Battle of Nahrawan

Part of the First Fitna

Date	659 AD
Location	Nahrawan, Iraq
Result	Rashidun Caliphate victory

Belligerents

Rashidun Caliphate

Khawarij (Kharijites)

Commanders and leaders

Ali ibn Abu Talib

Hassan ibn Ali

Al-Ashath ibn Qays al-Kindi

Abdullah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi
Abdullah ibn Ibad
Harqus bin Zuhair
Abdullah bin Shajara

Strength

80000

2800

Casualties and losses

8 killed

2791 killed, 9 escaped.

Rashidun Caliphate victory

The Battle of Nahrawan (Arabic: معركة النهروان‎, translit. Ma'rakat an-Nahrawān‎) was a battle between Ali ibn Abi Talib (the first Shi'ah Imam and the fourth Sunni Caliph) and the Kharijites commanded by ‘Abdullah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi, near Nahrawan, twelve miles from Baghdad.

Having disposed of the Kharijites at Nahrawan, according to some Shia sources Ali resumed his march to Syria. However, the chiefs of his followers urged him to stop at Kufa to let the men rest before the long journey and to enable the army to repair their weapons and armor. Ali agreed to this request and camped at al-Nukhaylah outside Kufah. The soldiers were allowed to leave the camp for a day.

On the next day, hardly any men returned and at length, Ali entered Kufah and gave a stern sermon to the people. However, nobody came forward and no one wanted to fight and finally, Ali turned away from them in disappointment. The Syrian expedition was abandoned, never to be resumed.

Others argue that the Kharijites had been making every one fight and after they separated, Ali himself also did not want to fight the Syrians.

A few years later they re-emerged in Iraq and north of the Arabian Peninsula. They were defeated by the Umayyads.

Two years later, in 40 A.H Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite called Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam, who attacked him with a poisoned sword while Ali was praying, in his sujood. In the mosque of Kufah, on the 19th of the month of Ramadan, finally succumbing to poison on the 21st of the month of Ramadan.

In Syria Muawiyah I had a more professional army and was not reliant of volunteers and therefore no sects developed.

When Ali was told that the Kharijites had been killed, he replied: "By Allah! No, not yet. They still exist in the loins of men and wombs of women. Whenever a chief would appear from among them, he would be cut down till the last of them would turn thieves and robbers."

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Wikipedia