"The author of this meticulous study examines the shurat and Ibadi hagiographical narratives in the context of late antiquity and early Islam. He offers a useful corrective to certain strains of scholarship regarding the Kharijites, namely that the Kharijites and their subgroups possessed coherent, distinctive theologies. He discusses the classification and subsequent treatment of non-Ibadis in order to distinguish the emerging Ibadiyya from the militant Azraqites and Najdites. Following the early Ibadi authors, the author also clarifies Ibadi taxonomies of unfaithfulness to sort non-Ibadis into recognizable categories. In addition, he accentuates the importance of viewing Ibadi hagiographical depictions of martyrs and saints and their opponents."-- Abdulrahman al-Salimi, Sultanate of Oman "In a nuanced and sophisticated exposition Gaiser shows how Ibadis, the first distinct Muslim sectarian group, engaged in identity construction and boundary maintenance by using narratives of asceticism and martyrdom harking back to the earlier shurat, who exchanged this world for Paradise, that resonate with similar late antique themes."-- Michael Morony, University of California, Los Angeles Biografía del autor Adam Gaiser is an associate professor of religion at Florida State University, where he teaches classes on Islamic studies. His research interests include early Islamic sectarianism, the Kharijites, Ibadiyya, and early Shia. Gaiser is the author of Muslims, Scholars, Soldiers: The Origin and Elaboration of the Ibadi Imamate Traditions.