The Kharijite Rebellions were a series of uprisings and insurgencies launched by the Kharijites against the authority of the fourth Caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib. The movement emerged during the First Fitna when a faction of Ali's army seceded after the Battle of Siffin, rejecting the decision to seek arbitration with Mu'awiya I under the slogan "Judgment belongs to God alone."
The conflict began at Harura and reached its peak at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658. Although the Rashidun army destroyed the main Kharijite force, the movement persisted as a decentralized insurgency across Iraq, Iran, and Bahrain. Regional revolts led by figures such as Al-Khirrit ibn Rashid and Abu Maryam al-Sa'di depleted the Caliphate's military resources and demoralized its tribal levies.
The period of active rebellion culminated in the Assassination of Ali in 661 by the dissident Ibn Muljam. While the Rashidun Caliphate continued briefly under Hasan ibn Ali, the internal instability caused by the Kharijite movement contributed to the eventual transition to Umayyad rule. This era solidified the Khawarij as a distinct sectarian branch within early Islam.
Background
Kharijite slogan in Arabic, "No judgment but that of God"
The Kharijite movement originated from the military and religious deadlock of the Battle of Siffin in July 657. As the forces of Ali gained the upper hand, the troops of Mu'awiya I fixed copies of the Quran to their lances as a plea for arbitration regarding the legitimacy of the assassination of Uthman. While Ali was initially reluctant, a significant portion of his army insisted on accepting the truce.[8][9] This consensus quickly dissolved into a fundamental theological split.
Those who would become the Kharijites or the Muhakkima viewed the subsequent arbitration as a catastrophic surrender of divine sovereignty. From their perspective, Uthman had become an apostate through his perceived sins, which rendered the Syrian demand for vengeance religiously void. By agreeing to negotiate with those they considered unbelievers, the dissidents argued that Ali had himself fallen into unbelief. They adopted the slogan "Judgment belongs to God alone" (La hukma illa lillah) to assert that scriptural truth was not subject to human compromise or the fallible whims of political judges.[10]
This ideological breach led approximately 12,000 men to secede from Ali's main body upon the return to Kufa and establish a separate camp at Harura. During an initial attempt at reconciliation, Ali visited the seceders and secured a temporary pledge of allegiance. This was achieved through a general declaration of repentance and a promise that any arbitration results contradicting the Quran would be rejected. The seceders remained in Ali's coalition on the condition that the war against Mu'awiya would resume within six months.[11][12]
The reconciliation failed when it became clear that Ali intended to honor the formal treaty with Mu'awiya. To the radicalized core led by figures like Hurqus ibn Zuhayr as-Sa'di and Abd Allah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi, the Caliph's commitment to a human covenant over what they saw as a divine mandate was proof of spiritual failure. Modern scholars such as Hinds and Donner note that this transition from soldiers to insurgents was also fueled by the removal of Ali’s title of Amir al-mu'minin in the arbitration documents.[13][14] The Kharijites interpreted this as a formal abdication of his legitimate rule.
Rejecting the authority of a leader they believed had compromised with apostasy, the final remnants of the Muhakkima departed for Al-Nahrawan. In this environment of perceived religious purification, they labeled any who disagreed with their strict interpretation as nonbelievers.[15] This shift transformed the movement from a political protest into a decentralized insurgency and set the stage for a cycle of violence that would eventually claim the life of the Caliph.
The path to Nahrawan began with an ideological confrontation in Kufa. After the Kharijites interrupted Ali's sermon at the Great Mosque of Kufa, they regrouped at the camp of Abd Allah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi. To avoid detection, the dissidents, including Hurqus ibn Zuhayr and Hamza ibn Sinan, fled Kufa at night in small groups toward Al-Mada'in. Ali dispatched the governor Sa'd ibn Mas'ud in pursuit, leading to a day-long skirmish at Karkh. Although intercepted, the rebels successfully crossed the Euphrates and reached the Nahrawan Canal to consolidate their forces.[16]
By July 658, Ali reached the canal with 14,000 troops following reports that the Kharijites had begun executing civilians, most notably the companion Abdullah ibn Khabbab al-Aratt. The Kharijite force of approximately 2,800 men refused to surrender and was nearly annihilated by the superior numbers of the Rashidun army. Among the dead was the Kharijite leader Abd Allah ibn Wahb.[17] While the battle was a decisive military victory, it shifted the movement from open warfare toward a decentralized insurgency aimed at revenge.
In 658–659, Al-Khirrit ibn Rashid al-Naji, a former ally of Ali at Siffin, led a significant uprising that spread from southern Iraq to the Persian Gulf. Khirrit’s revolt was a unique coalition of theological Kharijites, tribesmen refusing the Sadaqah tax, and local Christians who had reverted to their original faith during the civil war.[18] After Khirrit defected from Kufa, Ali dispatched Ziyad ibn Khasafah to intercept him, resulting in an indecisive battle at al-Madhr.[19] Khirrit subsequently withdrew to Ahvaz to gather Bedouin and Kurdish reinforcements, prompting Ali to send Ma'qil ibn Qays to finalize the suppression. Ma'qil defeated the rebels at Ramhormoz, forcing Khirrit to flee toward the coast of Bahrain.[20] In the final engagement near the Persian Gulf, Ma'qil offered amnesty to those who deserted, significantly thinning the rebel ranks. During the battle, Al-Numan ibn Suhban located and killed Khirrit in a duel, effectively ending the uprising.[21] Hundreds of captives were taken and later ransomed by Masqalah ibn Hubayrah, who subsequently defected to Mu'awiya I after failing to pay the full amount to the Caliphate.[22]
Uprisings in Northern Iraq
Following the defeat at Nahrawan, several splinter cells attempted to regroup in Northern Iraq and the Sawad. These groups utilized a consistent tactic of departing Kufa in small, clandestine groups of two to five men to evade Ali’s authorities before assembling at a pre-designated site.
Ashras ibn Awf al-Shaybani was the first to rise after Nahrawan, launching a rebellion at al-Daskra before moving toward Anbar. Ali dispatched al-Abrash ibn Hassān with three hundred men to suppress the threat. Although some accounts suggest Ashras was merely wounded in the initial clash, he was eventually killed in Rabi' al-Awwal 658.[23][24][25]
In late 658, Hilal ibn Ulafa and his brother Mujalid led a contingent from the Taym al-Ribab tribe. Ali sent the veteran commander Ma'qil ibn Qays to intercept them; in the ensuing engagement during Jumada al-Awwal, Hilal and roughly two hundred followers were killed.[26] This uprising saw a brief, symbolic resurgence the following month when Al-Ashhab ibn Bashir led 130 men to the site of the defeat to perform funeral prayers for the fallen. This act of defiance was swiftly met by a government force under Jariyah ibn Qudamah and Hujr ibn Adi, who intercepted and killed the remaining rebels at Jarjaraya in Jumada al-Thani.[27]
The Kufan Periphery
By late 658, the insurgency reached the heart of the Caliphate, with rebel cells operating in the immediate vicinity of Ali's primary administrative centers at Kufa and Al-Mada'in.
Sa'id ibn Qafil al-Taymi launched a rebellion at al-Bandanijin in the month of Rajab. His force of two hundred men advanced to the bridge of al-Darzijan, situated only two farsakhs from Al-Mada'in. Ali ordered the city's governor, Sa'd ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi, to intercept the threat; the governor's forces successfully engaged and killed Sa'id and his entire contingent.[28]
The final significant uprising of 658 was led by Abu Maryam al-Sa'di, who gathered a force in Shahrizor. According to Al-Mada'ini, this group was unique for its demographic composition, consisting of approximately four hundred followers who were primarily non-Arab Mawali.[29] As the rebels advanced toward the outskirts of Kufa, Ali attempted to secure a pledge of allegiance through Shurayḥ ibn Hānī and seven hundred men, promising protection to those who remained peaceful.
Abu Maryam refused, citing the "martyrs" of Nahrawan, and his group defeated Shurayḥ's vanguard, forcing a retreat to nearby villages.[30] Ali subsequently took the field himself with 2,000 men, supported by Jariyah ibn Qudāmah. Despite Ali's final demand for allegiance, the rebels engaged the Caliph's forces in Ramadan; the uprising was crushed, leaving only fifty survivors who were granted safe conduct after Abu Maryam was killed.
Aftermath
Assassination of Ali & The Execution of Ibn Muljam
On 28 January 661, a Kharijite dissident named Ibn Muljam struck Ali with a poisoned sword in the Great Mosque of Kufa. This act was intended as a triple assassination of Ali, Mu'awiya, and Amr ibn al-As to end the civil war, though only the strike against Ali succeeded. Ali died of his wounds two days later at the age of sixty-two. Following his death, his eldest son Hasan was proclaimed caliph in Kufa and subsequently oversaw the execution of Ibn Muljam.[31]
The Kharijite insurgency directly contributed to the collapse of Hasan's military campaign against Mu'awiya I. During the mobilization at Al-Mada'in, a Kharijite-led mutiny broke out within Hasan's ranks. A rebel named Al-Jarrah ibn Sinan attacked and wounded Hasan, accusing him of unbelief (kufr).[32] This internal instability, a continuation of the Muhakkima dissent, effectively ended Rashidun resistance and necessitated the Hasan–Mu'awiya treaty, marking the transition to Umayyad rule.[33]
↑Dakake 2008, p.74. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDakake2008 (help)
Sources
Yahya, Hashim al-Mallāḥ (2013). الوسيط في السيرة النبوية والخلافة الراشدة (in Arabic). Dar Al Kotob Al Ilmiyah دار الكتب العلمية. ISBN978-2-7451-5673-0.
al-ʻAsqalānī, Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Ibn Ḥajar (1856). Istīʻāb fī asmāʼ al-aṣḥāb (in Arabic). Maṭbaʻ Madrasat al-Usquf.
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