Battle of 'Ayn al-Warda
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The Battle of 'Ayn al-Warda (Persian:نبرد عین الورده)was fought in early January 685 between the Umayyad army and the group known as the "Penitents" (Ar. Tawwabun).
The Penitents were a group of pro-Alid Kufans, led by a certain Sulayman ibn Surad, who wished to atone for their failure to assist Imam Husayn ibn Ali in his uprising against the Umayyads, in which he was martyred at the Battle of Karbala in 680. With the outbreak of the Second Islamic Civil War and the collapse of Umayyad authority across Iraq in 683/684, Sulayman ibn Surad began in November 684 to call upon his fellow Kufans to avenge their failure. Although some 16,000 pledged themselves to support him, only some 4,000 showed up at Nukhayla, a suburb of Kufa their mustering place. Undeterred, they moved up the Euphrates towards the Jazira.
At Qarqisiya, the Qaysi refugees from the Battle of Marj Rahit aided them with supplies and advice but refused to join them, seeing no hope in their endeavour. The Penitents pressed on to 'Ayn al-Warda (identified with Ra's al-'Ayn), where they met an Umayyad army of 20,000 under Husayn ibn Numayr. The battle lasted for three days, although the Penitents held the upper hand in a first skirmish, over the next two days the numerical superiority of the Umayyad army began to prevail. Finally, Suleman bin Surad was killed and the Penitents were surrounded and almost annihilated. Rifa bin Shaddad, advised the survivors to return, and brought them to Qarqisiya after getting defeat. The small number of Penitents who survived the battle of Ayn al-Warda, went over to Mukhtar. These Kufans, who formed the backbone of Mukhtar's movement, called themselves Shiat al-Mahdi, Shiat al-Haqq or Shiat al-Muhammad.
Sources
- Kennedy, Hugh N. (2001). The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 27–29. ISBN 0-415-25093-5.
- "Origin and rise of the Tawwabun". ismaili.net. Retrieved 23 November 2013.