if the judgment turned out to be in disregard of righteousness...

if the judgment turned out to be in disregard of righteousness, he would at once reject it and would again set out against the enemy. Concluding, he said that it was wrong of them if they desired him to break the truce, which they themselves had driven him to arrange.

To all this reasoning they simply answered, 'we do admit of our sin, but we have repented of our apostasy; and thou must repent of it likewise.' To this Ali replied that he being a true believer he would not belie himself by admitting his apostasy. Their revolt 37 A.H. The Kharijites were not satisfied and they resolved on rebellion; but awaiting the issue of the umpire's decision, they for the present postponed any overt action.

Soon after the judgment of the arbitrators, they determined to raise the standard of revolt and prevailed on Abdallah b. Wahab, one of their chiefs, to accept (contrary to the principles of their creed ) the command, as a temporary expedient, to meet the emergency. Fixing their headquarters at Nahrwan, a few miles from Baghdad , in the month following the arbitration, they secretly began to leave and to meet at the rendezvous, either singly or in small batches for fear of raising an alarm.

Some five hundred malcontents from Busra also joined the insurgents at Nahrwan. In the meantime, Ali, having received intelligence of the deceitful arbitration at Duma, took little notice of these fanatic zealots, his thoughts being more occupied with the affairs of Moawiya and raising levies for Syria for the renewal of hostilities. Hearing about the Kharijite insurgents, Ali wrote to them that as he was preparing to march against Moawiya, it was high time for them to join his standard.

To this they sent an insulting reply that they had cast him off as an ungodly heretic unless he acknowledged his apostasy and repented thereof, in which case they would see whether anything could be arranged between them. **The battle of Nahrwan.

** Ali had commenced his march on Syria when he received tidings that the Kharijites had attempted a raid on Madaen but were beaten back to their camp; that they were committing horrible outrages in the country all around their camp, condemning as impious all those who did not fall in with their sentiments; that they had put to death a traveller who refused to accept their creed, and ripped up his wife who was with child.