Wahhabi Sack of Karbala
| Date | 1216 AH/1802 |
|---|---|
| Location | Karbala |
| Cause | Considering building over graves and visiting graves as shirk |
Wahhabi sack of Karbala is an event that occurred by the order of 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Muhammad — the second ruler of the Emirate of Dir'iyya (the First Saudi State) —and under the command of his son, Sa'ud b. 'Abd al-'Aziz, in 1216 AH/1802 and on the day of 'Id al-Ghadir.[1] On this day, based on their custom on the day of Eid al-Ghadir, many of the inhabitants of Karbala had gone for the ziyara of the Shrine of Imam 'Ali (a) in Najaf, and hence, the city of Karbala was empty of men.[2] In this attack, the Wahhabis destroyed the Shrine of Imam al-Husayn (a) and the Shrine of al-'Abbas (a) and looted their properties.[3] They inflicted much damage on the Shrine of Imam al-Husayn (a), killed people, took a number of women captive, and looted the treasuries and valuable objects of the shrines.[4] According to the report of the book Turath Karbala', 4,500 people were killed in this event.[5]
Among those who attained martyrdom in this attack was 'Abd al-Samad al-Hamadani, the 13th/18th-19th century Shi'a mystic and jurist and author of the book Bahr al-ma'arif.[6] According to historians, this attack was the greatest tragedy that has occurred to Karbala after the event of 'Ashura.[7]
Considering that after the Messenger of God Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah, shirk and idolatry had spread in the Umma, as the people of the land of Karbala and Najaf fall to the ground and prostrate near graves made of stone and mud... This weak servant of God... set out to purify the manifest religion... and seeing that the residents of Karbala and Najaf, who were afflicted with carnal desires, did not refrain from their actions, I deemed the right course to be their elimination and destruction as the only solution for them. Whoever persists in shirk and disbelief, the same will happen to them as what happened to the residents of Karbala.[8]
Isfahani, in the book Masir-i Talibi, believes that considering the visiting of graves and building domes, structures, decorating, and placing candles and lamps over them as polytheistic was the main cause of this attack.[9] It is said that after the Wahhabi attack on Karbala, al-Sayyid 'Ali al-Tabataba'i, known as Sahib Riyad, built a wall around the city of Karbala in 1217 AH/1802 and constructed six gates in different directions of the city.[10]
It is also stated that the Wahhabis, after attacking various cities including Karbala, realized the weakness of the Ottoman Empire and consequently, after attacking Karbala, they began expanding their power over the Hijaz with greater resolve and insistence, such that the year after this event, the Wahhabi attack on various regions of the Hijaz including Ta'if and Mecca began, and in 1220 AH/1805, the Sharif of Mecca accepted the dominance of the Wahhabis.[11]
According to 'Abd al-Jawad Kilidar in the book Chahar qarn az tarikh-i Karbala, 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Sa'ud was killed by an individual from the people of Afghanistan who was residing in Baghdad. According to this report, the killer's motive was to take revenge for his children who had been killed in this event of the Wahhabi attack on Karbala.[12]
The Wahhabis attacked Karbala again in Jumada II 1223 AH/1808 with 20,000 soldiers. In this attack, the people of Karbala besieged them behind the city walls, and in this conflict, many were killed from both sides.[13]
Notes
- ↑ Ṭuʿma, Turāth Karbalāʾ, p. 116.
- ↑ Ṭuʿma, Turāth Karbalāʾ, p. 116.
- ↑ Ṭuʿma, Tārīkh marqad al-Ḥusayn wa l-ʿAbbās, p. 263.
- ↑ Ṭuʿma, Turāth Karbalāʾ, p. 116.
- ↑ Ṭuʿma, Turāth Karbalāʾ, p. 116.
- ↑ Āghā Buzurg al-Ṭihrānī, al-Dharīʿa, vol. 3, p. 47; Khwānsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 198.
- ↑ Kilīdār, Tārīkh-i Karbalā wa Ḥāʾir-i Ḥusaynī, p. 307.
- ↑ Iṣfahānī, Masīr-i Ṭālibī, vol. 3, p. 412.
- ↑ Iṣfahānī, Masīr-i Ṭālibī, vol. 3, p. 412.
- ↑ "Gudharī bar tārīkhcha-yi Khaymagāh-i Ḥusaynī", Office of the Representative of the Wali al-Faqih in Hajj and Ziyara Affairs.
- ↑ Zaynī Daḥlān, Umarāʾ al-balad al-ḥarām, pp. 294–323; Wahba, Jazīrat al-ʿArab fī l-qarn al-ʿishrīn, pp. 221–225; quoted in: Muḥammad Ḥusaynī, "Nukhustīn guzārishhā-yi gharbiyān az yūrish-i Āl Suʿūd wa Wahhābiyān bi-Karbalā (1216 q)", p. 82.
- ↑ Stephen Hemsley Longrigg, Chahār qarn az tārīkh-i Karbalā, p. 246; quoted in: Kilīdār, Tārīkh-i Karbalā wa Ḥāʾir-i Ḥusaynī, p. 321.
- ↑ Ṭuʿma, Turāth Karbalāʾ, p. 121.
References
- Āghā Buzurg al-Ṭihrānī, Muḥammad Muḥsin. Al-Dharīʿa ilā taṣānīf al-Shīʿa. Beirut: Dār al-Aḍwāʾ, third edition, 1403 AH.
- Iṣfahānī, Abū Ṭālib b. Muḥammad. Masīr-i Ṭālibī. Edited by Ḥusayn Khadīwjam. Tehran: Shirkat-i Intishārāt-i ʿIlmī wa Farhangī, fourth edition, 1383 Sh.
- Amīn, Al-Sayyid Muḥsin. Aʿyān al-Shīʿa. Edited by Ḥasan Amīn. Beirut: Dār al-Taʿāruf li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1403 AH.
- Khwānsārī, Muḥammad Bāqir. Rawḍāt al-jannāt fī aḥwāl al-ʿulamāʾ wa l-sādāt. Edited by Asad Allāh Ismāʿīliyān. Qom: Ismāʿīliyān, first edition, 1390 AH.
- Ṭuʿma, Salmān Hādī. Tārīkh marqad al-Ḥusayn wa l-ʿAbbās (ʿalayhimā al-salām). Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1416 AH.
- Ṭuʿma, Salmān Hādī. Turāth Karbalāʾ. Tehran: Mashʿar, first edition, 1393 Sh.
- Kilīdār, ʿAbd al-Jawād. Tārīkh-i Karbalā wa Ḥāʾir-i Ḥusaynī. Translated by Muslim Ṣāḥibī. Tehran: Nashr-i Mashʿar, first edition, 1389 Sh.
- "Gudharī bar tārīkhcha-yi Khaymagāh-i Ḥusaynī", Office of the Representative of the Wali al-Faqih in Hajj and Ziyara Affairs, published: Azar 18, 1397 Sh. Accessed: Bahman 29, 1402 Sh.
- Muḥammad Ḥusaynī, Kāmrān. Nukhustīn guzārishhā-yi gharbiyān az yūrish-i Āl Suʿūd wa Wahhābiyān bi-Karbalā (1216 q), in Mīqāt-i Ḥajj journal, issue 110, Winter 1398 Sh.