Note 550 — Chapter XLII · THE KHAREJITES, OR THEOCRATIC SEPARATISTS, DEFEATED AT NEHRWAN. A.H. XXXVII. A.D. 658.

Of these, 40,000 were enrolled stipendiaries, 17,000 youths below the ordinary fighting age, and 8,000 slaves. On finding the people indifferent, Aly first induced certain chiefs of influence to lead the way, and then made the heads of every clan and every household furnish the names of their dependants. The backwardness might have been in some measure due to the feeling that the fanatics should first be dealt with as a danger immediately threatening Kûfa. But apart from this, the influence of Aly was weak and precarious. Never enthusiastic on his side, the people were becoming more and more indifferent to him. This was partly owing, no doubt, to the strong feeling against the pretensions of the Coreish that prevailed at Kûfa.