Ajarida (Kharijite sect)

The Ajarida were a Kharijite sect that spread especially in Khurasan. They took their name from their founder, 'Abd al-Karim b. 'Ajrad, a native of Balkh.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed R. Rubinacci, says the sect took its name from 'Abd al-Karim b. 'Ajrad, who seceded from the 'Atawiyya, a subdivision of the Najdiyya. He was a native of Balkh and was imprisoned by Khalid al-Qasri, governor of Iraq (105–120/724–738). The main tenets attributed to the Ajarida were the exclusion from Islam of children until they grow up and believe, the duty to invite them to the true faith at puberty, the view that the hijra is a meritorious act but not a duty, friendship (wilaya) towards the quietists (al-qa'ida), and the denial that sura Yusuf belongs to the Quran. Most of their branches held a less rigid view on children, treating them as neutral until puberty. The Hamziyya played an important political role in the Abbasid period, and the grave Kharijite revolt that broke out in 179/795 in southern Khurasan and lasted until 195/810 was led by them. ¹