Anti-Shi'ism: Difference between revisions

The grandson of Muhammad, [[Imam Husayn ibn Ali|Imam Hussein]], refused to accept [[Yazid I]]'s rule. Soon after in 680 CE, Yazid sent thousands of [[Umayyad]] troops to lay siege to Hussein's caravan. During the [[Battle of Karbala]], after holding off the Umayyad troops for six days, Hussein and his 72 companions were killed, beheaded, and their heads were sent back to the caliph in Damascus. These 72 included Hussein's friends and family. The more notable of these characters are Habib (Hussein's elderly friend), Abbas (Hussein's loyal brother), Akbar (Hussein's 18-year-old son), and Asghar (Hussein's six-month-old infant). On the night of Ashura (which is called Sham-e-Gharibaan), the army of Yazid burned the tents which Hussein's family and friends had lived in. The only occupants of the tents after the war were the women, children, of Hussein's companions along with Hussein's last ill son named Zain-Ul-Abideen (who became the next Imam after Hussein). During the raid, Yazid's forces looted, burned, and tortured the women and children. They then took the heads of the martyrsdead, planting them on spearheads to parade. The women's shawls and headdresses were also stripped and they were forced to march beside their men's heads all the way to Damascus. They stayed in prison there for about a year. While Imam Hussein's martyrdomdeath ended the prospect of a direct challenge to the Umayyad caliphate, it also made it easier for Shiism to gain ground as a form of moral resistance to the Umayyads and their demands.<ref>Nasr(2006), p. 41</ref>