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With some justification, Ibadi Muslims complain that although they read the literature of all sects, non-Ibadis hardly ever look at Ibadi literature. Descriptions of Ibadism in the works of medieval Sunni scholars like Ibn Hazm are full of inaccuracies.1 Modern scholarship on Ibadism has been scant, and has tended to focus on its political dimensions. With the exception of Cuperly,2 Western scholars have paid relatively little attention to Ibadi theological perspectives, although Ibadis have written a great deal on this subject. Sunni and Shl'i Muslims may have long ago dismissed the old controversies about God's essence and attributes as obscure and subsidiary issues that have little to do with the spirit of Islam, but for Ibadi Muslim scholars, these problems are of vital importance, separating in their perspective true believers from those who may belong to the community of Muhammad but are nonetheless guilty of a form of kufr that falls short of idolatry.
Ibadis retain a vital interest in the events of the first sectarian splits and civil war in Islam; they are key to their own identity and claim to truth. Nahrawan, east of the Tigris river in southern Iraq, was the site of a slaughter on 17 July 658 CE, when the fourth Caliph of Islam, cAli ibn Abi Talib, roundly defeated the Khawarij, his erstwhile comrades, now his enemies. From the perspective of the majority of Muslims, the last of the "Rightly-Guided Caliphs" had defeated a rebellion led by people whose fanatical adherence to a purist vision of Islam threatened to rupture the Islamic state and threatened death for all who did not join their secession. From the perspective of Ibadi Muslims, whose sect grew out of this Khariji secession, the righteous remnant, the best of the Prophet's Companions, some four thousand of the most devout and learned Muslims, were massacred by a leader who had abandoned principle in favor of politics and personal gain.3 Nahrawan is for Ibadi Muslims what Karbala3 is for the Shi'a: the symbol of the willingness to sacrifice everything, even one's life, to answer the call of truth. Nahrawan lives on in the Ibadi imagination as a symbol of undying hope, despite overwhelming odds and certain defeat, the hope of actualizing a Utopian vision of justice...