ABSTRACT
The topic of this study is the history of Islam in the northwest Indian Ocean during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. More specifically, it focuses on the scholarly exchange of ideas between H
˙ ad ˙ ramawt in South Arabia and
the East African Coast. To bring out the complexity of this process, I have chosen to focus on the life of one of the most influential H
˙ ad ˙ ramı¯-East African
scholars of the period, Ah ˙ mad b. Abı¯ Bakr b. Sumayt
˙ (1861-1925).
