ABSTRACT
In a previous study, 1 the present writer tried to explain why the early Shrite sect of the Kaysaniyya (or some of its members) was considered in some sources as a sect of the Ghulat ("exaggerators," often erroneously translated as "extremists") while at the same time it was classified in the majority of our sources as an independent sect, i.e., as independent from the Ghulat as from the Zaydis, Imamis, Isma 'ilis, and so forth. Presently, the writer intends to show that this discrepancy noted in the position of the Kaysaniyya with regard to ghuluww did not arise from a.ny vagueness in its beliefs, 2 but from the variety of significances the term ghulat had in our sources. Noting that this variety of 8ignificances is due to three major concepts of ghuluww appearing roughly successively in the first three centuries of Islam, this paper is divided into three sections, each dealing with one of these concepts and one of these phases, with special reference to the Kaysaniyya sect. It is hoped that, once the different criteria of ghuluww are specifically identified in each phase, it would be possible, not only to understand the discrepancies in the application of the term ghulat in our sources to particular sects, like the Kaysaniyya, but also to determine, in general, the significance of the term ghulat by the mere knowledge of the source which used it. It should be noted, that the writer is concerned here specifically with Shi~ite Ghulat, and not with just any sect {or person) to which is attributed exaggeration, in the absolute, in its (or his) beliefs.
