The differences in their reports may be due to their situation...

The differences in their reports may be due to their situation, exact spot and time of their observation. There also appears to be some difference, among various narrators, regarding the number of martyrs from Imam Husayn’s camp. It is commonly asserted by the Shia sources that the total number of martyrs is seventy-two, comprised of fifty-four companions of Imam Husayn (a.s.) and eighteen members from his family including Ali al-Asghar, the six-month-old son of Imam Husayn (a.s.).

Moulvi Mirza Ghulam Abbas Ali Sahib writes, “… Thus, the whole number of Imam Husayn’s companions ranges between seventy-two and one hundred and twenty according to different authors .” [^6] According to him, the total number of companions, identified by name, is ninety-five and the number of Imam Husayn’s family members is twenty-seven, thus making a total of one hundred and twenty-two martyrs.

This figure takes into account twenty-eight companions of Imam Husayn (a.s.) who were martyred during the frequent shower of the enemy’s arrows,[^7] shot blindly towards Imam Husayn’s camp. Sheikh Abbas al-Qummi gives a list of twenty-nine companions of Imam Husayn (a.s.) who were martyred in the first raid.[^8] S.V.

Mir Ahmed Ali has appended a brief note on 105 martyrs of Karbala in his book ‘Husayn, the Saviour of Islam’.[^9] All narrators, however, unanimously record that it was Umar ibn Sa’d who emerged from his tent, called his slave Duraid to whom he handed over the standard and stood under the shade of the banner with bow and arrow in his hand and shouted “ My warriors!

Bear witness before God and people that it is me, Umar son of Sa’d, who is the first to attack al-Husayn .” Umar, then, shot the first arrow towards Imam Husayn’s camp, signifying the commencement of war. According to some narrators, al-Hurr, who crossed over to Imam Husayn’s camp early that morning, was the first person to seek permission to face the challenger.

Having got the permission from Imam Husayn (a.s.), al-Hurr was preparing to go into the battlefield, when his servant Urwa approached him saying that the slave cannot live to see his master facing the enemy. He begged to be allowed to go first. He first dispatched triumphed over several warriors in single combats and then killed many of the enemy who surrounded him before falling down a martyr. Thus, Urwa, Al-Hurr’s slave, according to some historians.