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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

7. A Turn to Radical Puritanism

Terrorists - Kharijites — Kharijites. Shafaqna

In the protracted fight the Umayyad Caliph, the Kharijites earned a reputation among contemporary Muslims as horrific radicals. On the one hand, they adopted and stuck to democratic and egalitarian principles, whereby governance was to be entrusted to Caliphs elected by and responsible to the Muslim community. Commendable as those principles might have been, they were more than counterbalanced by viciousness and fierce fanaticism that turned off many. The Kharijites contended that Muslims who backslid or sinned, such as those who drank alcohol, fornicated, missed the daily prayers, failed to fast on Ramadan, or even engaged in idle gossip, had engaged in behavior that rendered them apostates. That made them worthy of death. The Kharijites launched a terror campaign against the Caliph’s supporters, as well as those who failed to meet their purity standards.

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.