{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_hus_hus00_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_hus_hus00_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_hus_hus00_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/hus/hus00.htm","summary":"This is an English translation of a traditional Iraqi Shia oral narrative (epical storytelling) about the Battle of Karbala (680 A.D.), in which the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Al-Husayn and his companions were killed by Umayyad forces \u2014 the foundational tragedy of Shia Islam commemorated annually on Ashura. The source material is drawn from cassette recordings of the renowned narrator Sheikh Abdul-Zahra Al-Ka'bi, with dialect poems and narrator interpolations removed, and only standard Arabic poetry retained in translation. The four-part structure moves from a profile of the narrator, to a theological framing of Al-Husayn's revolt, to the battle narrative itself, and finally to the captivity journey of the surviving women and children from Karbala to Damascus and back. The translator (Taher Al-Shemaly, Kuwait, 2007) explicitly frames this as a Shia devotional text and warns readers the content is harrowing \u2014 describing atrocities including the killing of Al-Husayn's infant and the deliberate denial of water to the Prophet's household. A substantial phonetic guide for Arabic transliteration is included, along with a set of honorific abbreviations (PUH, MADH, etc.), signaling the work is aimed at non-Arabic-speaking readers who may be unfamiliar with Islamic liturgical conventions. The translator notes the version is a simplified rendering and that the full historical cruelty exceeds what is depicted here.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"\"The Battle of Karbala\": Translator's Word","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":906}