Editing Zaynab (section)

==Battle of Karbala==
In contrast to the relative obscurity of her early life, her actions as they are remembered on the battlefield of Karbala and in the subsequent years figure more prominently in early Muslim sources. The History of al-Tabari (d. 923), for example, depicts her as valiant, defiant, and outspoken in the face of the tremendous tragedy that befell her family at Karbala. Most importantly she is credited with the survival of the line of Shi῾i [[Imam]]s itself through her defense of [[Ali b. al-Hussain|῾Ali ibn al-Hussain]], the only surviving son of al-Hussain and his successor to the leadership of the Shi῾is. Her eloquent, passionate defenses of her family before their [[Umayyad]] oppressors is recorded and widely commemorated in manuals of poetry and rhetoric (see, for example, Ibn Abi Tayfur, Balaghat al-Nisa᾽).