MUSLIMS: DOCTRINESthe land grants made by 'Uthman and his governors to reduce the
main source of their own military stipends. In addition, many of the
opponents of 'Uthman were Qur'an reciters and people of piety. These
elements at Basra and Kufa supported and joined in the revolt that
ended in the assassination of 'Uthman in 656, which they regarded
as justifiable tyrannicide.^4 Afterwards the same elements at Basra and
Kufa tended to oppose those who sought revenge for the death of
'Uthman and at first they supported 'All. A purge of those implicated
in 'Uthman's death was conducted at Basra in 656 by Tall:J.a and az-
Zubayr, but I:Iurqii~ ibn Zuhayr of the Banii Sa'd clan of Tamim
managed to escape the purge because he was protected by his clan.s
At the Battle of Siffin in July of 657, these same elements forced
'All to accept the appeal to the Qur'an made by Mu'awiya's army
and to end the fighting and enter into negotiations because they ex-
pected that a judgment according to the principles of the Qur'an would
vindicate them. But when 'All agreed to submit the dispute between
himself and Mu'awiya to arbitration based on the Qur'an and human
judgment, they raised a great cry of "Judgment belongs only to God"
(Ar. la lJukma illa li-llahi) and abandoned 'All.6 Refusing to return
to Kufa with 'All, some twelve thousand of them camped at the village
of Harura just outside of Kufa. They put Shabath ibn Rib'i at-Tamimi
in charge of fighting and 'Abdullah ibn al-Kawwa' al-Yashkiiri, who
had favored judgment according to the Qur'an at Siffin, in charge of
worship. The program of the J:lariiri's was threefold: they wanted a
council (Ar. shura) to be held after victory; they would in the meantime
give their allegiance to God; and they insisted on applying the Qur'anic
ethic of commanding the good and forbidding the evil?
All was able to persuade the J:lariiri's to return to Kufa. However,
after the arbitration ended disastrously for 'All in the spring of 658,
Hurqii~ ibn Zuhayr turned up as a spokesman of the J:laruri's at Kufa,^8
and they withdrew again under 'Abdullah ibn Wahb. They were joined
by large numbers of Qur'an reciters whose exodus from Kufa on that
occasion gave the movement its designation of Khawarij (seceders).
Mis'ar ibn Fadaki at-Tamimi, who had led the Basran Qur'an reciters
at Siffin and had favored judgment according to the Qur'an, joined
4 Baladhuri, Ansiib, V, 59.
5 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 3131.
6 M. Hinds, "The Siffin Arbitration Agreement," JSS 17 (1972), 93-129.
7 Dinawari, Akhbar at-tiwii1, p. 204; Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 3349.
, Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 1, 3360.