Hussain ibn Ali: Difference between revisions

Of Hussain’s two sons named ʿAli, the one who survived him, known as [[Zayn al-ʿAbedin]], the fourth Imam of the Shiʿites, was the elder and probably his first-born son. He was twenty-three at the time of the battle of Karbala and thus was born during the caliphate of ʿAli. His mother was a slave woman, probably from Sind. She was later married to a client of Hussain and had a son with him, ʿAbd-Allah b. Zobayd, who was thus a maternal brother of ʿAli Zayn-al-ʿAbedin. The descendants of ʿAbd-Allah b. Zobayd later lived in Yanboʿ.<ref>Ibn Saʿd, p. 17</ref> Whereas Zayn-al-ʿAbedin is called ʿAli al-Asqar in the early Sunnite sources, Muhammad Mofid <ref>pp. 236-37</ref> and other Shiʿite authors are probably correct in calling him ʿAli Akbar. The second ʿAli, called ʿAli Akbar in the Sunnite sources but ʿAli Asqar by Shaikh Mofid, was nineteen when he was killed at Karbala. His mother was Layla, daughter of Morra b. ʿOrwa Ṯaqafi and Maymuna bt. Abi Sofyan, sister of the caliph Muawiya. The marriage must have taken place soon after Hasan’s surrender to Mu’awiya, as it would not have been possible during the lifetime of ʿAli. Hussain evidently named his son by Layla also ʿAli since he, because of his aristocratic Arab mother, had precedence over his elder son by a non-Arab slave woman to become his primary heir. Mu’awiya is even quoted as observing that ʿAli b. Hussain was the one most suited for the caliphate, since he combined the bravery of the Banu Hashem, the munificence of the Banu Umayya, and the pride of Thaqif.<ref>Abu’l-Faraj Esfahani, Maqatel, p. 80</ref>

After the death of Hasan, Hussain married Omm Eshaq, daughter of the prominent Companion Talha. She bore Hussain’s daughter Fatima. Contrary to some reports, Fatima must have been younger than Sokayna. At the time of her father’s death, she was probably engaged, but not yet married, to Hasan b. Hasan, the primary heir of Hasan b. ʿAli.

==References==