This volume contains twenty-three texts, most of which were written between the end of the 2nd/8th century and the end of the 3rd/9th century. The majority of them reflect the early stages of the development of the First Ibadi Imamate in 132/750 – established when the Omanis fully seceded from the central state in Baghdad until the Imamate was collapsed by the Abbasids in 280/893. The source value of these Ibadi texts for researchers and scholars specialised in Islamic studies far outweighs any importance they might attach to sectarian history per se.