(or , singular ) is an Arabic term meaning "those who perform supererogatory deeds of piety", that is, more than what is required by Sharīʿa. It is derived from the verb as used in the Qurʾān (, , ). It often refers to volunteer soldiers who, in the words of al-Samʿānī, "go beyond the call of duty in ". They are associated with holy war (), the and the frontier ().

Origins and asceticism The Umayyad army and the subsequent Abbasid army depended on paid troops, but they also included volunteers who were entitled to a share of booty (). These would sometimes return a portion of their share of booty as . Some volunteers served out of religious zeal or a desire to die a martyr (). They were most common along the frontier of the Islamic world. They came mainly from Khorasan, were strongly Sunnī and practised asceticism.

The ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak transmitted a hadith that Muḥammad said, "The [monasticism] of my community is ." Some , like Ibrāhīm ibn Adham al-Balkhī, renounced sex and marriage, although this was a marginal practice and often condemned. Most were married and sexual pleasure was the expected reward for warrior asceticism both in this life and the next. Ibn al-Mubārak claims that the houris descend on warriors who died in battle at the very moment of death.

Rise and fall Large contingents of such volunteers from Yemen joined the army of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Bakra when it marched against the Zunbīls in 698. Likewise, large contingents of volunteers participated in Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab's campaign in Tabaristan and Gorgan in 716–717. were attracted in large numbers to the early Ghaznavid campaigns in India. Such contingents could sometimes be a liability. Since they were free to go, they could prove unreliable over a long campaign. Likewise, they were often unruly, unpredictable and unamenable to military discipline. The were bands of volunteers, often operating independently and frequently against internal enemies considered heterodox. The Saffarid dynasty had its origin among such groups.

The high point of activity was in the later 8th century and the 9th century, when "the caliphate was ceasing to fight the infidel as systematically as it had done" during Islam's first century. In the late 8th century, the Christian patriarch Timothy I in his Disputation with the Caliph al-Mahdī compared the willingness of Jesus to die and the blameworthiness of his killers to the , who went beyond the call of duty in risking their lives without thereby justifying their enemies. The term declined from the 11th century onwards, being replaced by (one who engages in ) and (one who engages in ).

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