Editing Hussain ibn Ali (section)

==The Battle of Karbala==
Soon after leaving [[Sharaf]] his supporters sighted a troop of 1,000 Kufan mounted men under the command of [[Hurr b. Yazid Riahi Tamimi]]. He turned off the road towards the left and alighted at [[Dhu Husam]] near [[Karbala]], where he was joined by the Kufan troop. Hussain ordered the call to prayer to be made and addressed the Kufans, reminding them that they had invited him to come because they were without an [[imam]]. He told them that he intended to proceed to Kufa with their support, but if they were now opposed to his coming, he would return to where he had come from. The Kufans did not respond, but performed the midday prayer under his leadership. After the afternoon prayer he addressed them again. He stressed the prior right of the Prophet’s family to govern them and mentioned the letters he had received from them. When Hurr claimed that they knew nothing of these letters, he had the saddle-bags with them brought forward and scattered the letters before them. Hurr averred that they were not of those who had written them and that they were under order to bring him to Obayd-Allah b. Ziad. When Hussain set out to move, Hurr blocked his way. After a heated exchange, Hurr explained that he had not been ordered to fight Hussain but to bring him to Kufa. If Hussain would not follow him, Hurr would not allow him to take the route to either Kufa or Medina. He would write to Obayd-Allah for further instructions, and, also suggested that Hussain should write to Yazid or Obayd-Allah. Hussain did not accept the advice and turned left in the direction of Odayb and [[Qadisiyya]]. Hurr kept following him and warned him against a fight in which he would inevitably perish, but he was unable to prevent four Kufan Shiʿites from joining him. When they reached the district of Ninawa, a village near Karbala, a messenger arrived from Kufa with instructions for Hurr to force Hussain to camp in the open desert in a place without fortification and water. Obayd Allah’s aim evidently was to force Hussain to start fighting. As Hurr prevented him from alighting either in Ninawa or Ghazeriya (a village to the northeast of [[Karbala]]), on 2 [[Muharram]] 61/2 October 680, he set his camp in the desert land of Karbala at a location that was without [[water]].

The following day a Kufan army of 4,000 men arrived under the command of [[ʿOmar b. Saʿd|Omar b. Saʿd]] b. Abi Waqqas. Omar b. Saʿd had been appointed by Obayd Allah governor of Rayy and been sent off to fight the Deylamites, but was recalled to lead the army against Hussain. As the son of one of the most eminent early Companions of Muhammad, he was loath to use force against the Prophet’s grandson and asked to be excused from the mission. Obayd Allah demanded that he return the letter of appointment for the governorship of Rayy if he refused to lead the campaign against Hussain. After some delay, Omar accepted the command, evidently still hoping that he could avoid a battle. He first sent a messenger to Hussain to inquire about the purpose of his coming to Iraq. Hussain answered again that he had responded to the invitation of the people of Kufa but was ready to leave if they now disliked his presence. When Omar b. Saʿd reported back to Obayd-Allah, the governor instructed him to offer Hussain and his supporters the opportunity to swear allegiance to Yazid. If they were to do so, he would judge the matter further. Shortly afterwards, he ordered Omar b. Saʿd to cut off Hussain and his followers from access to the water of the Euphrates. Omar stationed 500 men along the river, but was unable to prevent Hussain’s brother Abbas with fifty men from filling their water-skins in a night sortie.

While the formal standoff continued, Hussain sent a messenger to Omar b. Saʿd, suggesting that they meet privately at night between the camps. They met and are said to have talked for much of the night. No one was present to hear their conversation, but there were rumors that Hussain proposed that they both leave their armies and together go to see Yazid. Omar b. Saʿd, however, refused to do so, afraid of being punished by Obayd-Allah. The majority of the transmitters, rather, maintained that Hussain offered Omar three choices: Either he would return to where he had come from, or he would go to Syria to submit to Yazid personally, or he could be sent to one of the border stations to fight the infidels. Omar is reported to have transmitted these proposals to Obayd-Allah. This offer ascribed to Hussain was, however, emphatically denied by Oqba b. Semʿan, a client of Hussain’s wife Rabab, who survived the battle of Karbala. He testified that Hussain never offered anything but to depart and travel the land until the affairs of the people would clarify.<ref>Tabari, II, p. 314; tr., pp. 108-9</ref> An offer by Hussain to submit to Yazid at this stage must appear unlikely in view of his religious convictions, and the reports are in line with the tendency of the early tradition to accent the primary guilt of Obayd-Allah in Hussain’s death.

Whatever proposals Omar b. Saʿd submitted to Obayd-Allah, they were evidently designed to avoid fighting or the surrender of Hussain to the governor in Kufa. Obayd-Allah is reported to have at first been ready to accept them. Shimr b. Dhi l-Jawshan advised him, however, not to allow Hussain to escape from his territory without having submitted to his authority, since this would be a sign of weakness on his part and an acknowledgment of the power of Hussain’s position; but if Hussain and his followers submitted, the governor could either punish or forgive them. Obayd-Allah now changed his mind and wrote to Omar b. Saʿd that he had not sent him to hold him off from fighting Hussain and to intercede on his behalf. If Hussain and his supporters submitted to his authority, Omar could send them to Kufa in peace. Otherwise, he should fight, kill, and disfigure them, as they deserved that. If Hussain was killed, he should make the horses trample on his chest and back since he was a disobedient rebel, an evil wrongdoer who split the community, since he, Obayd-Allah, had made a vow to do that to Hussain in case he was killed. If Omar refused to comply with these instructions, he should surrender the command to [[Shimr b. Dhi l-Jawshan|Shimr b. Dhi’l-Jawshan]], with whom Obayd-Allah sent the letter. On reading it, Omar b. Saʿd cursed Shimr but agreed to carry out the orders himself.

Omar b. Saʿd now prepared for immediate battle in the evening of 9 Muharram/9 October. Hussain was sitting in front of his tent when his brother ʿAbbas informed him that the enemy was advancing towards them. He asked Abbas to inquire about the cause of the change of their attitude. They told him that an order of the governor had arrived to attack unless Hussain and his followers submitted to his authority. Hussain asked for a delay until next morning so they would have time to decide on the option. The account stresses that he did so only in order to arrange his affairs and give counsel to his family. Omar b. Saʿd was consulted and, on the advice of some of the army leaders, agreed to the postponement. Hussain once more encouraged all his supporters to leave and scatter in the desert under cover of the night, releasing them from their oath of allegiance. They might also take the members of his family along. He suggested that the enemy was looking only for him and would not search for them once they found him. Nearly all his followers, however, decided to stay and fight and to protect him. They spent the night in prayer and preparation for the battle. On the next morning, as Omar b. Saʿd arranged the Kufan army in battle order, Hurr b. Yazid challenged him and went over to Hussain. He vainly addressed the Kufans, rebuking them for their treachery to the grandson of the Prophet, and was killed in the battle.

The battle of Karbala lasted from morning till sunset on 10 Muharram 61/10 October 680. Omar b. Saʿd, evidently hoping to isolate Hussain and force him to surrender, did not order a general attack that would inevitably have resulted in a quick massacre. The reports rather describe numerous incidents of single combat, skirmishes, assaults, and retreat. Hussain ordered heaps of wood and reeds to be burnt in a ditch behind the tents to prevent an attack from the rear. From the front he was protected by his men, and he was not involved in actual fighting until close to the end. As the Kufans also suffered losses because of the self-sacrificing bravery of Hussain’s followers, the fighting gradually became more brutal. In one attack the enemy set the tents on fire, but the flames at first hindered their own advance. Shimr b. Dhi’l-Jawshan is mostly described as the moving spirit, viciously driving on the assault. Hussain was first wounded by an arrow hitting his mouth or throat as he was trying to reach the Euphrates to drink. After receiving further wounds, he eventually was stabbed with a spear by Senan b. Anas Nakhaʿi. As he fell, Senan and Khawali b. Yazid Asbahi joined to cut his head off. In accordance with Obayd Allah b. Ziad’s instructions, ʿOmar ordered his body to be trampled by horses. Later he was buried by the Banu Asad of the nearby village of Ghazeriya in the spot where the sanctuary of Hussain arose. His head was carried to ʿUbayd Allah b. Ziad in Kufa and then to Yazid in Damascus. Later there were claims in regard to several locations to be its burial place.

The dead on the side of Hussain are said to have numbered seventy or seventy-two. At least twenty descendants of Abu Taleb were among them. The first one of these to be killed was Hussain’s own son [[ʿAli Akbar|Ali Akbar]]. As a nephew of the caliph Yazid he was offered a safe-conduct, but he refused it, proudly proclaiming that he valued his descent from the Prophet more highly.<ref>Ibn Saʿd, p. 73; Zobayri, p. 58</ref> Hussain’s son Abd-Allah was still a child and is described as having been killed by an arrow while placed on his father’s knees. He can, however, hardly have been a baby as claimed in some accounts. Six of Hussain’s paternal brothers, sons of Ali, fell. Four of them were sons of Omm Banin bt. Hezam of the Banu Kelab. Her brother’s son, Abd-Allah b. Abi Mohell b. Hezam, obtained a letter of safety for them from Obayd Allah b. Ziad, but they rejected it. Three sons of Hasan and three sons of Abd-Allah b. Jaʿfar were killed, as well as three sons and three grandsons of Aqil b. Abi Taleb. Ibn Saʿd <ref>p. 77</ref> lists among the dead two other Hashemites, a descendent of Abu Lahab, and a descendent of Abu Sofyan b. Hareth b. Abd-al-Mottaleb. Among the survivors of the Prophet’s family, being led off as captives, he mentions two sons of Hasan, a son of Abd-Allah b. Jaʿfar, a son of Aqil, and five women. According to Abu’l-Faraj Esfahani <ref>Maqatel, p. 119</ref>, three sons of Hasan survived, among them Hasan b. Hasan, who was severely wounded. Hussain’s other son named Ali survived because he was sick and unable to fight on the battle day. He was brought as a captive before Obayd Allah b. Ziad and then before Yazid in Damascus. The latter treated him well and sent him with the women to Medina. He thus became recognized as the fourth Imam of the Shiʿites.

The impact of the tragedy of Karbala on the religious conscience of Muslims has ever been deep and goes beyond its consecration of the passion and penitence motives in [[Shiʿism]]. The motivation of the major actors in it have often been debated. It is evident that Hussain cannot be viewed as simply a reckless rebel risking his and his family’s lives for his personal ambition. He refused to break his oath of allegiance to Mu’awiya despite his severe reproval of his conduct. He did not pledge allegiance to Yazid, who had been appointed successor by Mu’awiya in violation of his treaty with [[Hasan]], and most likely never agreed to do so. Yet he also did not actively seek [[martyrdom]]. He offered to leave Iraq as soon as it became clear that he no longer had any support in Kufa. It was Obayd Allah who vainly sought to provoke him to start the fighting. His initial determination to follow the invitation of the Kufan Shiʿites in spite of the numerous warnings he received and his visions of the Prophet reflect a religious conviction of a mission that left him no choice, whatever the outcome. Like his father he was firmly convinced that the family of the Prophet was divinely chosen to lead the community founded by Muhammad, as the latter had been chosen, and had both an inalienable right and an obligation to seek this leadership.

The accounts of the early sources tend to put the responsibility for the death of Hussain mostly on Obayd-Allah b. Ziad and to exonerate the caliph Yazid, who is described as cursing his governor and stating that if he had been present he would have spared Hussain. Obayd-Allah certainly was eager to humiliate and kill Hussain, as is evident from his vow to have his body trampled by horses. His hatred ultimately sprang from the denunciation of Mu’awiya’s recognition of Ziad as his brother by the grandsons of the Prophet in the name of Islam. The prime responsibility for the death of Hussain, however, lay with Yazid, who knew that the grandson of the Prophet would constitute a menace to his reign as long as he was alive, even if temporarily forced to submission. Yazid wanted him dead but, as a caliph of Islam, could not afford to be seen as having ordered his death. He was aware of Obayd-Allah’s hatred of Hussain when he appointed him governor of Kufa and hinted in a letter to him that Hussain would reduce him to slave status again (Baladhori, II, p. 464). He commended Obayd-Allah highly for the execution of Muslim b. Aqil, and the governor could not be in any doubt as to what was expected of him. When the caliph sought in public, however, to place the onus for the slaughter of the Prophet’s grandson on him, Obayd-Allah reacted with resentment and declined Yazid’s wish that he next lead the assault on Abd-Allah b. Zobayr in the Kaʿba.<ref>Tabari, II, p. 408, tr. p. 204</ref>