he dispatched Jariyah ibn Qudamah al-Tamimi with fifty men to his own clan, Banu Tamim, sending a letter with him. Thereupon most of them withdrew from Ibn al-Hadrami, and Jariyah moved against him, besieging him in a house together with a number of his followers. It is said that they were forty (1), and it is also said seventy. After he had given them fair warning and ample notice, yet they would neither yield nor abandon the purpose for which they had come at Muʿawiyah’s behest, he burned them with fire.

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Ibn Jarir (2) confirms that ʿAli’s battle with the people of Nahrawan took place in this very year, and that the uprising of al-Khurrit ibn Rashid al-Naji occurred this year as well. Al-Khurrit had with him three hundred men of his tribe, Banu Najiyah, who had previously been with ʿAli in Kufah. He came to ʿAli, stood before him, and said, “By Allah, ʿAli, I will not obey your command, nor will I pray behind you; tomorrow I shall leave you.” ʿAli replied, “May your mother be bereaved! Will you thus disobey your Lord, break your covenant, and harm no one but yourself? Why would you do that?” He answered, “Because you accepted arbitration regarding the Book, showed weakness when the crucial moment arrived, and inclined toward the wrong-doing party. So I denounce you (3) and resent you, and we declare ourselves completely separate from you all.”

He then returned to his followers and set out with them toward the region of Basrah. ʿAli sent after them Maʿqil ibn Qays and reinforced him with Khalid ibn Maʿdan al-Taʾi— a man noted for righteousness, piety, courage, and valor—ordering him to heed and obey Maʿqil. When they met, they formed a single army and set off in pursuit of al-Khurrit and his men, overtaking them in the mountains of Ramhurmuz.

“We drew up our ranks,” the narrator said, “and advanced toward them. Maʿqil placed Yazid ibn Maʿqil over the right wing and Minjab ibn Rashid al-Dabbi over the left. Al-Khurrit kept the Arabs with him as his right wing and placed the Kurds and non-Arab auxiliaries on the left.

“Maʿqil ibn Qays rode among us and proclaimed: ‘Servants of Allah, do not strike first; lower your gaze, keep your words few, steel yourselves for thrusting and striking, and rejoice in the reward that awaits you. You are fighting renegades who have broken away from the religion, foreigners who have withheld the land-tax, thieves, and Kurds. When I charge, close in with a single, united assault.’

“He then urged his mount forward twice (4) and on the third time charged them; we all charged with him. By Allah, they could not hold out against us for even an hour before they turned in flight. We killed about three hundred of the foreigners and Kurds. Al-Khurrit fled until he reached Asaf and Bahma, where a large band of his people was gathered, but they pursued him and killed him along with a group of his companions at Sayf al-Bahr. He was slain by al-Nuʿman ibn Sahban, and one hundred and seventy men were killed with him in the battle.

Ibn Jarir then recorded many other encounters that also took place this year between ʿAli’s forces and the Kharijites.