Texts of Islam

"The Battle of Karbala": The First Part

Summary only - full text stays on its own separately-gated source. Read the full text at the source »

This is a narrative account from the Shia Islamic historiographical tradition describing the Battle of Karbala on the day of Ashura (680 CE), recounting the final hours before the martyrdom of Al-Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The text details the military dispositions of both sides — Al-Husayn's outnumbered force of roughly 77 fighters against an army of at least 30,000 under Umar ibn Sa'd — along with tactical decisions such as burning the trench behind the tents to prevent encirclement. A substantial portion consists of Al-Husayn's eloquent sermon to the opposing army, in which he appeals to his lineage, invokes prophetic hadith affirming his status, and calls on named witnesses among the soldiers to confirm his legitimacy, framing his enemies as oath-breakers and instruments of Satan. The text also includes Al-Husayn's prayer before battle, speeches by his commander Zohayr ibn al-Qayn urging the Kufan soldiers to defect, and an anecdote in which a hostile soldier dies grotesquely after Al-Husayn curses him — presented as divine confirmation of the Household's sacred standing. Throughout, the narrative is explicitly partisan: it portrays Al-Husayn and his companions as morally and spiritually luminous, while Yazid's forces — particularly Shimr ibn Dhi al-Jawshan — are depicted as spiritually blinded, crude, and doomed. The piece reads as devotional history aimed at an audience already committed to Shia theology, meant to deepen reverence for the martyrs rather than to argue for their legitimacy from a neutral standpoint.

"The Battle of Karbala": The First Part

Related pages View as graph →