The Bayázi, also called Abázi,[101] Ibáz and Ibáziyyeh derive their name from Abdullah bin Yahya bin Abáz (in our dictionaries ‘Ibáz’). Some authors have corrupted this name to Beydan, that of a Persian sectarian; others translate it the ‘Whites,’ as opposed to the green of the Fatimites, and the black of the Abbasides. This arch-heretic, according to the Jehan-Numa, began to preach under the reign of El Merwan, the last Ommiade Khalifeh, between A.H. 127-132 (A.D. 744 and 749), and was shortly afterwards conquered and put to death. His tenets spread far and wide amongst the Khawárij of Nezwah, extended to the littoral, and filled the land with battle and murder. The Bayazi, who through their Imams governed Oman for 163 years, beginning from A.D. 751, are thus one of the many Khariji (in the plural Khawárij) sects whose origin may be traced in the rival faiths of Saheism and Kuraysh idolatry; in the contest of the ‘Prophets’ Mohammed and Musaylimeh, and in the political interference of the first Caliphs between the turbulent tribes of Oman. Under the names of Shurah (شراه), Haruriyah (حرورّيه), and Muhakkimah (محکمّه), these ‘Seceders’ were once numerous in northern Africa, Spain, and Arabia; in A.D. 1350 Ibn Batuta found them at Timbucktu. They are now mostly confined to a few cities in Morocco, and to the parts about Maskat. Some theological writers derive these Kharijites from the malcontents who declared that both Ali and Muawiyah had forfeited their right to the Caliphate by appealing from Allah’s judgment to human decisions, and who carried out their objection by murdering Ali and by attempting the murder of Muawiyah and Amru. Their descendants are held to have formed 20 schools like the Shiahs (or Rawáfiz) and the Mutazali; whilst the Marjiyyeh number six; the Mujbirah or Sunnites four, and, together with the Batiniyah, the Hululiyah, and the Zaydi, make up the 73 divisions into which the first Moslem declared El Islam would split. The principal Kharijite schools (Usul el Firak) have, however, been reduced to the following five. The first four are now common only in books. 1. The Azarikah, or followers of Abu Rashid Nafi’ ibn el Azrak. They permit, in religious warfare, the massacre of women and children; they do not lapidate adulterers, Koranic command being absent, and they severely punish the male, not the female, slanderer of the Faithful. 2. The Najdát, disciples of Najdat bin Amir, formerly abounded in Mekran, Kerman, Mosul, Mesopotamia, Seistan, and Oman. They hold persistency in the minor sins (Sughair) equivalent to polytheism (Shirk); whereas mortal sins are not damnable unless accompanied by persistency (Israr). 3. The Baghghasiyyeh, Banhasiyyeh, or Bayhasiyyeh, followers of Abu Baghghas, Banhas, or Bayhas. I have found no account of their ‘doctrinal quiddities.’