Ali al-Asghar ibn Husayn

Template:Short description Template:Template otherTemplate:Wikidata imageTemplate:Compare Abd-Allah ibn al-Husayn (Template:Langx), also known as Ali al-Asghar (Template:Langx), was the youngest son of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad and the third Shia Imam. A young child, likely an infant, he was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE, alongside his father, family members, and a small number of supporters, all of whom were massacred by the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid (Template:Reign), who first surrounded them for some days and cut off their access to the nearby river Euphrates. Abd-Allah is commemorated in Shia Islam as the quintessential symbol of the innocent victim.

Birth and background

File:Ali al-Asghar Conference.jpg

An act of commemoration for Ali al-Asghar

Abd-Allah was the youngest son of Husayn ibn Ali, the third Shia Imam.Template:Sfn His mother Rubab was the first wife of Husayn and the daughter of Imra' al-Qais ibn Adi, a chief of the Banu Kalb tribe.Template:Sfn Husayn's , Abu Abd-Allah, probably refers to this son.Template:Sfn His birthdate is not known with certainty,Template:Sfn but he was a young child in the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE,Template:Sfn likely an infant.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Late Shia sources commonly refer to Abd-Allah as Ali al-Asghar (Template:Lit),Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn as early as the Twelver jurist Ibn Shahrashub (Template:Died in) in his biographical .Template:Sfn This might be a reference to the tradition in which Husayn expressed his wish to name all his sons Ali after his father Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shia Imam and the fourth caliph (Template:Reign). Husayn indeed had two more sons named Ali, namely, Ali al-Akbar and Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-Abidin.Template:Sfn There are further confusions as some Shia and Sunni authors variously refer to one of these two sons as Ali al-Asghar. Among them are the polymath Abu Hanifa Dinawari (Template:Died in) and the fifteenth-century historian Hasan ibn Muhammad Qomi, the author of .Template:Sfn

Battle of Karbala and death (680)

Husayn denounced the accession of the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu'awiya in 680. When pressed by Yazid's agents to pledge his allegiance, Husayn first fled from his hometown of Medina to Mecca and later set off for Kufa in Iraq, accompanied by his family and a small group of supporters.Template:Sfn Among them was Rubab, according to the Sunni historian Ibn al-Athir (Template:Died in) in The Complete History.Template:Sfn With her were her two children, Sakina and Abd-Allah,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn who was at the time a young child,Template:Sfn likely an infant, as reported by the early historian Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (Template:Died in) in his biographical ,Template:Sfn and by the Shia-leaning historian al-Ya'qubi (Template:Died in) in his .Template:Sfn The tenth-century historian Abu Ali Bal'ami and the Twelver jurist Ibn Tawus (Template:Died in) report the age of Abd-Allah as one year and six months, respectively.Template:Sfn That he was an infant is the prevalent Shia view.Template:Sfn

Death

The small caravan of Husayn was intercepted and massacred on 10 Muharram 61 AH (10 October 680) in Karbala, near Kufa, by the Umayyad forces who first surrounded them for some days and cut off their access to the nearby river Euphrates.Template:Sfn Abd-Allah was also killed during the battle by an arrow,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn though the manner of his death is uncertain. The Twelver theologian al-Mufid (Template:Died in) writes in his biographical that Abd-Allah was killed in his father's arms by an arrow, as Husayn was preparing to leave his family and enter the battlefield.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The arrow also pierced Husayn's arm, adds the Hanafi scholar Husayn Kashefi (Template:Died in) in his martyrology .Template:Sfn Husayn then dug a small grave with his sword and buried the child, according to the Shia author al-Muwaffaq al-Kharazmi of the biographical .Template:Sfn The account in is that Husayn brought Abd-Allah to the battlefield, held him up, and implored the enemy to have mercy on the thirsty children and allow them some water. The response was an arrow that killed Abd-Allah.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Alternatively, reports that Abd-Allah was killed in his mother's arms,Template:Sfn while the Sunni historian al-Tabari (Template:Died in) records that a badly wounded and surrounded Husayn had failed to reach the Euphrates when a man from the Banu Asad tribe shot and killed Abd-Allah in his father's lap.Template:Sfn The man who killed Abd-Allah ibn Husayn is identified as Hani ibn Thubait al-Hadrami by al-Tabari, who adds that Harmala ibn Kahil killed Abd-Allah ibn Hasan, Husayn's nephew.Template:Sfn In contrast, some others report that it was Harmala who killed Abd-Allah ibn Husayn.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn These authors include al-Mufid,Template:Sfn Husayn Kashefi,Template:Sfn and the Sunni historian al-Baladhuri (Template:Died in) in his Genealogies of the Nobles.Template:Sfn

Aftermath

The battle ended when Husayn was beheaded, whereupon the Umayyad soldiers pillaged his camp,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and severed the heads of Husayn and his fallen companions, which they then raised on spears for display.Template:Sfn The women and children were then taken captive and marched to Kufa and later the capital Damascus.Template:Sfn The captives were paraded in the streets of Damascus,Template:Sfn and then imprisoned for an unknown period of time.Template:Sfn They were eventually freed by Yazid and returned to Medina.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Commemoration

Shia Muslims commemorate the events of Karbala throughout the months of Muharram and Safar,Template:Sfn particularly during the first ten days of Muharram, culminating on the tenth (Ashura) with processions in major Shia cities.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The main component of these ritual ceremonies (, Template:Singular ) is the narration of the stories of Karbala,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn intended to raise sympathy and move the audience to tears.Template:Sfn In the Shia commemoration of Karbala, Abd-Allah is represented as an innocent child who suffered unbearable thirst,Template:Sfn described as "the quintessence of symbol of the innocent victim."Template:Sfn His death carries perhaps the heaviest emotional weight for the Shia mourners,Template:Sfn and replicas of his empty cradle are often present in mourning processions.Template:Sfn Abd-Allah is also heavily featured in the verbal narratives of the ritual practices () and a complete is sometimes dedicated to him.Template:Sfn As an act of commemoration, Iranian mourners often dress their baby boys in white jacket and green headband, which is how Abd-Allah is often represented in religious paintings.Template:Sfn