Message #9258

[N. Truth Seeker]

Mash'Allah, what a dynamic art gallery.  Really good. 

Btw, for those interested in some brief and quick information on the circumstances leading to the battle of Karbala, here's the summary of it:

Kufa, a garrison town in what is now Iraq, had been Caliph ‘Alī's capital and many of his supporters lived there. Husayn ibn Ali received many letters from the Kufans expressing their offer of support if he claimed the caliphate.  As he prepared for the journey to Kufa, Abdullah ibn Umar and Abdullah ibn Abbas pleaded vigorously against his plan and entreated him to at least leave the women and children in Mecca if he was determined to proceed to Kufa, but Husayn ignored their suggestions. On the way, he received the report of his cousin Muslim ibn Aqeel's death at the hands of Yazid's men and the apathy and indifference displayed by the people of Kufa. The Kufans had changed their loyalty and decided to support Yazid, pledging support to him against Husayn and his followers. They were trying to restore Kufa's power against Damascus, the Umayyad capital, in which case they chose diplomacy with Yazid at the cost of rejecting Husayn.

Husayn and his followers, among them relatives of Muslim ibn Aqeel (who were furious over the murder of their relative and wanted to avenge his death), were resolved to continue on to Kufa. At the same time Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad, governor of Basrah, executed one of Husayn's messengers and then addressed the people and warned them to avoid the insurgency. He sent a message in accordance with the instructions of Yazid: "You can neither go to Kufa nor return to Mecca, but you can go anywhere else you want." Despite this, Husayn departed towards Kufa and during the trip, he and many members
of his family were killed or captured at the Battle of Karbala. 

The complications of Yazid's accession to the Caliphate didn't end there. Many Muslims refused to give their oath of allegiance to Yazid simply because they saw it as usurpation of power and not the proper way of choosing a Caliph by the Shura or Council. The most prominent among these resistors was Abdullah ibn Zubayr.

Abdullah ibn Zubayr opposed Yazid's position as Caliph. He launched an insurgency in the Hejaz. Yazid sent armies against him in 683. After the Battle of al-Harrah, Medina was recaptured and Mecca was also besieged. During the siege, the Ka‘bah was damaged. The siege ended when Yazid died suddenly in 683 AD.  Reasons of Yazid's death are conflicting.  One version says he went hunting with his party of men, then he broke off from them for a while but apparently they lost each other and Yazid's remains were found a few days later, attacked and killed by wild beasts.  The other version says he died of plague. What is certain is that he died only three years after the tragic incident of Karbala at age 38 and was buried in an unmarked grave, no one can confirm where, except that somewhere in present day Syria.