ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Karbala and Beyond Introduction In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful This book contains a brief yet documented narrative of an incident that took place in Karbala’’, Iraq, in 61 A.H. (After Hijra, or Hegira)/680 A.D. It has stamped the history of the Muslim nation ever since, and it will continue to do so till the reappearance of the Awaited One, the Mahdi from among the offspring of (ﺹ).

It refers to a revolution against tyranny and oppression led by Imam al-Husayn (ﻉ) son of Imam Ali ibn [son of] Abu [father of] Talib (ﻉ) and grandson of (ﺹ). The confrontation left a lone male survivor from Imam al-Husayn’s camp: Imam al-Husayn’s son Ali, titled "as-Sajjad," the one who quite often prostrates to Allah, and also "Zain al-Abidin," the best of worshippers of Allah. He later became the fourth in the series of the Twelve Infallible Imams (ﻉ).

His offspring migrated to north Africa where they founded the Fatimide caliphate that lasted from 296 - 566 A.H./909 - 1171 A.D. Having conquered Egypt in 358 A.H./969 A.D., they built Cairo in order to make it their capital and founded in the next year the al-Azhar mosque and university. The latter was founded by caliph “al-Muizz li Deenillah,” Abu Tameem Maadd ibn al-Mansur who was born in 319 A.H./931 A.D. and died in 365 A.H./975 A.D.; he ruled from 341 A.H./953 A.D. till his death.

The bloody confrontation between Husayn’s tiny group of family members and supports and the huge army raised according to orders issued by the ruler of his time, namely Yazid “son” of Mu'awiyah , which is referred to in history books as the Taff Battle, started on the first day of Muharram, 61 A.H.October 4, 680 A.D.

and ended ten days later with the barbaric killing of Imam al-Husayn (ﻉ) and all males with him__with the exception of his ailing son referred to above, namely Ali__, including his infant Abdullah, who was six months old and who was shot with an arrow in the neck. Imam al-Husayn (ﻉ) was pleading to those folks to give Abdullah some water to drink.

Imam al-Husayn (ﻉ) and his small band were not permitted to the end to have access to the water of the Euphrates that lied a short distance from their camp.