{"id":2914,"date":"2025-12-02T03:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/?p=2914"},"modified":"2025-12-02T03:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:12:10","slug":"a-visit-to-the-kamali-school-in-qeshm-southern-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/?p=2914","title":{"rendered":"A Visit to the Kamali School in Qeshm, Southern Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Badar Al-Abri.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I visited Sheikh \u02bfAbd al-Ra\u2019\u016bf ibn Zakariyy\u0101 al-Na\u1e25w\u012b al-Kam\u0101l\u012b and the Kamali School located in the village of Band Haji Ali on Qeshm Island in southern Iran. The Kamalis originate from the Hijaz, and some of them migrated to southern Iran during the era of the Arab Kingdom of Hormuz. A number of these families later settled in northern Oman, particularly in Musandam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kamali School in Qeshm\u2014known as \u201cthe Long Island\u201d due to its length of approximately 120 km and width of about 40 km, and historically referred to by Arabs as Jasm<\/em> or sometimes pronounced Qasm<\/em>\u2014traces its foundation back to Sheikh Mu\u1e25ammad ibn Kam\u0101l (d. 1839). The school remained active on Qeshm and is still located today in the village of Band Haji Ali, currently headed by the jurist and grammarian Sheikh \u02bfAbd al-Ra\u2019\u016bf al-Kam\u0101l\u012b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, the Kamali school had two additional branches: one in Falaj al-Qab\u0101\u2019il in the Omani city of Sohar, established by Sheikh A\u1e25mad ibn Ya\u1e25y\u0101 al-Kam\u0101l\u012b (d. 1930), and another in Khasab in Musandam under Sheikh Ibr\u0101h\u012bm ibn Ya\u1e25y\u0101 al-Kam\u0101l\u012b (d. 1917). The latter school ceased its activities but its legacy remains preserved in the Kamali Library in Khasab, currently overseen by Sheikh \u02bfAbd al-Satt\u0101r al-Kam\u0101l\u012b, one of the notable figures of the Omani governorate of Musandam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctrinally, the Kamali School is Ash\u02bfar\u012b in theology, Sh\u0101fi\u02bf\u012b in jurisprudence, and presently maintains a non-order-based Sufi inclination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I visited Sheikh \u02bfAbd al-Ra\u2019\u016bf and the Kamali School last Thursday evening in Qeshm and found it standing upon its earlier foundations. Despite his advanced age\u2014approaching ninety\u2014he remains a scholar of grammar and comparative jurisprudence, distinguished by a pleasant wit and an active interest in global and particularly Arab affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school is operated with the assistance of its students, who reside on premises where food and accommodation are provided. The doors of the school are open to seekers of knowledge, young and old alike, without any conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I sat with the Sheikh from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. in an extended discussion covering literature, grammar, and matters of Sh\u0101fi\u02bf\u012b jurisprudence, as well as aspects of the history of Jasm<\/em> and its long-standing relationship with Oman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, the inhabitants do not separate the island from Oman, drawing parallels between their adoption of Islam and the story of \u02bfAbd and Jaifar, sons of al-Juland\u0101. They point to a mosque called Masjid al-Shaykh Barkh<\/em>, which they say was built in the ninth year of the Hijra during the arrival of \u02bfAmr ibn al-\u02bf\u0100\u1e63 (d. 43 AH). Adjacent to the mosque lies an ancient cemetery containing burial sites for Kamali scholars and other figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Kamali School preserves important classical works, including rare manuscripts and numerous lithographed books originating from the B\u016bl\u0101q Press, founded by Mu\u1e25ammad \u02bfAl\u012b (d. 1848) in Egypt in 1830. The collection contains dozens of volumes in jurisprudence, linguistics, literature, and Qur\u2019anic exegesis\u2014materials that urgently require preservation, sterilization, and rebinding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The tomb of Shaykh Barkh<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Badar Al-Abri. I visited Sheikh \u02bfAbd al-Ra\u2019\u016bf ibn Zakariyy\u0101 al-Na\u1e25w\u012b al-Kam\u0101l\u012b and the Kamali School located in the village of Band Haji Ali on Qeshm Island in southern Iran. The Kamalis originate from the Hijaz, and some of them migrated to southern Iran during the era of the Arab Kingdom of Hormuz. A number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-94"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2922,"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions\/2922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baderalabri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}