and upheld it, subduing the neighboring unbelievers. Their governance in religious and worldly affairs is well known among people.

They were among those furthest removed from the schools of the people of Iraq, let alone the doctrines of the Shīʿah (1). Rather, they followed the school of the people of Medina, while the people of Iraq followed the school of al-Awzāʿī and the people of Syria. They held the school of the hadith scholars in high esteem, and some of them championed it in many matters. They were among those furthest removed from the school of the Shīʿah. There were many Hashimites descended from Husayn among them (2), and some of these became rulers who followed the way of Sunnis.

It is said that some among them refrained from taking a position on Ali and did not count him as the fourth caliph (3), because the Muslim community had not united under him. Yet they did not revile him as some of the Shīʿah did.

One of the scholars of the West composed a large book on the conquests. He related the conquests of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and those of the caliphs who succeeded him: Abū Bakr, Umar, and Uthmān. He did not mention Ali, despite his love and loyalty toward him, because no conquests took place during his time.

All Sunni scholars—Mālik and his disciples, al-Awzāʿī and his disciples, al-Shāfiʿī and his disciples, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his disciples, Abū Hanīfah and his disciples, and all others—love the caliphs, affirm their loyalty to them, and believe in the legitimacy of their caliphates. They condemn anyone who speaks ill of any of them, and do not deem it permissible to say of Ali, Uthmān, or any of the others what the Rāfidah and the Khawārij say of them.