Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

they believed that they were disbelievers and that their rule was illegitimate,
with the exception of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.
The clash between the two groups had started at a very early stage when
Muʿāwiyah I had dispatched a battalion from Shām to combat the Khawārij,
but it was defeated near Kūfah. Subsequent to that Muʿāwiyah I ordered the
people of Kufah to attack them and they had succeeded in defeating them and
banishing them. 1
Revolts followed one after the other in various areas. 2 It would barely stop in one
area but that it would gain momentum in another. The only time they would rest
was to recover from their exhaustion and to prepare for new revolts.
The Umayyad clash with the Khawārij had taken a political turn, i.e. the only
objective thereof being safeguarding the dynasty from anyone plotting against it.
And as was their wont, it was characterised by sternness and harshness. They had
thus given their governors carte blanche authority in dealing with the Khawārij
and in deploying all measures which they felt were appropriate in eliminating
them. Consequently, some of the Khawārij were compelled to flee and hide. 3 And
with the combat intensifying over time, the governors were further incited with
promises of handsome compensations. For example, they had told al-Muhallab: 4
1 Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 8/22.
2 Al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 4/117; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 9/244, 10/25, 57; al-ʿIbar fī Khabar man Ghabar
1/90; al-Maghrib 1/156.
3 Al-Iṣābah fī Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥābah 5/305.
4 Al-Muhallab ibn Ẓālim ibn Surāqah al-Azdī, Abī Saʿīd. He was well known as Ibn Abī Ṣufrah. He was
the governor of Khorasan and was one of the notables of Baṣrah, their geniuses and their generous
men. He was born the year Makkah was conquered. In the days of Muʿāwiyah I he participated in
the Jihad in India. He had governed the Arabian peninsula for Ibn al-Zubayr in 68 A.H. Thereafter Ḥajjāj
had selected him to combat the Khawārij and he had managed to kill four thousand eight hundred
people in one battle. This had earned him acclaim. He passed away in 82 A.H. See: al-Muntaẓam 6/242;
Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 61/280; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 9/42; Shadharāt al-Dhahab 1/90.
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