Sayyid Fadl ibn Alawi

Sayyid Fadl ibn Alawi ibn Muhammad ibn Sahl (1824 – October 1900), known in India as Fazal Pookoya Thangal and in Istanbul as Fadl Pasha, was a scholar and religious and political leader of the Hadrami Ba Alawi sayyids, born at Mampuram in Malabar, south India, whose life moved between Malabar, the Hijaz, southern Arabia and Istanbul. ^{1 2} The British accused him of instigating the Mappila revolts and he was effectively exiled in 1852, never to return to India; he later became governor of Dhofar and a close dignitary of Sultan Abdulhamid II. ²

Fadl belonged to a family of Hadrami Alawi sayyids. His father, Sayyid Alawi, had migrated young to Malabar and settled at Mambram, joined the Alawiyya Sufi order there and succeeded Sheikh Hasan al-Jifri as its leader, gaining an influential position in religious circles. ¹ Fadl was born in 1824, received a traditional Islamic education and was trained in Alawiyya principles; his mother Fatima was of Quilandy (Koyilandy). ^{1 2} On his father's death in 1844 Fadl succeeded him in the leadership of the Alawiyya and of the Muslim community of Malabar; he then performed the hajj and spent several years in the holy cities before returning to Malabar. ^{1 3}

During Fadl's leadership the Muslim community of Malabar became increasingly politicised: he adopted an anti-British stance and used his influence to undermine the British presence, until British officials viewed his presence in Malabar as dangerous. ¹ After the Manjeri (1849) and Kulathur (1851) revolts and the suppression of a further rising, the district magistrate Conolly issued an order for his arrest in February 1852, but Fadl escaped from Malabar and reached Mecca in early 1853; he was subsequently accused of instigating Conolly's murder. ^{1 3} Fadl wrote books and issued fatwas against British rule, collecting in al-Qawl al-Mukhtar and Saif al-Battar texts against preferring unbelievers, and his Uddat al-Umara wa-l-Hukkam, printed in Egypt in 1856, was prohibited in Malabar by Conolly. ⁴ He made repeated efforts to return to India, all thwarted by colonial officials, and never saw India again. ²

He first visited Istanbul in the mid-1850s and gained official Ottoman recognition of his status as an influential Arab notable, with a salary of 2,500 kuruş a month. ¹ After several attempts to secure a high position in South Arabia, in 1876 he became governor of Dhofar in southern Arabia under Ottoman auspices, until he was ousted in 1879 by a tribal revolt supported by external forces. ^{1 2} He was then invited to Constantinople and appointed among the ministers of the Ottoman Empire, used his residence in Istanbul to build contacts with visiting Muslim dignitaries, and argued in memoranda to Sultan Abdulhamid II that foreign encroachments on Muslim territories could be stopped only by a union of the people of Islam. ¹ He bore the title Fadl Pasha and remained close to the court until his death. ³

Fadl was a prolific writer on law, politics, ethics and spirituality. ³ His works include the Uddat al-Umara wa-l-Hukkam li-Ihanat al-Kafara wa-Abadat al-Asnam, Asas al-Islam fi Bayan al-Ahkam, Hulal al-Ihsan fi Tahsin al-Insan and Idhar al-Asrar, as well as a book on the biography and teachings of al-Shafi'i's school and another on the history and doctrines of the Hanafi school; his works are kept today in Istanbul University Library. ^{3 1} The two school books are listed here as his works: a book about a school is not an attestation that he belonged to it, and the entity data treats it accordingly.

Fadl died in Istanbul in October 1900, without realising his dream of governing Dhofar again. ¹ Some sources give 1901, because the Hijri year 1318 in which he died runs from May 1900 to May 1901; Abu-Manneh gives October 1900 expressly and expressly rejects the stray death years 1844 and 1866 in some reference works, and Jacob likewise gives 1900. ^{1 2 4}

Abu-Manneh records that Fadl was trained in Alawiyya principles and succeeded his father as the order's leader, and Jacob describes him as a renowned Sufi scholar formed in the Ba Alawi Sufi pathway. ^{1 2} The entity data therefore records his faith as documented sufi on those two independent academic sources, and adds no sunni value: the Ba Alawi are in general a Sunni, Shafi'i tradition, but no two independent sources attest that affiliation for Fadl personally.

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.