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Terrifying Terrorists of the Ancient World and Medieval Era

Khalid Elhassan February 20, 2025 15 min

Terrorists - A Sicarius springing into action — A Sicarius springing into action. Deadliest Fiction

8. Going on the Warpath

1065px martyrdom of imam ali by yousef abdinejad.jp — The Kharijite assassination of Caliph Ali. Wikipedia

The Kharijites soured on Ali, whom they now viewed as much of a usurper as his rival. So they decided to get rid of both, and plotted to assassinate the rival caliphs on the same day during Friday prayers. The assassins who went after Ali succeeded and got their man in 661. However, those who went after his rival Caliph Muawiya only managed to wound him. Muawiya survived, emerged as sole Caliph, and went on to establish the Umayyad Caliphate, a hereditary monarchy in all but name. The Kharijites rose in rebellion against Muawiya, now Islam’s sole ruler thanks to a helping hand from the botched Kharijite plot that had killed his rival but left him alive. In their struggle against the first Umayyad Caliph, Muawiya I, the Kharijites contended that he was illegitimate because he gained the Caliphate by force of arms, rather than election by the Muslim community.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.