Oman Mzab Pate
Your other option for converting to Ibadi is getting ahold of Ibadi provinces, and forcing a religious rebellion there. After the rebels convert most of your country, you need to accept their demands, and you will then become Ibadi.
Method 1: Starting as an Ibadi Nation
There are three starting Ibadi nations:
Oman
Oman is the strongest option on first look. They start with three provinces and cores on five more provinces under the control of their neighbor Hormuz. Winning a war against Hormuz means you will be the strongest power in the Arabian Peninsula, excluding of course the Mamluks.
Mzab
Mzab is a small nation with two 3-development provinces in the Maghreb. While an uphill battle against Morocco and Tunis is a given, succeeding in beating them can lead to a very powerful position. Pushing into Iberia allows you to form Andalucia, giving you access to a powerful mission tree and national ideas.
Pate
Pate is a one province minor (OPM) in Somalia. The least interesting of the starts in my opinion, it does have the potential to become very strong by controlling the Swahili coast and forming a trade empire in the Indian Ocean. Their starting province isn’t even Ibadi, meaning you begin with 0% religious unity. All three Ibadi starting nations share the “The Third Way” achievement, which requires you to make sure Ibadi is the only Muslim faith being followed in the world. This includes uncolonized provinces and is by no means an easy achievement. Mzab also shares an achievement with the other landlocked Maghrebi nations. “An Unlikely Candidate” which has you forming Andalusia as one of them. If you’re looking for a challenge, I recommend doing a Mzab run, trying to get both achievements at once.
Converting To The Ibadi Religion
Since Muslim faiths cannot convert to another faith manually, you will need to do it through religious rebels. The steps are as follows: Step 1: Secure an Ibadi province. First of all, you need to own an Ibadi province. The only Ibadi provinces at the game’s start are around Oman and the Mzab Oasis. Ibadi can appear in other provinces through random event. Step 2: Send a missionary to convert the province. You do NOT want to change the province’s religion. You simply need to force a rebellion with the rebel type “religious”. This will always happen when a missionary is present. Just make sure to lower missionary maintenance so you do not actually convert the province. Step 3: Mothball your forts and send your armies away. In preparation of the rebellion, you should stop maintaining forts in the country to allow the rebels to occupy provinces more easily. Set your vassals’ focus to “passive” and station your armies outside your lands. Step 4: Let the rebels convert as much land as possible. After the rebellion fires (you can provoke it when it reaches 50% progress to speed things up), you should allow the rebels to run rampant in your nation and occupy your provinces undisturbed. Step 5: After more than half your country’s development follows the Ibadi faith, accept the rebels’ demands. Note: Accepting their demands before they have converted at least half your country’s development will NOT change your state religion. Congratulations, you now successfully follow the Ibadi faith!
Ibadi Mechanics
The Ibadi faith doesn’t differ much from the other Muslim denominations. It makes use of the piety system like Sunni and Shi’a do. Ibadi doesn’t have any schools of Islam unique to them. Ibadi nations have access to all schools of Islam, both Sunni and Shi’a. Converting from another Muslim faith means you keep your school. Converting from a non-Muslim faith gives you a choice from all available schools. The passive bonuses provided are the typical Muslim +100% Chance of New Heir, and a very nice +10% Goods Produced. With access to all Islamic schools upon conversion and the powerful Goods Produced bonus, Ibadi is arguably the strongest of the Muslim faiths in the game.
