Because we live in an age plagued by religious/political violence and calculated atrocity or intimidation of the “Other” (e.g., “ethnic cleansing”), it is well to remember that neither phenomenon is of recent origin. Although the motivating factors have, to a certain extent, changed over the centuries, some of the causes advanced for the contemporary use of violence are not altogether novel to the historian of Europe or the East. Students of medieval Islam, for example, will immediately recall the violent tactics of the Azariqa Kharijites and the terrorism practiced by the Nizārī Ismā‵īlīs. Among other terrorist groups in the medieval Near East was the less well-known sect the Mansūriyya, which consisted of the followers of Abū Mansūr al-‵Ijli, whose actions and ideas assume particular significance when considered within the contexts of Shī‵ism and medieval Islamic history in general.

Abū Mansūr al-‵Ijli was a native of the Sawād al-Kufa. As his name indicates, he was probably a member of the Banū ‵Ijl, although Nawbakhtī and al-Ash‵arī al-Qummī claim that he belonged to the ‵Abd al-Qays. These two writers are the only ones to attribute his origins to the ‵Abd al-Qays, and it seems more likely that he was indeed an ‵Ijlite. Apparently his childhood was spent in the desert, for we are informed that he was raised there. He is said to have owned a house in Kufa, the same authority noting that he was illiterate.