Why are stories told about the Kharijites? The Islamic tradition portrays Kharijism as a heretical movement of militantly pious zealots, a notion largely reiterated by what little there is of modern scholarship on the Kharijites. Hannah-Lena Hagemann moves away from the usual studies of Kharijite history 'as it really was' and instead examines its narrative function in early Islamic historiography. From the Kharijites' origins at the Battle of Siffin in 657 CE until the death of the caliph ?Abd al-Malik b. Marwan in 705 CE, Hagemann's literary analysis provides a fresh perspective on Kharijite history and highlights the need for a serious reassessment of the historical phenomenon of Kharijism as it is currently understood in scholarship.