Hussain ibn Ali: Difference between revisions

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 After Mu’awiya’s death on 15 Rajab 60/22 April 680, [[Yazid]] immediately instructed the governor of Medina, Otba b. Abi Sofyan, to compel Hussain, Abd-Allah b. Omar, and Abd-Allah b. Zobayr to pledge their allegiance. Abd Allah b. Zobayr and Hussain left separately for Mecca to seek asylum. The account of Waqedi <ref>apud Tabari, II, pp. 222-23; tr., XIX, pp. 9-10; Ibn Saʿd, p. 56</ref> that the two left together is unreliable. Hussain was accompanied by his household, his sons, brothers, and the sons of Hasan. Muhammad b. Hanafiya did not join him and urged him not to move to Iraq before receiving the oath of allegiance there. Hussain should rather stay in Mecca or hide in the desert and mountains until the sentiments of the people became clear. Hussain traveled the main road to Mecca, refusing to avoid being pursued by taking a side road. Otba b. Abi Sofyan, in spite of Marwan’s prodding, did not wish to use violence against the grandson of the Prophet, and Yazid replaced him for his inaction. In Mecca Hussain stayed in the house of Abbas b. Abd-al-Mottaleb <ref>Ibn Saʿd, p. 56</ref> and remained there for four months.
 ==Oath of Allegiance to Hussain==
-In Kufa the leaders of the Shiʿa, on learning of Muawiya’s death, assembled again in the house of Solayman b. Sorad. They wrote to Hussain praising God for having destroyed the obstinate tyrant Mu’awiya, who had seized the rule of the Muslim community without its consent, appropriated its fayʾ (immovable properties acquired by conquest) and made it pass into the hands of the wealthy and powerful, who had killed their best men and retained the most evil among them. They urged Hussain to join them, since they had no [[imam]]. They informed him that they did not attend the Friday prayer with Mu’awiya’s governor Noʿman b. Bashir Ansari and would drive him out of the town as soon as Hussain agreed to come to them. They sent him in short order seven messages with bags of letters of support by Kufan warriors and tribal leaders. The first two of them arrived in Mecca on 10 Ramazan 60/13 June 680. Hussain wrote the Kufans that he understood from their letters that they had no imam and they wished him to come to unite them by right guidance. He informed them that he was sending his cousin [[Muslim ibn Aqil]] b. Abi Taleb to report to him on the situation. If he found them united as their letters indicated he would speedily join them, for it was the duty of the imam to act in accordance with the Koran, to uphold justice, to proclaim the truth, and to dedicate himself to the cause of God.
+In Kufa the leaders of the Shiʿa, on learning of Muawiya’s death, assembled again in the house of Solayman b. Sorad. They wrote to Hussain praising God for having destroyed the obstinate tyrant Mu’awiya, who had seized the rule of the Muslim community without its consent, appropriated its fayʾ (immovable properties acquired by conquest) and made it pass into the hands of the wealthy and powerful, who had killed their best men and retained the most evil among them. They urged Hussain to join them, since they had no [[imam]]. They informed him that they did not attend the Friday prayer with Mu’awiya’s governor Noʿman b. Bashir Ansari and would drive him out of the town as soon as Hussain agreed to come to them. They sent him in short order seven messages with bags of letters of support by Kufan warriors and tribal leaders. The first two of them arrived in Mecca on 10 Ramadan 60/13 June 680. Hussain wrote the Kufans that he understood from their letters that they had no imam and they wished him to come to unite them by right guidance. He informed them that he was sending his cousin [[Muslim ibn Aqil]] b. Abi Taleb to report to him on the situation. If he found them united as their letters indicated he would speedily join them, for it was the duty of the imam to act in accordance with the Koran, to uphold justice, to proclaim the truth, and to dedicate himself to the cause of God.
 Hussain was also visited by a Shiʿite supporter with two of his sons from Basra, where Shiʿite sentiment was otherwise limited. He then sent identical letters to the chiefs of the five divisions into which the Basran tribes were divided for administrative purposes. He wrote them that God had preferred the Prophet Muhammad above all His creatures and that his family were his legatees (awsiaʾ) and heirs of his position. Their people (Qoraysh) had illegitimately claimed the right which belonged exclusively to the Prophet’s family. The family had consented to their action for the sake of the unity of the community. Those who had seized the right of the Prophet’s family had set many things straight and had sought the truth. He, Hussain, prayed to God for mercy on them and on the Prophet’s family. He was now summoning them to the Book of God and the tradition (sunna) of His Prophet. The tradition had indeed been destroyed while innovation had been spread. Hussain promised to guide them on the path of righteousness if they would obey and follow him. The contents of the letter closely reflected the guideline set by [[ʿAli ibn Abi Talib|Ali]], who had strongly upheld the sole right of the family of the Prophet to leadership of the Muslim community but had also praised the conduct of the first caliphs Abu Bakr and Omar. While most of the recipients of the letter kept it secret, one of them suspected that it was a ploy of the governor [[ʿObayd-Allah Ibn Ziad|Obayd-Allah Ibn Ziad]] to test their loyalty and turned it over to him. Obayd-Allah seized and beheaded Hussain’s messenger and addressed a stern warning to the people of Basra.<ref>Tabari, II, pp. 235-36, 240-41</ref>
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 [[Obayd-Allah Ibn Ziad|Obayd-Allah b. Ziad]] sent his police chief Hussain b. Tamim to [[Qadisiyya]] with the order to block the roads from Hejaz to Iraq. Hussain learned of this from some bedouins he met, who stated that they were cut off from Kufa, but he continued on his way. In [[Al-Thaʿlabiyya|Thaʿlabiyya]] he first received news of the abortive Kufan rising and the execution of [[Muslim b. Aqil b. Abi Talib|Muslim b. Aqil]] and [[Haniʾ b. ʿUrwa al-Muradi|Haneʾ b. Orwa]]. The reliability of reports that he considered turning back at this stage and changed his mind only because of the resolve of Muslim’s brothers to seek revenge or death is to be doubted. In [[Zubala]] he was informed that a messenger he had sent to Kufa to announce his imminent arrival had been intercepted and killed by Obayd-Allah b. Ziad by having him thrown from the roof of his palace. In a written statement he broke the news to his supporters, acknowledging that the Kufan Shiʿites had deserted him, and encouraged anyone who so wished, to leave freely without guilt. Most of those who had joined him at various stages on the way from Mecca now left him.
 ==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 ʿObayd-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]].
+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.