Battle of Karbala

Shrine to those killed at the battle

The Umayyad soldiers hesitated to attack Husayn directly, but he was struck in the mouth by an arrow as he went to the river to drink.[3] He collected his blood in a cupped hand and cast towards the sky, complaining to God of his suffering.[46] Later, he was surrounded and struck on the head by Malik ibn Nusayr. The blow cut through his hooded cloak, which Husayn removed while cursing his attacker. He put a cap on his head and wrapped a turban around it to staunch the bleeding. Ibn Nusayr seized the bloodied cloak and retreated.[46][47]

Shemr advanced with a group of foot soldiers towards Husayn, who was now prepared to fight as few people were left on his side. A young boy from Husayn's camp escaped from the tents, ran to him, tried to defend him from a sword stroke and had his arm cut off. Ibn Sa'd approached the tents, and Husayn's sister Zaynab complained to him: "'Umar b. Sa'd, will Abu 'Abd Allah (the kunya of Husayn) be killed while you stand and watch?"[46] Ibn Sa'd wept but did nothing. Husayn is said to have killed many of his attackers. They were, however, still unwilling to kill him and each of them wanted to leave this to somebody else. Eventually Shemr shouted: "Shame on you! Why are you waiting for the man? Kill him, may your mothers be deprived of you!"[48] The Umayyad soldiers then rushed Husayn and wounded him on his hand and shoulder. He fell on the ground face-down and an attacker named Sinan ibn Anas stabbed and then decapitated him.[46][48]

The place from which Zaynab bint Ali viewed the battle

Following Husayn's death, Yazid faced increased opposition to his rule from Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. Ibn al-Zubayr started secretly recruiting supporters in Mecca,[58] while overtly calling for a shura to elect a new caliph.[8] Ibn al-Zuabyr's influence reached Medina, where citizens were already disillusioned with Umayyad rule and Mu'awiya's agricultural projects,[8] which included confiscating lands from them to increase the government's revenue.[59] Yazid invited the notables of Medina to Damascus and tried to win them over with gifts. They were unpersuaded and on their return to Medina narrated tales of Yazid's lavish lifestyle and impious practices. The Medinese, under the leadership of Abd Allah ibn Hanzala, the son of a leading companion of Muhammad, renounced their allegiance to Yazid and expelled the governor and the Umayyads residing in the city. Yazid sent a 12,000-strong army under the veteran commander Muslim ibn Uqba to reconquer the Hejaz. After failed negotiations, the Medinese were defeated at the Battle of al-Harrah, and the city was plundered for three days. Having forced the rebels to renew their allegiance, the Syrian army besieged Mecca.[60][61] After Yazid's death in November 683, the army withdrew to Syria and Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph, receiving widespread recognition throughout the caliphate.[62] Nevertheless, Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, his erstwhile ally, took over Kufa and most of Iraq from Ibn al-Zubayr's governor,[63] and Kharijites in Basra, Persia and Arabia weakened his authority.[64][65] Although the Zubayrids defeated Mukhtar, the forces of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who became the Umayyad caliph in Syria in 685, defeated and killed Ibn al-Zubayr in 692. The latter's defeat marked the reestablishment Umayyad rule over the caliphate.[66][67]

A few prominent Alid supporters in Kufa felt guilty for abandoning Husayn after having invited him to revolt. To atone for what they perceived as their sin, they began a movement known as the Tawwabin, under Sulayman ibn Surad, a companion of Muhammad, to fight the Umayyads. As long as Iraq was in Umayyad hands, the movement remained underground. After the death of Yazid in November 683, the people of Iraq drove out the Umayyad governor Ibn Ziyad; the Tawwabin called on the people to avenge Husayn's death, attracting large-scale support.[68] Lacking any political program, they intended to punish the Umayyads or sacrifice themselves in the struggle. Their slogan was "Revenge for Husayn".[69] Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, another prominent pro-Alid of Kufa, attempted to dissuade the Tawwabin from this endeavor in favor of an organized movement to take control of the city, but Ibn Surad's stature as a companion of Muhammad and an old ally of Ali, prevented most of his followers from accepting Mukhtar's proposal.[70] Although 16,000 men enlisted to fight, only 4,000 mustered. In November 684, the Tawwabin left to confront the Umayyads, after mourning for a day at Husayn's grave in Karbala. The armies met in January 685 at the three-day Battle of Ayn al-Warda in present-day northern Syria; most of the Tawwabin, including Ibn Surad, were killed. A few escaped to Kufa and joined Mukhtar.[68]

Mukhtar was an early settler of Kufa, having arrived in Iraq following its initial conquest by the Muslims.[71] He had participated in the failed rebellion of Muslim ibn Aqil, for which he was imprisoned by Ibn Ziyad, before being released after the intervention of Abd Allah ibn Umar. Mukhtar then went to Mecca and had a short-lived alliance with Ibn al-Zubayr. After Yazid's death, he returned to Kufa where he advocated revenge against Husayn's killers and the establishment of an Alid caliphate in the name of Husayn's half-brother Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, and declared himself his representative.[72] The defeat of the Tawwabin left the leadership of the Kufan pro-Alids in his hands. In October 685, Mukhtar and his supporters, a significant of number of whom consisted of local converts (mawali), overthrew Ibn al-Zubayr's governor and seized Kufa. His control extended to most of Iraq and parts of northwestern Iran.[73] His attitude towards mawali, whom he awarded many favors and equal status with Arabs, provoked a rebellion by the dissatisfied Arab aristocracy. After crushing the rebellion, Mukhtar executed Kufans involved in the killing of Husayn, including Ibn Sa'd and Shemr, while thousands of people fled to Basra.[74] He then sent his general Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar to fight an approaching Umayyad army, led by Ibn Ziyad, which had been sent to reconquer the province. The Umayyad army was routed at the Battle of Khazir in August 686 and Ibn Ziyad was slain.[75] Meanwhile, Mukhtar's relations with Ibn al-Zubayr worsened and Kufan refugees in Basra persuaded Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, the governor of the city and younger brother of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, to attack Kufa. Facing defeat in open battle, Mukhtar and his remaining supporters took refuge in the palace of Kufa and were besieged by Mus'ab. Four months later, in April 687, Mukhtar was killed while some 6,000–8,000 of his supporters were executed.[76] According to Mohsen Zakeri, Mukhtar's attitude towards mawali was one of the reasons behind his failure, as Kufa was not ready for such "revolutionary measures".[77] Mukhtar's supporters survived the collapse of his revolution and evolved into a sect known as the Kaysanites. The Hashimiyya, a splinter group of the Kaysanites, was later taken over by the Abbasids and eventually overthrew the Umayyads in 750.[78]

Wellhausen has described Husayn's revolt as a premature and ill-prepared campaign by an ambitious person. He writes "He reaches out to the moon like a child. He makes the greatest demands and does not do the slightest; the others should do everything... As soon as he encounters resistance, it is over with him; he wants to go back when it is too late."[96] Lammens has agreed to this view and he sees in Husayn a person who disturbs public peace.[97] According to Heinz Halm, this was a struggle for political leadership between the second generation of Muslims, in which the poorly equipped pretender ended up losing.[98] Fred Donner, G. R. Hawting, and Hugh N. Kennedy see Husayn's revolt as an attempt to regain what his brother Hasan had renounced.[7][99][8]

Vaglieri, on the other hand, considers him to be motivated by ideology, saying that if the materials that have come down to us are authentic, they convey an image of person who is "convinced that he was in the right, stubbornly determined to achieve his ends..."[100] Holding a similar view, Madelung has argued that Husayn was not a "reckless rebel" but a religious man motivated by pious convictions. According to him, Husayn was convinced that "the family of the Prophet was divinely chosen to lead the community founded by Moḥammad, as the latter had been chosen, and had both an inalienable right and an obligation to seek this leadership." He was, however, not seeking martyrdom and wanted to return when his expected support did not materialize.[3] Maria Dakake holds that Husayn considered the Umayyad rule oppressive and misguided, and revolted to reorient the Islamic community in the right direction.[101] A similar view is held by Mahmoud Ayoub.[102] S. M. Jafri proposes that Husayn, although motivated by ideology, did not intend to secure leadership for himself. Husayn, Jafri asserts, was from the start aiming for martyrdom in order to jolt the collective conscience of the Muslim community and reveal what he considers to be the oppressive and anti-Islamic nature of the Umayyad regime.[103]

Prior to the Battle of Karbala, the Muslim community was divided into two political factions. Nonetheless, a religious sect with distinct theological doctrines and specific set of rituals had not developed.[7][8][107] Karbala gave this early political party of pro-Alids a distinct religious identity and helped transform it into a distinct religious sect.[108][98] Heinz Halm writes: "There was no religious aspect to Shi'ism prior to 680. The death of the third imam and his followers marked the 'big bang' that created the rapidly expanding cosmos of Shi'ism and brought it into motion."[98]

Ritual of chest beating

Husayn's death at Karbala is believed by Shi'as to be a sacrifice made to prevent the corruption of Islam by tyrannical rulers and to protect its ideology.[109] He is, as such, believed to have been fully aware of his fate and the outcome of his revolt, which was divinely ordained.[110] He is thus remembered as the prince of martyrs (Sayyed al-Shuhada).[108] The historian G. R. Hawting describes the Battle of Karbala as a "supreme" example of "suffering and martyrdom" for Shi'as.[105] According to Abdulaziz Sachedina, it is seen by Shi'as the climax of suffering and oppression, revenge for which came to be one of the primary goals of many Shi'a uprisings. This revenge is believed to be one of the fundamental objectives of the future revolution of the twelfth Shi'a Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, whose return is awaited.[111] With his return, Husayn and his seventy-two companions are expected to be resurrected along with their killers, who will then be punished.[112]

Shi'a Muslims consider pilgrimages to Husayn's tomb to be a source of divine blessings and rewards.[113] According to Shi'a tradition the first such visit was performed by Husayn's son Ali Zayn al-Abidin and the surviving family members during their return from Syria to Medina. The first historically recorded visit is Sulayman ibn Surad and the Penitents going to Husayn's grave before their departure to Syria. They are reported to have lamented and beaten their chests and to have spent a night by the tomb.[114] Thereafter this tradition was limited to the Shi'a imams for several decades, before gaining momentum under the sixth Shi'a imam Jafar Sadiq and his followers. Buyids and Safavids also encouraged this practice.[113] Special visits are paid on 10 Muharram (Ashura Pilgrimage) and 40 days after the anniversary of Husayn's (Arba'een Pilgrimage).[115] The soil of Karbala is considered to have miraculous healing effects.[113]

A majlis being held in a husayniyya

Mourning for Husayn is considered by Shi'as to be a source of salvation in the afterlife,[116] and is undertaken as a remembrance of his suffering.[117] After the death of Husayn, when his family was being taken to Ibn Ziyad, Husayn's sister Zaynab is reported to have cried out after seeing his headless body: "O Muhammad!... Here is Husayn in the open, stained with blood and with limbs torn off. O Muhammad! Your daughters are prisoners, your progeny are killed, and the east wind blows dust over them."[118] Shi'a Muslims consider this to be the first instance of wailing and mourning over the death of Husayn.[115] Husayn's son Zayn al-Abideen is reported to have spent the rest of his life weeping for his father. Similarly, Husayn's mother Fatima is believed to be weeping for him in paradise and the weeping of believers is considered to be a way of sharing her sorrows.[117] Special gatherings (majalis; sing. majlis) are arranged in places reserved for this purpose, called husayniyya.[115] In these gatherings the story of Karbala is narrated and various elegies (rawda) are recited by professional reciters (rawda khwan).[119]

A zuljenah in a Muaharram procession

During the month of Muharram, elaborate public processions are performed in commemoration of the Battle of Karbala. In contrast to pilgrimage to Husayn's tomb and simple lamenting, these processions do not date back to the time of the battle, but arose during tenth century. Their earliest recorded instance was in Baghdad in 963 during the reign of the first Buyid ruler Mu'izz al-Dawla.[120] The processions start from a husayniyya and the participants parade barefoot through the streets, wailing and beating their chests and heads before returning to the husayniyya for a majlis.[121][122] Sometimes, chains and knives are used to inflict wounds and physical pain.[123] In South Asia, an ornately tacked horse called zuljenah, representing Husayn's battle horse, is also led riderless through the streets.[124] In Iran, the battle scenes of Karbala are performed on stage in front of an audience in a ritual called taziya (passion play), also known as shabih.[125][126] In India however, taziya refers to the coffins and replicas of Husayn's tomb carried in processions.[125][127]

Most of these rituals take place during the first ten days of Muharram, reaching a climax on the tenth day, although majalis can also occur throughout the year.[126][128] Occasionally, especially in the past, some Sunni participation in majalis and processions has been observed.[129][130] According to Yitzhak Nakash, the rituals of Muharram have an "important" effect in the "invoking the memory of Karbala", as these help consolidate the collective identity and memory of the Shi'a community.[131] Anthropologist Michael Fischer states that commemoration of the Battle of Karbala by the Shi'a is not only the retelling of the story, but also presents them with "life models and norms of behavior" which are applicable to all aspects of life, which he calls the Karbala Paradigm.[132] According to Olmo Gölz, the Karbala Paradigm provide Shi'as with heroic norms and a martyr ethos, and represents an embodiment of the battle between good and evil, justice and injustice.[133] Rituals involving self-flagellation have been criticized by many Shi'a scholars as they are considered to be innovative practices damaging reputation of Shi'ism. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has banned the practice in Iran since 1994.[110]

Taziya in Iran

Taziya in India

The first political use of the death of Husayn seems to have been during the revolt of Mukhtar, when he seized Kufa under the slogan of "Revenge for Husayn".[69][134] Although the Penitents had used the same slogan, they do not seem have had a political program.[69] In order to enhance their legitimacy, Abbasid rulers claimed to have avenged the death of Husayn by dethroning the Umayyads.[135] During the early years of their rule, they also encouraged Muharram rituals.[136] Buyids, a Shi'a dynasty originally from Iran which later occupied the Abbasid capital Baghdad while accepting the Abbasid caliph's suzerainty,[137] promoted the public rituals of Muharram to portray themselves as patrons of religion and to strengthen the Shi'a identity in Iraq.[120] After taking over Iran in 1501, Safavids, who were previously a Sufi order, declared the state religion to be Twelver Shi'ism. In this regard, Karbala and Muharram rituals came to be a vehicle of Safavid propaganda and a means of consolidating the dynasty's Shi'a identity.[138] Riza Yildirim has claimed that the impetus of the Safvid revolution was the revenge of the death of Husayn.[139] The founder of the dynasty, Shah Ismail, considered himself to be the Mahdi (the twelfth Shi'a Imam) or his forerunner.[140][141] Similarly, Qajars also patronized Muharram rituals such as processions, taziya and majalis, to improve the relationship between the state and the public.[142]

Karbala and Shi'a symbolism played a significant role in the Iranian Revolution of 1979.[143] In contrast to the traditional view of Shi'ism as a religion of suffering, mourning and political quietism, Shi'a Islam and Karbala were given a new interpretation in the period preceding the revolution by rationalist intellectuals and religious revisionists like Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Ali Shariati and Nematollah Salehi Najafabadi.[144][145] According to these, Shi'ism was an ideology of revolution and political struggle against tyranny and exploitation,[146] and the Battle of Karbala and the death of Husayn was to be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle;[147] weeping and mourning was to be replaced by political activism to realize the ideals of Husayn.[148]

After the White Revolution reforms of the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which were opposed by the Iranian clergy and others, Ruhollah Khomeini labelled the Shah as the Yazid of his time.[149][150] Condemning the Iranian monarchy, Khomeini wrote: "The struggle of al-Husayn at Karbalâ is interpreted in the same way as a struggle against the non-Islamic principle of monarchy."[151] Opposition to the Shah was thus compared with the opposition of Husayn to Yazid,[152] and Muharram ritual gatherings became increasingly political in nature.[153] According to Aghaie, the Shah's hostility towards various Muharram rituals, which he considered to be uncivilized, contributed to his fall.[154] The Islamic republic that was established after the revolution has since promoted Muharram rituals. The clerics encourage public participation in elections as a form of "political activism" comparable to that of Husayn.[155] Martyrdom spirit influenced by the death of Husayn was frequently witnessed in Iranian troops during the Iran–Iraq war.[156][157]

Cameleer telling people about the events he witnessed at Karbala

Mir Mosharraf Hossain's 19th century novel on Karbala, Bishad Sindhu (the Ocean of Sorrow), established the precedent of the Islamic epic in Bangali literature.[158] South Asian philosopher and poet Muhammad Iqbal sees Husayn's sacrifice as being similar to that of Ishmael and compares Yazid's opposition to Husayn with the opposition of Pharaoh to Moses.[159] Urdu poet Ghalib compares Husayn's suffering with that of Mansur al-Hallaj, a tenth century Sufi, who was executed on a charge of claiming divinity.[160]

Maqtal (pl. Maqatil) works narrate the story of someone's death.[161] Although Maqatil on the deaths of Ali, Uthman and various others have been written,[162] the Maqtal genre has focused mainly on the story of Husayn's death.[163][164]

As well as Abu Mikhnaf's Maqtal, other Arabic Maqatil on Husayn were written.[164] Most of these mix history with legend[89] and have elaborate details on Husayn's miraculous birth, which is stated to be on 10 Muharram, coinciding with his date of death.[165] The universe as well as humanity are described as having been created on the day of Ashura (10 Muharram). Ashura is also asserted to have been the day of both Abraham's and Muhammad's birth and of the ascension of Jesus to heaven, and of numerous other events concerning prophets.[166] Husayn is claimed to have performed various miracles, including quenching his companions' thirst by putting his thumb in their mouths and satisfying their hunger by bringing down food from the heavens, and to have killed several thousand Umayyad attackers.[167][168] Other accounts claim that when Husayn died, his horse shed tears and killed many Umayyad soldiers;[169] the sky became red and it rained blood; angels, jinns and wild animals wept; that light emanated from Husayn's severed head and that it recited the Qur'an; and that all of his killers met calamitous end.[170]

Maqtal later entered Persian, Turkish, and Urdu literature, and inspired the development of rawda.[89]

When Shi'ism became the official religion of Iran in the 16th century, Safavid rulers such as Shah Tahmasp I, patronized poets who wrote about the Battle of Karbala.[171] The genre of marthiya (poems in the memory of the dead, with popular forms of Karbala related marthiya being rawda and nawha),[172] according to Persian scholar Wheeler Thackston, "was particularly cultivated by the Safavids."[171] Various Persian authors wrote texts retelling romanticized and synthesized versions of the battle and events from it,[130][173] including Sa'id al-Din's Rawdat al-Islam (The Garden of Islam) and Al-Khawarazmi's Maqtal nur 'al-'a'emmah (The Site of the Murder of the Light of the Imams). These influenced the composition of the more popular text Rawdat al-Shuhada (Garden of Martyrs), which was written in 1502 by Husain Wa'iz Kashefi.[173][130] Kashefi's composition was an effective factor in the development of rawda khwani, a ritual recounting of the battle events in majalis.[173]

Inspired by Rawdat al-Shuhada, the Azerbaijani poet Fuzûlî wrote an abridged and simplified version of it in Ottoman Turkish in his work Hadiqat al-Su'ada.[174] It influenced similar works in Albanian on the subject. Dalip Frashëri's Kopshti i te Mirevet is the earliest, and longest epic so far, written in the Albanian language; the Battle of Karbala is described in detail and Frashëri eulogizes those who fell as martyrs, in particular Husayn.[175][176]

Urdu marthiya is predominantly religious in nature and usually concentrates on lamenting the Battle of Karbala. South Indian rulers of Bijapur (Ali Adil Shah), and Golkonda Sultanate (Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah) were patrons of poetry and encouraged Urdu marthiya recitation in Muharram. Urdu marthiya afterwards became popular throughout India.[177] Famous Urdu poets Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Rafi Sauda, Mir Anees, and Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer have also composed marthiya.[177] Comparing Karl Marx with Husayn, Josh Malihabadi argues that Karbala is not a story of the past to be recounted by the religious clerics in majalis, but should be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle towards the goal of a classless society and economic justice.[178]

In Sufism, where annihilation of the self (nafs) and suffering in the path of God are paramount principles, Husayn is seen as a model Sufi.[179] Persian Sufi poet Hakim Sanai describes Husayn as a martyr, higher in rank than all the other martyrs of the world; while Farid ud-Din Attar considers him a prototype of a Sufi who sacrificed himself in the love of God.[180] Jalal ud-Din Rumi describes Husayn's suffering at Karbala as a means to achieve union with the divine, and hence considers it to be a matter of jubilation rather than grief.[181] Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai devoted a section in his Shah Jo Risalo to the death of Husayn, in which the incident is remembered in laments and elegies.[182] He too sees Husayn's death as a sacrifice made in the path of God, and condemns Yazid as being bereft of divine love.[183] Turkish Sufi Yunus Emre labels Husayn, along with his brother Hasan, as the "fountain head of the martyrs" and "Kings of the Paradise" in his songs.[184]

• Karbala – A Lesson For Mankind

• Events of Karbala
• Ashura.com
• Poetryofislam.com, poetry on Kerbala by Mahmood Abu Shahbaaz Londoni
• Sacred-texts.com, Battle of Karbala (in English)
• Battle of Karbala
• A Probe Into the History of Ashura by Dr. Ibrahim Ayati