New Approaches to Khārijite History, 7th-10th century CE
University of Hamburg, 16-17 October 2025
Call for Papers
Abstracts are invited for a two-day workshop on Khārijite history hosted at the University of
Hamburg and co-organised by Teresa Bernheimer (Munich) and Hannah-Lena Hagemann
(Hamburg). The workshop is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the German
Research Foundation (DFG).
Khārijites are remembered in the Islamic tradition as quintessential rebels and heretics,
notorious for their excessive violence and extreme piety. The history of Khārijism remains
severely understudied, however, and existing scholarship has largely adopted the traditional
view, continuing to regard Khārijites through the lens of religious fanaticism. Moreover, groups
and individuals labelled ‘Khārijite’ were active into the 10th century CE and across many
regions of the Islamic Empire, but scholarly attention has been almost exclusively focused on
the first fifty years of Khārijite history (until c.700 CE). The time has come for a fresh take on
Khārijism.
In contrast to established scholarship, the planned workshop aims to step away from simplistic
interpretations that centre ideology as cause and trigger of Khārijite rebellion, and to instead
investigate Khārijism on its own terms. What happens if we disregard the label ‘Khārijite’ and
examine the groups and people so categorised within their broader (social, political, economic,
cultural, geographic, ethnic, tribal…) contexts? Importantly, for the purposes of this workshop,
Khārijites are considered distinct from Ibāḍīs, the only surviving offshoot of Khārijism, whose
exact connection to the latter remains controversial.
The organisers invite contributions that study Khārijism from a decidedly historical
perspective. Social-historical approaches are especially welcome, as are more experimental
methods and those that bring in (sociological, anthropological…) theory. In order to respond
to the dearth of research on Khārijism, we strongly encourage historians of the early Islamicate
world and adjacent fields who do not usually work on Khārijites to consider submitting an
abstract. While all historical topics are very welcome, we invite potential speakers to touch on
the following themes in particular:
-
Khārijites as socio-economic actors: to what extent do factors like fiscal policy,
migration and conversion, climatic events and their corollaries (e.g., famine), or
settlement and demilitarisation play a role in Khārijite revolts?
-
Prosopography of Khārijite groups, particularly in the context of revolt and/or
connections to other contentious groups
-
Khārijite-Ibāḍī relations (marriage, trade, scholarly networks…), especially in 8th-
century CE Iraq, but also in other periods and locales
-
Social practice of Khārijism: e.g. ritual, fiscal structures, mosques, settlement patterns,
marriage and inheritance
The workshop is intended to be informal and discussion-led. Draft papers will be pre-
circulated; each speaker will be allotted a one-hour slot, comprising 10 minutes for a short
presentation of the paper’s main points followed by 50 minutes of discussion. Interested
speakers should submit an abstract of c.300 words and a short biography to
T.Bernheimer"AT"lmu.de and
hannah-lena.hagemann"AT"uni-hamburg.de by
15 April 2025. We
welcome submissions from established as well as junior scholars, advanced PhD students, and
independent researchers. Travel and accommodation for 3 nights will be covered.
All prospective speakers will be notified of the outcome of their proposals by early May 2025.
Confirmed speakers will be asked to send their draft paper for pre-circulation by 1 September
2025. We plan to publish the results of this workshop, so please let us know in advance if you
are interested in contributing to the proceedings; this is not, however, a prerequisite for
participation. We look forward to receiving your abstracts!
