These,
according to some, are the religious descendants of the Khawarij, a sect
which separated itself from the Califate in the time of the Seyid Ali,
and, after a severe persecution in Irak, took refuge at last in Oman.
Whatever their present doctrines, they seem at first to have been like
the Shiites, political schismatics. They maintained that any Mussulman,
so long as he was not affected with heresy, might be chosen Imam, and
that he might be deposed for heresy or ill-conduct, and indeed that
there was no absolute necessity for any Imam at all. They are at present
only found in Oman and Zanzibar, where they number, it is said, about
four millions. Till as late as the last century the Imamate was an
elective office among them, but with the accession of the Abu Said
dynasty it became hereditary in that family.[8] They reject all
communion with the Sunites, but I have not been able to discover that
they hold any doctrines especially offensive to the mass of Moslems.
Their differences are mainly negative, and consist in the rejection of
Califal history and authority later than the reign of Omar, and of a
vast number of traditions now incorporated in the Sunite faith.
Allied to them but, as I understood, separate, are the Zeidites of
Yemen, who are possibly also descended from the Khawarij.
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