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