It is clear that the Pietists--including divines learned in the law, reciters of the Koran, Companions of the Prophet and their descendants--could not but abominate the secular authority which they were now compelled to obey. The conviction that Might, in the shape of the tyrant and his minions, trampled on Right as represented by the Koran and the _Sunna_ (custom of Muḥammad) drove many into active rebellion: five thousand are said to have perished in the sack of Medína alone. Others again, like Ḥasan of Baṣra, filled with profound despair, shut their eyes on the world, and gave themselves up to asceticism, a tendency which had important consequences, as we shall see. [Sidenote: The Khárijites.] [Sidenote: Battle of Nahrawán (658 A.D.).] [Sidenote: Khárijite risings.] When ‘Alí, on the field of Ṣiffín, consented that the claims of Mu‘áwiya and himself to the Caliphate should be decided by arbitration, a large section of his army accused him of having betrayed his trust. He, the duly elected Caliph--so they argued--should have maintained the dignity of his high office inviolate at all costs. On the homeward march the malcontents, some twelve thousand in number, broke away and encamped by themselves at Ḥarúrá, a village near Kúfa. Their cry was, "God alone can decide" (_lá ḥukma illá lilláhi_): in these terms they protested against the arbitration. ‘Alí endeavoured to win them back, but without any lasting success. They elected a Caliph from among themselves, and gathered at Nahrawán, four thousand strong. On the appearance of ‘Alí with a vastly superior force many of the rebels dispersed, but the remainder--about half--preferred to die for their faith. Nahrawán was to the Khárijites what Karbalá afterwards became to the Shí‘ites, who from this day were regarded by the former as their chief enemies. Frequent Khárijite risings took place during the early Umayyad period, but the movement reached its zenith in the years of confusion which followed Yazíd's death. The Azraqites, so called after their leader, Náfi‘ b. al-Azraq, overran ‘Iráq and Southern Persia, while another sect, the Najdites, led by Najda b. ‘Ámir, reduced the greater part of Arabia to submission. The insurgents held their ground for a long time against ‘Abdu ’l-Malik, and did not cease from troubling until the rebellion headed by Shabíb was at last stamped out by Ḥajjáj in 697. [Sidenote: Meaning of 'Khárijite.'] [Sidenote: Their political theories.]