Batiniyya (Arabic: باطنية, romanized: Bāṭiniyyah) refers to groups that distinguish between an outer, exoteric (zāhir) and an inner, esoteric (bāṭin) meaning in Islamic scriptures.[1] The term has been used in particular for an allegoristic type of scriptural interpretation developed among some Shia groups, stressing the bāṭin meaning of texts.[2] It has been retained by all branches of Isma'ilism and its Druze offshoots.[2] The Alawites practice a similar system of interpretation.[2] Sunni writers have subsequently used the term polemically in reference to rejection of the evident meaning of scripture in favor of its bāṭin meaning.[2]Al-Ghazali, a medieval Sunni theologian, used the term batiniyya pejoratively for the adherents of Isma'ilism.[2][3] Some Shia writers have also used the term polemically.[1] Besides, they'd[who?] called Hassan-i Sabbah and Nur al-Din Muhammad II as the head of the Hukumat-ee Malāāhedah-ee Bāṭiniyyah.[4][page needed]
^Balcıoğlu, Tahir Harimî[in Turkish] (1940). Hilmi Ziya Ülken[in Turkish] (ed.). Türk tarihinde mezhep cereyanları (in Turkish). İstanbul: Kanaat Yayınları, Ahmed Sait tab'ı. Chapter on Alamut Batiniyya: (Baba İshâk, Şirâz’da Mûhy’id-Dîn’in derslerine devam ederken Şîʿa-i Bâtın’îyye’nin Elemût’taki Dâ’î Â’zamı “Hükümet-i Melâhide-i Bâtın’îyye Reisi Nûr’ûd-Dîn Muhammed Sâni” tarafından Anadolu Dâ’îliği’ne atandı.)