Battle of KarbalaThe Battle of Karbala (مَعْرَكَة كَرْبَلَاء) was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid I (680-683) and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, at Karbala, Sawad (modern-day southern Iraq). Prior to his death, the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (661-680) had nominated his son Yazid as his successor.
Husayn ibn AliAbū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad's daughter Fatima, as well as a younger brother of Hasan ibn Ali. He is the third Imam of Shia Islam after his brother, Hasan, and before his son, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin. Being a grandson of the prophet, he is a member of the Ahl al-Bayt. He is also considered to be a member of the Ahl al-Kisa, and a participant in the event of Mubahala.
Abbasid RevolutionThe Abbasid Revolution (ath-thawra al-ʿAbbāsiyya), also called the Movement of the Men of the Black Raiment (حركة رجال الثياب السوداء ḥaraka rijāl ath-thiyāb as-sawdāʾ), was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE), the second of the four major Caliphates in Islamic history, by the third, the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1517 CE). Coming to power three decades after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the Rashidun Caliphate, the Umayyads were an Arab empire ruling over a population which was overwhelmingly non-Arab.
ZaydismZaydism (الزَّيْدِيَّة) is a branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. In contrast to other Shia Muslims of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism, Zaydis, also sometimes incorrectly called Fivers, consider Zayd to be the Imam to whom obedience is obligatory, due to him being a patrilinial descendent of Fatima and making the Call (Dawah) to jihad, two necessary qualities for an Imam of Obedience for the Zaydis.
Fatimid CaliphateThe Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dynasty of Arab origin, trace their ancestry to Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, the first Shi‘a imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful Imams by different Isma‘ili communities, as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions.
Isma'ilismIsma'ilism (al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili (ˌɪsmeɪˈɪli) get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept Musa al-Kadhim, the younger brother of Isma'il, as the true Imām. After the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning (batin) of the Islamic religion.