described in the previous chapter, Ibn Sumayt
˙ and his fellow qa¯d
˙ ı¯s took a
relatively co-operative stance towards the legal reforms initiated by the British authorities. In the period 1905-1925, the colonial government also sought to reform a second field traditionally dominated by the \ulama¯|; they tried to implement educational reforms. Unlike his colleagues \Abd Alla¯h Ba¯ Kathı¯r and S
˙ a¯lih
˙ b. \Alawı¯ Jamal al-Layl, Ibn Sumayt
˙ worked for Islamic education on
the elementary level, and he did so within the setting of the colonial efforts for secular education.
