RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESaspects to the use of support for 'All's family as an expression of
discontent. One was the attempt by some notables, such as l;Iujr ibn
'Adi, Malik ai-Ash tar, or al-Mukhtar, whose position was threatened
or in decline because of the rise of the new elite, to rescue their position
by attaching themselves to the fortunes of 'Ali's family and hoping
for the best. The other aspect was polarization within tribal groups
and within the population as a whole, which led some Arabs to see
'Ali's family as the symbol of their hopes for restoring social and
economic justice. Both kinds of supporters were briefly allied in the
movement of al-Mukhtar. When the Kufan citadel fell to them in 685,
they divided among themselves the five million dirhams they found in
the treasury, each man receiving five hundred dirhams. Six thousand
men who joined al-Mukhtar later were given two hundred dirhams
each.^94
Some of the ideas associated with the early supporters of 'Ali's
family have an Islamic background and were brought to Iraq by Mus-
lims. They made the same appeal as the Khawarij and other serious
Muslims to equality among believers, to the Book of God, and to the
sunna of Mu~ammad. They made the same claims as other Compan-
ions for status within the community based on early conversion. But
asceticism was not as typical of them as it was of the Khawarij, and
they preferred to emphasize prophetic authority. Those who stayed
by 'All after Siffin had to justify their continued support in spite of
his unpopular (some would say unwise) decisions. It was not very far
from asserting that 'Ali was in the right to asserting that he could not
be wrong, or from arguing that he was not to blame for the (itna to
arguing that he was sinless. Rightness was put in terms of the inher-
itance of prophetic knowledge, the continuation of Mu~ammad's mis-
sion, and of the continuation of prophetic authority within the family
of 'Ali. AI-Mukhtar surrounded himself with prophetic symbolism
that evoked comparisons with Mu~ammad. He delivered predictions
in rhymed prose (Ar. san which imitated the Qur'an, called his fol-
lowers An~ar, and encouraged the belief that angels fought on his side
as they had for Mu~ammad.95 The authoritative example of righteous
people was widely regarded as a source of guidance for other Muslims
in the seventh century and ever since. But as most other Muslims
abandoned 'All's political leadership and failed to support the claims
made for his family, those who did support them restricted the pro-
94 Baladhuri, Ansiib, V, 228; Tabari, Ta'rikh, 11, 634.
95 Dixon, Umayyad Caliphate, p. 38; Thomson, "Early Islamic Sects," p. 92.