Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Kharijites/archive1

Blurb
The Kharijites were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Muslim Civil War (656–661). Ibadism is the only surviving sect. The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his peace talks withMu'awiya at the Battle of Siffin in 657. Ali was assassinated in 661 by a Kharijite. Mu'awiya's Umayyad Caliphate kept the Kharijites in check until the power vacuum caused by the Second Civil War allowed for the resumption of their rebellion. Factions came to control large areas in Persia and Arabia. Internal disputes weakened them before their defeat by the Umayyads in 696–699. Although their revolts continued into the Abbasid period, the most militant Kharijite groups were gradually eliminated. The Kharijites believed that any Muslim could become caliph. What is known about the Kharijite is from sources hostile toward the sect, and mainstream Muslims have viewed the Kharijites as religious extremists, although some modern historians have stressed their egalitarian tendencies.