Akhnasites.—A section of the Thaʽāliba not so strict in treatment
of those who fear to fight for Islam.
Ashʽarites.—Followers of Ashʽarī (q.v.) who are counted by Shahrastānī among the Ṣifātites.
Aṭrāfites.—A division of the ʽAjārida who agree with the Ḥamzites except that they excuse the lower classes for inaction when they are ignorant of the law.
Azraqites.—Khārijites who followed al-Azraq in the days of Ibn Zubair. They held ʽAli to be an unbeliever; those who did not fight were unbelievers; the children of unbelievers were to be put to death and went to hell. Sin is unbelief.
Bahshamites.—Muʽtazilites akin to the Jubbāʽites.
Baihasites.—Khārijites, followers of Abu Baihas ul-Haitham, who was put to death by the caliph Walīd. They asserted the necessity of knowledge for religion.
Bāqirites.—Shiʽites who followed Abū Jaʽfar ul-Bāqir, the fifth imām, and looked for his return.
Bāṭinites.—Ismaʽilites, so called because they believe that every external has an internal (bātin), and every passage in the Koran has an allegoric meaning.
Bishrites.—Muʽtazilites, followers of Bishr ibn Muʽtamir, one of the most learned men of his party. His teaching was philosophical and was distinguished by his doctrine of “origination” (tawallud).
Bunānites.—Kaisānites, followers of Bunān ibn Simʽān un-Nahdī, who claimed that the imāmate passed from Abū Hāshim to himself and that he had also acquired the divine element of ʽAlī.
Butrites.—Zaidites, followers of Kathīr un-Nawā ul-Abtar, who agreed with the Suleimanites (Sulaimānites) except that he suspended judgment as to whether Othmān was a believer or not.
Ḍirārites.—Jabarites who empty God of his attributes, and assert that man has a sixth sense by which he will see God on the day of resurrection. The actions of man are “created” and acquired by him. A caliph need not be chosen from the Koreish.
Ghāliites (Ghulā) are the extreme Shiʽites (q.v.) in ascribing deity to the imāms. Their heresies are said to be four in number: (1) Making God resemble man, (2) ascribing change of mind to God, (3) looking for the return of the imām, (4) metempsychosis. They are divided by Shahrastānī into ten classes.
Ghassānites.—Murjiites, followers of Ghassān ibn ul-Kufī, who say that faith consists of knowledge of God, his apostle, and the Koran in general not in detail, and that faith increases but is not diminished.
Ḥabities = Ḥāyitites (below).
Ḥadathites (Ḥudabites) are Muʽtazilites, followers of Faḍl ibn ul-Ḥadathī, who agreed with the Ḥāyitites (below).
Ḥafṣites.—Ibāḍites, followers of Ḥafṣ ibn abī-l-Miqdām, who distinguished between idolatry (shirk) and unbelief (kufr).
Ḥamzites.—ʽAjārida, followers of Hamza ibn Adrak in Sijistān. They agree with the Maimūnites, but condemn the children of unbelievers to hell.
Ḥārithites.—Ibāḍites who differ from others in holding the Muʽtazilite doctrine of free-will.
Ḥarūrites.—A name given to the first Khārijites, who rebelled against ʽĀli, and met in Ḥarūra near Kufa.
Hāshimites.—Shiʽites who supported Abū Hāshim, son of Mahommed ibn ul-Ḥanafiyya, although they held that his father had gone astray.
Hāshwiites.—A party who asserted the eternity even of the letters of the Koran. They are not mentioned as a separate sect by Shahrastānī; cf. van Vloten, “Les Hachwia et Nabita,” in the Acts of the 11th Oriental Congress (Paris, 1899), pt. iii., pp. 99 sqq.
Ḥāyiṭites.—Muʽtazilites who agreed with the Naẓẓāmites, but added three heresies of their own: (1) the divinity of the Messiah, (2) metempsychosis, (3) the interpretation of all references to the vision of God as referring to the “first Reason” or “creative Reason.”
Hishāmites.—A name given to two sects: (1) Muʽtazilites, strong in their assertion of man’s free-will, even opposing the statement of the Koran. (2) Shiʽites of the extreme kind, who attributed to God a body with quantities (measurements) and qualities.
Ḥudabites.—See Ḥadathites.
Hudhailites (Hodhailites).—Muʽtazilites, followers of Abū-l Hudhail Ḥamdān, who was a leading teacher of his party and developed the philosophical side of its teaching. Ten of his main doctrines are given by Shahrastānī.
Ibaḍites.—Khārijites of moderate tendencies (see above).
Ilbāites.—Ghāliites who put ʽAlī above Mahomet and blamed the latter because he called men to himself instead of to ʽAlī.
Imāmites.—One of the chief divisions of the Shiʽites (q.v.).
Isḥāqites.—Ghāliites agreeing with the Nuṣairites except that they incline to speak of the imams’ participation in the prophetic office rather than of their divinity.
Ismaʽīlites.—This name is applied to all who consider Ismaʽīl ibn Jaʽfar the last imām, some believing that he did not die but will return, others, that at his death his son Mahommed became imām (see Assassins); it is also used as equivalent to the Bāṭinites.
Ithnaʽasharites.—Imāmites who accept the twelve imāms (see Shiʽites).
Jabarites.—Those who deny all actions and power to act to man and ascribe all to God (see above).
Jaʽfarites.—Imāmites who carry the imāmate no farther than Jaʽfar uṣ-Ṣadīq.
Jāhizites.—Muʽtazilites, followers of the celebrated writer Jāhiẓ (q.v.), who indulged in philosophical speculations, believed in the eternity of matter, and was regarded as a naturalist (ṭabaʽī) rather than a theist (allahī).
Jahmites.—Jabarites, followers of Jahm ibn Ṣafwān, who was put to death at Merv toward the close of the Omayyad period. He was extreme in his denial of the attributes of God.
Jārūdites.—Zaidites who held that Mahomet designated ʽAlī as imām, not by name but by his attributes, and that the Moslem sinned by not taking sufficient trouble to recognize these attributes.
Jubbāʽites.—Muʽtazilites who followed the philosophical teaching of Abu ʽAlī Mahommed ul-Jubbāʽi of Basra.
Kaisānites.—A main class of the Shiʽites (q.v.).
Kāmilites.—Ghāliites, followers of Abū Kāmil, who condemned the companions (Anṣār) because they did not do allegiance to ʽAlī, and ʽAlī because he surrendered his claims.
Karrāmites.—Ṣifātites, followers of Ibn Karrām, who went so far as to ascribe a body to God, and assimilated his nature to human nature.
Kayyālites.—Ghāliites, followers of Ahmad ibn Kayyāl, who, after supporting a propaganda for an Aliite, claimed to be the imām himself on the ground of his power over the spheres.
Khalafites.—ʽAjārida of Kermān and Multān, who believed that God wills good and evil, but condemned the children of unbelievers to hell.
Khārijites.—One of the earliest sects of Islam (see above).
Khārimites.—ʽAjārida, agreeing mostly with the Shuʽaibites and teaching that the relation of God to a man depends on what he professes at the end of his life.
Khaṭṭābites.—Ghāliites, followers of Abū-l Khaṭṭāb, who was put to death by Ibn Mūsā at Kufa. He was a violent supporter of Jaʽfar uṣ-Ṣādiq, who however disowned him.
Khayyātites.—Muʽtazilites, followers of Abū-l Ḥosain ul-Khayyāt, a teacher in Bagdad, part of whose philosophical teaching was that the non-existent is a thing.
Maʽbadites.—Thaʽlabites who differed from the Akhnasites on the question of the marriage of believing women and from Thaʽlab on the question of taking alms from slaves.
Maimūnites.—ʽAjārida, followers of Maimūn ibn Khālid, who believed that God wills good only and that man determines his actions.
Majhūlites.—Thaʽlabites, agreeing generally with the Khārimites, but teaching that he who knows some names and attributes of God and is ignorant of some knows God.
Maʽlūmites.—Thaʽlabites agreeing generally with the Khārimites but alleging that a believer must know all the names and attributes of God.
Manṣūrites.—Ghāliites, followers of Abū Manṣūr ul-ʽIjlī, who at first supported al-Bāqir, but, rejected by him, claimed the imāmate for himself. He was crucified by the caliph Hishām ibn ʽAbd ul-Mālik (Abdalmalik).
Muʽammarites.[1]—Muʽtazilites who strongly denied the predestination of God, and affirmed that God created bodies only, and that the accidents spring naturally from them.
Mufaḍḍalites.[1]—The same as the Mūsāites (q.v.).
Mughīrites.[1]—Ghāliites, followers of Mughīra ibn Saʽīd ul-ʽIjlī, who claimed the imāmate and prophetic office and held extremely gross views of God.
Muhakkima[1] (the first).—Another name for the Ḥarūrites (above).
Mukarramites.[1]—Thaʽlabites who taught that sin consists in ignorance of God.
Mukhtārites.[1]—Kaisānites, followers of al-Mukhtār ibn ʽUbaid, who held to Mahommed ibn ul-Ḥanafīyya but was disowned by him. He allowed the possibility of change of mind on the part of God.
Murjiites.—Those who postponed judgment of actions until the Day of Judgment. See above.
Mūṣāites.—Imāmites who held to the imāmate of Mūsā ibn Jaʽfar, who was imprisoned by Harun al-Rashid and poisoned.
Mushabbiha.[1]—Ṣifātites who compared God’s actions with human actions. They said that the Koran was eternal with all its letters, accents and written signs.
Muʽtazilites.[1]—The rationalists of Islam. See above, cf. also H. Steiner, Die Muʽtaziliten oder die Freidenker im Islām (Leipzig, 1865).
Muzdārites.[1]—Muʽtazilites, followers of al-Muzdār, a pupil of Bishr (cf. Bishrites) whose teaching he developed further. He taught that God has power to do evil, but, if he acted thus, would be an evil God; also that man can produce the equal of the Koran.
Najadat (also known as ʽAdhirites).—Kharijites, who followed Najda ibn ʽĀmir of Yemāma as he went to join the Azraqites but withdrew from these, being more orthodox than they. He held that fear of fighting was not sin.
Nāwisites take their name from a person or a place. They are Jaʽfarites who believe in Ṣādiq as the mahdi.
