Iraq after the Muslim Conquest - Michael G. Morony

MUSLIMS: DOCTRINES

Better for us is death in the war for God, than a life of shame

and baseness. If thou wilt begin with one of the works of God,

make thy testament beforehand as one who has no further life in

this world and as one prepared for death.^41

In Christian piety this had already taken the form of preparing pro-
visions for the next world.^42
But Isaac's war was spiritual. Salil:t led an armed revolt against
Marwani rule which ended in his own death in 695. The remnants of
his following gathered around Shabib ibn Yazid ash-Shaybani, who
led the movement for two more years until he, too, was killed in the
spring of 697. His forces were composed of small bands of several
hundred horsemen and operated along the upper Tigris from the region
around Mawsil to Nasibin and Mardin, but they also raided as far
south as Mada'in and Kufa. They were on good terms with the local
Christians, and Shabib the I:Iariiri' was one of the few figures of early
Islamic history to be noticed by Christian chroniclers. His program
was still essentially political and rooted in grievances that went back
to the reign of 'Uthman. His envoy is reported to have told the gov-
ernor of Mada'in, "That for which we seek revenge on behalf of our
people are the monopolization of the fay', the failure to enforce the
prescribed punishments (Ar. ~udud), and government by compulsion
(Ar. jabariyya)."43
Those Khawarij who had decided to stay in Basra in 684, who
accepted or supported Mus'ab ibn az-Zubayr, and who accepted Mar-
wani rule at the end of the {itna had to justify their inaction in some
way and needed to adjust to the realities of non-Khariji rule. By the
690s, moderate groups of Sufri and Iba<;li Khawarij existed at Basra.
They practiced dissimulation and admitted that other Muslims were
at least monotheists. The Iba<;liyya allowed intermarriage and inher-
itance with other Muslims, and the Sufriyya refused to say whether
or not an adulterer was still a believer. Others (called W~qifiyya)
suspended judgment on other Muslims because, as humans, they were

41 Voobus, "Ephrem," p. 103; Isaac of Nineveh, "Mystic Treatises," p. 65.
42 Mingana, W oodbrooke Studies, VII, 190-91; Isaac of Nineveh, "Mystic Treatises,"
p.156.
43 Baethgen, Fragmente, pp. 35-36; Elias of Nasibin, Opus Chronologieum, I, CSCO,
Ser. Syri, 21:153; 23:73-74; Levi Della Vida, "KhariQiites," p. 906; Tabari, Ta'rtkh,
II, 984; K. V. Zettersteen, "Shabib," EI(l), IV, 243-44. For the Qur'anic use of budud
to mean limits on human behavior, see G. R. Hawting, "The significance of the slogan
la bukm' ilia lillah and the references to the budud in the traditions about the Fitna
and the murder of 'Uthmiin," BSOAS, 41 (1978),457.