World History

Wars, Battles & Armed Conflicts

Battle of Karbala
Battle of Karbala Battle of Karbala, oil on canvas by Abbas Al-Musavi, c. late
19th–early 20th century.
Battle of Karbala
Islamic history
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Quick Facts
Date: October 10, 680
Location: Euphrates River Iraq Karbala
Participants: Umayyad dynasty Yazīdī
Context: civil war
Key People: al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī Yazīd I
Battle of Karbala, (October 10, 680 [10th of Muḥarram, ah 61]), brief military
engagement in which a small party led by al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, grandson of the
Prophet Muhammad and son of ʿAlī, the fourth caliph, was defeated and massacred by
an army sent by the Umayyad caliph Yazīd I. The battle helped secure the position
of the Umayyad dynasty, but among Shiʿi Muslims (followers of Ḥusayn) the 10th of
Muḥarram (or ʿĀshūrāʾ) became an annual holy day of public mourning.

Yazīd I succeeded his father, Muʿāwiyah I, to the caliphate in the spring of 680.
In the city of Kūfah (in modern-day Iraq), those who maintained that the leadership
of the Muslim community (ummah) rightly belonged to Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-
law ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his descendants invited Ḥusayn to take refuge with them,
promising to have him proclaimed caliph there. When Yazīd learned of the rebellious
attitude of the Shiʿah in Kūfah, he sent ʿUbayd Allāh, governor of Basra, to
restore order. The latter did so, summoning the chiefs of the tribes, making them
responsible for the conduct of their people, and threatening reprisal. Ḥusayn
nevertheless set out from Mecca with his family and retainers expecting to be
received with enthusiasm by the citizens of Kūfah. However, on his arrival at
Karbala, west of the Euphrates River, on October 10, he was confronted by a large
army of perhaps 4,000 men sent by ʿUbayd Allāh and under the command of ʿUmar ibn
Saʿd, son of the founder of Kūfah. Ḥusayn, whose retinue mustered perhaps 72
fighting men, nevertheless gave battle, vainly relying on the promised aid from
Kūfah. He and almost all his family and followers were killed. The bodies of the
dead, including that of Ḥusayn, were then mutilated, only adding to the
consternation of later generations of the Shiʿah. The women who had accompanied
Ḥusayn, including at least one of his wives, his sister Zaynab, and his surviving
children, were taken first to Kūfah and then across the desert to Yazīd in
Damascus. Shiʿi tradition has it that Zaynab, among others, in Kūfah formally
rebuked ʿUbayd Allāh and in Damascus challenged Yazīd and rejected his claim to the
caliphate. She died in 681. The Shiʿah maintain that she was buried in Damascus,
and her supposed tomb is an important site of pilgrimage for the Shiʿah. Sunni
tradition has it that she was buried in Cairo.

ʿUmar, ʿUbayd Allāh, and Yazīd came to be regarded by ʿAlī’s supporters as

murderers, and their names have since been reviled by the Shiʿah. Shiʿi Muslims
across the world observe the 10th of Muḥarram as a day of public mourning; some
perform dramas (called taʿziyyah in Arabic), similar to Christian passion plays,
which commemorate the events at Karbala. Some also practice self-flagellation
(matam). The tomb of Ḥusayn at Karbala is a very holy site for the Shiʿah.

Louis IX of France (St. Louis), stained glass window of Louis IX during the
Crusades. (Unknown location.)
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Shiʿi
Table of Contents
Introduction
Early development
Shiʿi dynasties
Shiʿism in the contemporary world
References & Edit History
Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images
Najaf: shrine of ʿAlī ibn Abī ṬālibQom, Iran: Dome of the Shrine of FāṭimahBattle
of KarbalaMausoleum of ÖljeitüRuhollah KhomeiniʿĀshūrāʾ taʿziyyah (passion
play)Muslims at a taʿziyyah, a passion play commemorating the martyrdom of al-
Ḥusayn, in Jaipur, India.Geographical distribution of the religions of the world in
the early 1980s.
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Shīʿite summary
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Islam
Philosophy & Religion
Religious Beliefs
Najaf: shrine of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib
Najaf: shrine of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib Shrine of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Najaf, Iraq.
Shiʿi
Islam
Also known as: Shīʿī, Shīʿa, Shīʿah, Shīʿism, Shiʿah, Shiʿite
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Arabic: Shīʿī
Also called: Shiʿite
Collective: Shiʿah or Arabic: Shīʿah
Key People: Ismāʿīl I Öljeitü al-Aḥsāʾī al-Ḥillī Shaykh Ḥaydar
Related Topics: Twelver Shiʿah Alawite wakīl Mushaʿshaʿ Shaykhī
News • What to know about the Islamic New Year and how Muslims observe it • June
23, 2025, 12:51 AM ET (AP)
Shiʿi, member of the smaller of the two major branches of Islam, the Shiʿah,
distinguished from the majority Sunnis.

Early development
The origins of the split between the Sunnis and the Shiʿah lie in the events which
followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was understood to be the
messenger of God who, in the early 7th century ce, commenced to proclaim the
Qurʾān, the sacred scripture of Islam, to the Arabs. In the 620s Muhammad and his
followers were driven from his hometown of Mecca and settled in Medina. About a
decade later, when he appeared at Mecca with a large army, the Meccans surrendered
the city to him. In 632 the Prophet became ill and died. Muhammad’s role as God’s
messenger was the basis of his political and military authority.

The earliest sources agree that on his deathbed Muhammad did not formally designate
a successor or make public a plan for succession. Some members of the ummah (Muslim
community) held that God had intended for that spiritual link, and the political
and military authority associated with it, to continue via Muhammad’s family. Thus,
they held, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law—should have been
the Prophet’s immediate successor and, thereafter, members of ʿAlī’s family.
Others, however, maintained that with Muhammad’s death the link between God and
humankind had ended and the community was to make its own way forward.

At the Prophet’s death certain members of the ummah—then composed of those who had
left Mecca for Medina with him and those Medinans who later converted to Islam—met
and chose Abū Bakr as Muhammad’s successor (khalīfah, or caliph). Abū Bakr in turn
designated ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb as his successor. After ʿUmar’s assassination in
Medina in 644, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān was chosen as the third caliph. Amid charges of
corruption, ʿUthmān himself was also killed, in 656. Following his death,
delegations of the earlier Meccan and later Medinan Muslims, as well as Muslims
from key provinces in the by now quite large Muslim empire, asked ʿAlī to become
the fourth caliph. He accepted and made Kūfah, in modern-day Iraq, his capital.

Opposition to ʿAlī’s leadership quickly arose from ʿUthmān’s clan, the Umayyads,
and from others who were angry at ʿAlī’s failure to pursue ʿUthmān’s murderers. In
656 a group of challengers to ʿAlī, led by Muhammad’s third wife, ʿĀʾishah, were
defeated at the Battle of the Camel by ʿAlī and forces from Kūfah. Muʿāwiyah ibn
Abī Sufyān, an Umayyad and the governor of Syria, refused to pledge allegiance to
ʿAlī.

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In 657, at the Battle of Ṣiffīn, ʿAlī agreed to arbitration with Muʿāwiyah,
effectively conceding his claim to be the sole leader of the Muslim community. A
further meeting in 659 led to a split in the caliphate: some, especially Syrian,
elements declared for Muʿāwiyah, while others, especially Iraq-based elements,
supported ʿAlī. ʿAlī’s willingness to negotiate his status created resentment among
his followers and gave rise to a renegade movement known as the Khārijites for
their withdrawal (khurūj) from ʿAlī’s following. In 661 a member of this movement
attacked ʿAlī, who died two days later. Muʿāwiyah was then recognized as caliph,
even in regions that had been supportive of ʿAlī.

The term shīʿah itself means “party” or “faction,” and the term first appears with
reference to those who followed ʿAlī in the wars that he fought as caliph against
the Umayyads.

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In these years the family of the Prophet (Ahl al-Bayt) continued to be the focus of
attention for alternative leadership among those within the ummah who were upset
with several aspects of Umayyad rule. One such aspect, for example, was the
acceptance of non-Arab converts to Islam (called mawālī) drawn from among Iranians,
Turks, Egyptians, Indians, Aramaeans, and other non-Arabs. The mawālī, even after
their conversion, were still required to pay the head or “poll” tax (jizyah)
required of non-Muslims. They also paid a higher rate of land tax (kharāj). The
number of mawālī grew as the empire expanded, and many were settled in Iraq,
especially in Kūfah. Tribal elements from southern Arabia—where, prior to Islam,
dynasty-based kingly succession had been common—also were sympathetic to the notion
that the Prophet’s family should continue to have a special role in the life of the
ummah.

Indeed, the Qurʾān itself, collected and collated only during the reign of ʿUthmān,
contained references to the special place of the families of prophets previously
sent by God. The term Ahl al-Bayt, which refers to Muhammad’s family in particular,
appears in Qurʾān 33:33, for example. In various authoritative statements (Hadith)
ascribed to the Prophet, Muhammad himself spoke of special roles for ʿAlī in the
life of the community. Some Sunni collections of the Prophet’s statements include
the report that Muhammad stated that he was leaving behind “two precious things”
(thaqalayn) that, if followed, would produce no errors: the first was the Qurʾān
itself and the second was Ahl al-Bayt. Shiʿi sources also say that the Prophet
designated ʿAlī his successor at Ghadīr Khumm in 632 when he said, “Whoever takes
me as his mawlā, ʿAlī shall be his mawlā.” The exact meaning of mawlā in this
saying—and whether it refers to a leadership role—remains a matter of dispute.

Qom, Iran: Dome of the Shrine of Fāṭimah

1 of 2
Qom, Iran: Dome of the Shrine of FāṭimahDome of the Shrine of Fāṭimah, Qom, Iran.
Battle of Karbala
2 of 2
Battle of KarbalaBattle of Karbala, oil on canvas by Abbas Al-Musavi, c. late 19th–
early 20th century.
At ʿAlī’s death some of his supporters therefore transferred their allegiance to
ʿAlī’s two sons through Fāṭimah, the Prophet’s daughter. His son Ḥasan abandoned
any efforts to promote his own caliphate. In the aftermath of Muʿāwiyah’s death in
April/May 680, ʿAlī’s younger son, Ḥusayn, refused to pledge fealty to Muʿāwiyah’s
son and successor Yazīd. At the request of supporters in his father’s capital city
of Kūfah, Ḥusayn left Arabia for that city. Nevertheless, the Kufans failed to
rally to Ḥusayn’s cause as he and his small band of followers approached the city.
The Prophet’s grandson and most of his retinue were killed by Umayyad forces at
Karbala, now also in Iraq, in October 680.

Following the death of Ḥusayn, Kūfah witnessed a series of anti-Umayyad Shiʿi

risings. In 685 al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ʿUbayd al-Thaqafī, a nephew of one of ʿAlī’s
governors, rose to proclaim Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah—ʿAlī’s only remaining son by
a later wife, Khawlah bint Jaʿfar al-Ḥanafiyyah—as imam (spiritual and political
leader) and as the messianic figure called the mahdī. Al-Mukhtār’s identification
of Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah as the mahdī marked the first use of that term in a messianic
context. After some initial victories, al-Mukhtār’s rising was crushed in 687. Ibn
al-Ḥanafiyyah himself died in 700–01. Some maintained, however, that he had not
died and was in occultation (ghaybah)—that is, alive but not visible to the
community.

Anti-Umayyad movements: the Zaydi Shiʿah and the ʿAbbāsids

Mawālī and South Arabian tribal elements were among Muḥammad’s supporters, but they
also supported a series of later uprisings centred on the Prophet’s family that
occurred in the region into the 8th century.

One of these risings was led by Zayd ibn ʿAlī, a half-brother of ʿAlī’s great
grandson Muḥammad al-Bāqir by ʿAlī’s son Ḥusayn. In 740, encouraged by Kufan
elements, Zayd rose against the Umayyads, on the principle that the imam could lay
claim to leadership only if he openly declared himself imam. Zayd fell in battle,
but his son Yaḥyā escaped to northeastern Iran. Later captured and released, he was
killed in 743 after launching a further anti-Umayyad rising in Herat. The Zaydis
survive today, mainly in Yemen, and are the third largest of the three still extant
Shiʿi groups, after the Twelver and Ismāʿīliyyah sects.

Another movement, the ʿAbbāsids, launched a propaganda campaign about 718 that took
advantage of currents desiring to replace the Umayyads with the Prophet’s family.
Its focus was not on ʿAlī’s family, however, but on ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, an
uncle of the Prophet. With much support from the mawālī and from supporters of
ʿAlī’s family, the ʿAbbāsids succeeded in unseating the Umayyads in 750. The
ʿAbbāsid dynasty went on to empower the mawālī but abandoned loyalists to ʿAlī’s
family, whose ideological leanings might challenge the legitimacy of the dynasty.
Thus, while the ʿAbbāsid movement initially excited Shiʿi sentiments, it ultimately
rejected and suppressed the faction. After a glimmer of hope, some of the Shiʿah
reasserted the understanding that the leadership of the ummah could only lay with a
particular member of ʿAlī’s family.
The growth of Imāmī Shiʿism
As the Zaydis and the ʿAbbāsids sought leadership from members of the Prophet’s
family who would assert it, many of the Shiʿah were embracing an idea that
leadership of the community could not be earned but must be inherited by divine
designation. Some movements focused on other male descendants of ʿAlī’s sons Ḥasan
and Ḥusayn and venerated them as heirs of the spiritual and political mantles of
the Prophet. Some of these movements appear to have endowed Ḥasan and Ḥusayn with
near-divine powers, while others saw Muhammad—and, therefore, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn—as
possessing superhuman knowledge. At the deaths of Ḥasan and Ḥusayn their adherents
fragmented to follow their offspring or other descendants.

At the death of the fifth imam, Muḥammad al-Bāqir, his son Jaʿfar, whose life
spanned both the Umayyad and ʿAbbāsid periods, was accepted by many as the imam.
Sunni elements also accepted Jaʿfar as a jurist and narrator of Hadith. At Jaʿfar’s
death the Shiʿah fragmented again into a number of groups. Some believed he had not
died but was in occultation and would return. Others held that the imamate had
passed through imam Jaʿfar’s son Ismāʿīl, who had predeceased his father. The
latter group, who came to be called “Seveners,” held that Ismāʿīl was the last imam
and that, as some had believed of Jaʿfar, he had not died but was in occultation
and would return. Others held that the imamate had passed to Ismāʿīl’s son Muḥammad
and that he, too, had not died and would someday return to the community. Still
others maintained that Jaʿfar’s successor was Mūsā al-Kāẓim, another son of imam
Jaʿfar.

Ismāʿīliyyah
From those who believed that the imamate passed to Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl came the
Ismāʿīlī Shiʿah, or the Ismāʿīlīs. It was from this group in turn that the Fāṭimids
arose in North Africa in the early 10th century. The Fāṭimids captured Egypt,
founded Cairo in 969, and established a dynasty that lasted until 1171. The
Fāṭimids themselves split into two groups, from one of which is descended the
present-day Ismāʿīlī community headed by the Aga Khan. A different branch of the
Ismāʿīlī Shiʿah, the Qarmatians, were active in the Persian Gulf region through the
11th century. The Druze, in present-day Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, are another
offshoot of the Ismāʿīlīs. The Ismāʿīlīs are the second largest of the three Shiʿi
groups extant today.

Twelver (Ithnā ʿAshariyyah)

Those who held that Mūsā al-Kāẓim succeeded his father, Jaʿfar, as imam maintained
that thereafter the imamate passed through succeeding sons down to the 11th imam,
Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī. All of these imams were persecuted by the Sunni ʿAbbāsid rulers.
At the death of each, the community fragmented into different groups, following
different sons or other relatives from the Ḥasanid or Ḥusaynid line. After the
death of the 11th imam, the Shiʿah further split into perhaps as many as 20
different groups. The most successful of them believed that the imamate had passed
to a son of ʿAskarī, Muḥammad, who had gone into occultation (ghaybah) and who, as
the mahdī, would return to usher in the Day of Judgment. Because this group
believed in exactly 12 (Arabic: ithnā ʿashar) imams, they became known as the Ithnā
ʿAshariyyah, or Twelver, Shiʿah. They are also sometimes called the Imāmiyyah or
Imāmīs, for their views of a divinely designated imamate, or the Jaʿfariyyah or
Jaʿfarīs, for following the jurisprudence of the sixth imam, Jaʿfar. The Twelver
Shiʿah are the largest of the three Shiʿi groups extant today.