RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESany sin. Najda and his followers, who were called Najdiyya, controlled
central Arabia during the later years of the second fitna and were
somewhat more moderate. They felt that Muslims who failed to sup-
port them actively were merely hypocrites rather than unbelievers and
only defined persistence in sin, such as theft and adultery, as shirk.
The Sufriyya equated the neglect of worship and fasting with unbelief
because unbelief could result from such laxityY
It is impossible to ascribe all of this to Arab tribal attitudes even
when they had been enshrined in the Islamic concept of jihiid, which
justified raids against unbelievers.28 It is equally difficult to explain
Khariji activity exclusively in terms of tribal identities. Khawarij at
Kufa in the time of 'All and Mu'awiya seem to have come mainly
from the Kinda, the Tayyi', the Sulaym, and the Taym ar-Ribab clan
of Tamim. At Basra one hundred and fifty men of the 'Abd al-Qays
were among the rebels who had gone to Madina and participated in
the killing of 'Uthman.^29 Afterwards some of the 'Abd al-Qays were
attracted to the uprising of al-Khirrit ibn Rashid. Thereafter Khawarij
at Basra seem to have come mainly from the Banii Sa' d clan of Tamim
and from the Yashkur. Some of these groups were latecomers to the
garrison cities and suffered economic discrimination; others were be-
coming internally polarized. It is important to note that none of these
groups joined the Khawarij en masse; this was done only by individual
members, and the Khawarij themselves seem to have been unconcerned
with tribal affiliations.^30 Arabs who participated in the movement seem
to have been obscure otherwise or younger rather than being members
of the ashriif One of the best examples of the difference between
generations is Tarafa ibn 'Adi, who left Kufa in 657 to join 'Abdullah
ibn Wahb in spite of the objections of his father, 'Adi ibn I:Iatim at-
Ta'Vl
Many Khawarij were not Arabs at all. Most of the two hundred
followers of Abii Maryam as-Sa'di of Tamim who rebelled in January
659 were mawiilt.32 There were slaves and mawiilt among the Khawarij
27 Salem, Khawiirij, pp. 34, 73; Montgomery Watt, Formative Period, p. 24.
28 Montgomery Watt, Formative Period, p. 20. The bedouin explanation seems to go
back to Ibn Khaldiin.
29 Baladhuri, Ansiib, V, 59.
30 M. A. Cook, Early Muslim Dogma: A Source-critical Study (Cambridge, 1981),
p. 96; Salem, Khawarij, p. 19.
31 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 3366. Dlnawari (Akhbiir at-(iwiil, p. 218) calls him Zayd ibn
'Adi.
32 Ibn al-Athir, Ta'rzkh, Ill, 373.