The strongest opposition party in early Islam, their name (Ar. khārijī, pl. khawārij) is derived from the Arabic triliteral root kh-r-j, which has as its basic meaning “to go out,” “to take the field against someone” and “to rise in revolt” (Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, ii, 32; trans. Morony, 37; see fighting; jihād). In the case in point, it means “to secede from the community.” Although forms of kh-r-j appear numerous times in the Qurʾān with varied meanings, the group in question took its name from the usage in q 9:46, where the root kh-r-j, denoting “to go out to combat,” is opposed to the verb qaʿada, which denotes people who held back from the war (q.v.; see expeditions and battles ). The earliest Khārijīs were those who withdrew from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib's (q.v.) army when he agreed to the arbitration (q.v.) at the battle of ṢiffīnṢiffīn - Battle of iii, 84b iii, 85a iv, 72b iv, 135a iv, 365b iv, 494a v, 1a Ṣiffīn - Battle of iii, 84b iii, 85a iv, 72b iv, 135b iv, 365b iv, 494a v, 1a in 37/657 (see politics and the qurʾān ). Another name given to these first Khārijīs is al-ShurātShurāt iii, 84b Shurāt iii, 84b (lit. “the vendors”) — meaning those who have sold their soul for the cause of God. This appears to have been the name they themselves used, and it has also been extended to their descendants (cf. Levi Della Vida, Khāridjites; Higgins, Qurʾānic exchange).