The Battle of Karbala galvanized the development of the pro-Alid[b] party (Shi'at Ali) into a distinct religious sect with its own rituals and collective memory.

[9] When Ali was assassinated by Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam, a Kharijite, in 661, his eldest son Hasan succeeded him but soon signed a peace treaty with Mu'awiya to avoid further bloodshed.

[3][34] Later, at Zubala, Husayn learned of the capture and execution of his messenger Qays ibn Musahir al-Saydawi, whom he had sent from the Hejaz (western Arabia) to Kufa to announce his arrival.

[38] Ibn Ziyad then sent Shemr with orders to ask Husayn for his allegiance once more and to attack, kill and disfigure him if he was to refuse, as "a rebel, a seditious person, a brigand, an oppressor and he was to do no further harm after his death".

Shemr wanted to kill Husayn's only surviving son Ali Zayn al-Abidin, who had not taken part in the fighting because of illness, but was prevented by Ibn Sa'd.

The armies met in January 685 at the three-day Battle of Ayn al-Warda in present-day northern Syria; most of the Tawwabin, including Ibn Surad, were killed.

In October 685, Mukhtar and his supporters, a significant of number of whom consisted of local converts (mawali), overthrew Ibn al-Zubayr's governor and seized Kufa.

After crushing the rebellion, Mukhtar executed Kufans involved in the killing of Husayn, including Ibn Sa'd and Shemr, while thousands of people fled to Basra.

[69] Although Abu Mikhnaf's date of birth is unknown, he was an adult by the time of the revolt of Ibn al-Ash'ath, which occurred in 701, some twenty years after the Battle of Karbala.

Information on the battle found in the works of Dinawari and Ya'qubi is also based on Abu Mikhnaf's Maqtal,[32] although they occasionally provide some extra notes and verses.

Yazid, Madelung argues, wanted to end Husayn's opposition, but as a caliph of Islam could not afford to be seen as publicly responsible and so diverted blame onto Ibn Ziyad by hypocritically cursing him.

[3] Maria Dakake holds that Husayn considered the Umayyad rule oppressive and misguided, and revolted to reorient the Islamic community in the right direction.

Husayn, Jafri asserts, was from the start aiming for martyrdom in order to jolt the collective conscience of the Muslim community and reveal what he considers to be the oppressive and anti-Islamic nature of the Umayyad regime.

[104] According to Shi'a tradition the first such visit was performed by Husayn's son Ali Zayn al-Abidin and the surviving family members during their return from Syria to Medina.

[115] In Iran, the battle scenes of Karbala are performed on stage in front of an audience in a ritual called taziya (passion play), also known as shabih.

[123] According to Olmo Gölz, the Karbala Paradigm provide Shi'as with heroic norms and a martyr ethos, and represents an embodiment of the battle between good and evil, justice and injustice.

[133] Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, Shi’ites in countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, have interpreted Husayn's martyrdom at Karbala as symbolic of religious and political resistance against oppression in his era.

In these countries, Shi’ites view Husayn as a role model in their daily lives, drawing inspiration for their religious and political resistance against perceived anti-Shia forces, whether domestic or international.

[135] In contrast to the traditional view of Shi'ism as a religion of suffering, mourning and political quietism, Shi'a Islam and Karbala were given a new interpretation in the period preceding the revolution by rationalist intellectuals and religious revisionists like Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Ali Shariati and Nematollah Salehi Najafabadi.

[150] Urdu poet Ghalib compares Husayn's suffering with that of Mansur al-Hallaj, a tenth century Sufi, who was executed on a charge of claiming divinity.

[157] Husayn is claimed to have performed various miracles, including quenching his companions' thirst by putting his thumb in their mouths and satisfying their hunger by bringing down food from the heavens, and to have killed several thousand Umayyad attackers.

[79] When Shi'ism became the official religion of Iran in the 16th century, Safavid rulers such as Shah Tahmasp I, patronized poets who wrote about the Battle of Karbala.

"[162] Various Persian authors wrote texts retelling romanticized and synthesized versions of the battle and events from it,[121][164] including Sa'id al-Din's Rawdat al-Islam (The Garden of Islam) and Al-Khawarazmi's Maqtal nur 'al-'a'emmah (The Site of the Murder of the Light of the Imams).

[164] Inspired by Rawdat al-Shuhada, the Azerbaijani poet Fuzûlî wrote an abridged and simplified version of it in Ottoman Turkish in his work Hadiqat al-Su'ada.

[168] Comparing Karl Marx with Husayn, Josh Malihabadi argues that Karbala is not a story of the past to be recounted by the religious clerics in majalis, but should be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle towards the goal of a classless society and economic justice.

[171] Jalal ud-Din Rumi describes Husayn's suffering at Karbala as a means to achieve union with the divine, and hence considers it to be a matter of jubilation rather than grief.

[176] The paintings, called shamayel or parda, originated in the Qajar era and were not intended as professional works of high art, but rather as popular representations for the taziya scenes.

When Mu'awiya died in 680 CE, his son Yazid I assumed power, a move that was met with opposition from many, especially from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s own family.

On the 10th of Muharram, 680 CE, known as Ashura, in the plains of Karbala, Husayn ibn Ali's group was besieged, denied water, and ultimately massacred after a grueling battle.

The Battle of Karbala marked one of the most tragic events in Islamic history, as nearly all the male members of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s family were killed.