regions in learning and religious devotion—in his creed, which he described as the creed of the people of the Sunnah and the community. This was the creed that the caliph al-Qādir wrote down, read publicly, and united the people upon. Various Sunni groups affirmed it, and he required those who had departed from the Sunnah—the Mu‘tazilites, the Rāfidites, and others like them—to repent, in 413 AH. The ruler Mahmūd ibn Sabuktakīn followed his example with similar measures in the eastern lands. This was [at the time of