October 10, 680 – 10 Marheshvan 4441
Karbala, Iran
The prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein was killed in battle on the Muslim fast of Ashura. In the power struggle between Muhammad’s direct descendants – the Shiites – and the Sunni Umayyad caliphate, Hussein fled Medina rather than accept Umayyad leader Yazid’s sovereignty. Yazid overwhelmed him and his small group of supporters and their families with a thousand armed men, besieging and then slaughtering them. Shia Muslims afflict themselves on this day to commemorate Hussein’s choice of martyrdom rather than submission.
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