The Formation of Islam Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800

With the full development of sectarian movements within the Islamic umma, the stage was set for the crystallization of a specifically Sunni Muslim identity, which took shape largely in response to the threat of sectarian fragmentation. Khariji Islam survived in peripheral areas of the Islamic world, but in the central Near East in this period posed little threat. It did play some role in the revolt of African slaves (the “Zanj”) in southern Iraq in the late ninth century. This rebellion was driven by the appalling conditions in which slaves worked harvesting natron in the region's extensive and virtually impenetrable marshes, but it also relied heavily on its charismatic instigator, an enigmatic figure named Muhammad ibn cAli. The Khariji slogan la hukma illa lillah, “judgment is God's alone,” appeared on Muhammad's banners and coins which were minted in his name. But Muhammad was an opportunist, drawing on support wherever he could find it – at one point he claimed cAlid descent, and unsuccessfully sought an alliance with the Ismacili leader Hamdan Qarmat, whose name survived in that of the Qarmatians. As a result, the ideological orientation of the Zanj rebellion is somewhat confused. From hindsight, perhaps the most important aspect of the Zanj revolt was simply its timing, in the late ninth century, at just the moment that an active Ismacili movement appeared, the Imams most widely recognized by the Shica were disappearing, and the fragmentation of effective political authority called into question the precise significance of the cAbbasid caliphate.