J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

124 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. sect. viii.
38th year of the Hejra, which was the year following the revolt, all these
Kharejites, who persisted in tJieir rebellion, to the number of four thousand,
were cut to pieces by Ali, and as sevei-al historians^ write, even to a man :
but others say nine of them escaped, and that two fled into Oman, two into
Kerman, two into Sejestan, two into Mesopotamia, and one to Tel Muwrun;
and that these propagated their heresy in those places, the same remaining
there to this day.^ The principal sects of tlie Kharejites, besides the
Mohakkemites above mentioned are six ; which, though they greatly differ
among themselves in other matters, yet agree in these, viz. that they abso-
lutely reject Othm^n and Ali, preferring the doing of this to the greatest
obedience, and allowing marriages to be contracted on no other terms ; that
they account those who are guilty of grievous sins to be infidels; and that
they hold it necessary to resist the Imam when he transgresses the law.
One sect of them deserves more particular notice, viz.
The Waidians; so called from al Waid, which signifies the thi'eats de-
nounced by God against the wicked. These are the antagonists of the
Moi'gians, and assert that he who is guilty of a grievous sin ought to be
declared an inSdel or apostate, and will be eternally punished in hell,
though he were a true believer:* which oj>iuion of theirs, as has been
observed, occasioned the first rise of the Motazalites. One Jaafar Ebn
Mobashshar, of the sect of the Nodhamians, was yet more severe than the
Waidians, pronouncing him to be a reprobate and an apostate who steals
but a grain of corn.*
IV. The Shiites are the opponents of the Kharejites : their name
]iroperly signifies sectaries or adherents in general, Ijut is peculiarly used to
denote those of Ali Ebn Abi Tiileb ; who maintain him to be lawful Khalif
and Imam, and that the supreme authority, both in spirituals and temporals,
of right belongs to his descendants, notwithstanding they may be deprived
of it by the injustice of others, or their own fear. They also teach, that the
ofiice of Imam is not a common thing, depending on the will of the vulgar,
so that they may set up whom they please; but a fundamental affair of
religion, and an article which the pi'ophet could not have neglected, or left
to the fancy of the common people :^ nay, some, thence called Imamians,
go so for as to assert, that religion consists solely in the knowledge of the
true Imam.'' The principal sects of the Shiites are five, which are subdivided
into an almost innumerable number; so that some understand Mohammed's
prophecy of the seventy odd sects, of the Shiites only. Their general
opinions are, 1. That the peculiar designation of the Imam, and the testi-
monies of the Koian and Mohammed concerning him, are necessary points.
2. Tliat the Imams ought necessarily to keep themselves free from liglit sins
as well as more grievous. 3. That every one ought publicly to declare
who it is that he adheres to, and from whom he separates himself, by word,
deed, or engagement; and that herein there should be no dissimulation.
But in this last point some of the Zeidians, a sect so named from Zeid, the
son of Ali, surnamed Zein al abedin, and great grandson of Ali, dissented
from tlierestoftheShiites.* Astotheother articles, wherein they agreed not,
some of them came pretty near to the notions of the Motazalites, others to
those of the jNIoshabbehites, and others to those of the Sonuites.^ Among
the latter of these, Mohammed al Baker, another son of Zein al abedin's,
seems to claim a place : for his opinion as to the will of God was, thaC God
" Abu'lfeda, al Jannabi, Elmacinus, p. 40. ' Al Shahrcstani. See Ockley's
Hist, of the Saracens, ubi sup p. 63. * Abulfar. p. 16y. Al Shahreet. apud Toe.
Spec. p. 256. « Vide Poc. ibid p. 257. * Al Shahrest- ibid. p. 261. Abullar. p.
1G9. 7 Al Shahrest. ibid. p. 262. » Idem, ibid. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orioiit. Art
bchiah. Vide Poc. ibid.