And he applied his sunnah in the measures he entrusted to him in the regions of Khurasan and elsewhere: the killing of the Muʿtazila (rationalists), the Rafida (Shiʿites), the Ismāʿīliyya, the Jahmiyya, and the Mushabbihah (anthropomorphists), crucifying them, imprisoning them, and exiling them; he also ordered that they be cursed from the pulpits of the Muslims and that all sects of innovators be expelled from their lands. The Qarmatians (Karamiyya) made incursions during the reign of Yamin al-Dawla, who adhered to their doctrine. Debates were held between them and the Ashʿaris on certain questions—among them the nature of the Throne. Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373) reports that Muhammad ibn al-Haytham, one of those who sat in attendance on Sultan Mahmud ibn Subuktakin, engaged in disputation on this issue with Abū Bakr ibn Furak before the sultan. The debates ended with the sultan siding with ibn al-Haytham’s view, reproaching ibn Furak for his arguments, and ordering his expulsion when he found him in agreement with the Jahmiyya. See: al-Muntaẓam by Ibn al-Jawzi, vol. 7, p. 287; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihāya by Ibn Kathir, vol. 12, pp. 7, 33; Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya by al-Subki, vol. 4, pp. 130–133; Shadharāt al-Dhahab by Ibn al-ʿImād, vol. 3, p. 186. Also see what Abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥarawī states in his manuscript Kitāb Dhamm al-Kalām (7th part, 9th chapter, plate 8): that Mahmud ibn Subuktakin urged uncovering the veil over the Ashʿaris, exposing their faults and cursing them, saying: “I curse whoever does not curse them.” (1) In the original it reads s: mamlikatihi (“his kingdom”). The corrected reading is from the printed edition. (2) They are the followers of Muhammad ibn Mikhaʾil ibn Saljuq Abū Ṭālib, surnamed Rukn al-Dīn Tughril Beg, the first sultan of the Seljuk dynasty (Turks), who died in 455 AH/1063 CE. See: al-Kāmil by Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 9, p. 473 ff.; Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya by al-Subki, vol. 3, p. 389; al-Aʿlām by al-Zarkālī, vol. 7, p. 342. In 445 AH/1053 CE Sultan Tughril Beg ordered that innovators be cursed collectively from the pulpits at Friday prayers. His vizier, Manṣūr al-Kindarī, associated the Ashʿaris with the leaders of innovation and tested the scholars, causing al-Qushayrī and al-Juwaynī to leave the city. He composed a treatise entitled The Complaint of the People of the Sunnah, recounting the ordeal they suffered, until the deaths of the sultan and his vizier. They were succeeded by Alp Arslan and his vizier, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Isḥāq, after which conditions improved, order was restored, and those who had departed returned to their homeland in honor.