Several contemporaries, among them former adherents of Alí, wrote the story of this rebellion. Out of their writings, along with official documents, Tabarí, himself a contemporary, incorporated in his great Chronicle, a very comprehensive narrative, especially of the events of the war. The well-known book of Mas‘údí supplies us with valuable additions to our information; did we possess his greater works also, we should doubtless know more as to the person of the negro chief and the institutions of his State. Other writers supply us only with incidental notices.
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[51]
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Enmity of this kind between two quarters or guilds is nothing unusual
in Arab towns.
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[52]
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Properly Zeng, hence Zangebar (corrupted into Zanzibar).
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[54]
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“God has bought from the faithful their life and their goods with this
price—that Paradise is to be their portion, and they are to fight, slay, and
be slain in the path of God,” and so on (súra 9, 112). In accordance with
this word “bought,” the Kharijites called themselves by preference “sellers”
(Shurát); for heaven as their price they gave God their souls.
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[55]
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An Arab rebel at that time mockingly said of Caliph Mámún that he
was not able to catch “four hundred frogs” that were within arm’s-length
of him.
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