Lit. ‘supporters of the bāṭin’. A perjorative term used by Sunni authors such as al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) to refer to those, especially the Ismailis, who recognise an inner level of meaning (bāṭin) in the Qur’an and the universe at large. In this usage by Sunni Muslims, the bāṭinīs were accused of rejecting the external level of scripture (ẓāhir), rituals and prescriptions, though Fatimid Ismaili authors such as as Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī (d. after 1020) and Nāṣir Khusraw (d. ca 1088) insist to the contrary. Another Sunni author, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), gathers under the term bāṭiniyya some Shi‘i groups, Sufis and such falāsifa as Ibn Rushd (d. 1198).
