Azariqa

The Azariqa were one of the main branches of the Kharijites. Their name comes from their leader Nafi' b. al-Azraq al-Hanafi al-Hanzali, who, according to al-Ash'ari, was the first to split the Kharijites by holding that all adversaries should be put to death with their women and children. He was the son of a manumitted Greek blacksmith. In 64 AH (683) he came to the aid of 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, besieged in Mecca, and then returned to Basra, where he took advantage of the disorder that followed the death of Yazid b. Mu'awiya. The split between moderate and extremist Kharijites at Basra, placed by tradition in 65 AH (684-5), divided the Kharijites into Ibadites and Azariqa. ²

The Azariqa withdrew to Khuzistan, where Muslim b. 'Ubays caught up with them at Dulab; Nafi' and the Zubayrid general both died in the fighting in 65 AH (685). They reorganised under 'Ubayd Allah b. al-Mahuz, and for months the region between Basra and al-Ahwaz suffered massacres, looting and arson, the Azariqa killing all who refused their creed. Al-Muhallab b. Abi Sufra was appointed to fight them, and after a long series of campaigns they were driven into Fars, Kirman and finally Jiruft. In 78-79 AH (698-9) Qatari b. al-Fuja'a, their last great leader, was killed in the mountains of Tabaristan by Sufyan b. al-Abrad, and his head was sent to Damascus. The last Azariqa at Sadhawwar were exterminated after a siege. The revolt was the most dangerous of the Kharijite disorders to the unity of the Muslim empire. ¹

According to al-Ash'ari the Azariqa differed from the other Kharijites on several points: they excluded from Islam the quietists (qa'ida); they examined everyone who wished to join their army (mihna); they counted as unbelievers the Muslims who did not join their emigration (hijra); they slaughtered the women and children of their adversaries (istirad); and they excluded those who practised dissimulation (taqiyya). Al-Shahrastani and al-Baghdadi add that they rejected stoning for adultery as not prescribed in the Qur'an. Ibn Hazm adds that they spared those who acknowledged that they were Jews, Christians or Zoroastrians, because they enjoyed the dhimma. ³