Hussain ibn Ali: Difference between revisions

[[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 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]].