Page 31 - Hussein Revivalism - Issue 16
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THE SHRINE OF ZAID:
Report: S. Taee
Hundreds of thousands visit 'Umar Thaqafi, came out with body of this descendant of the
the shrine of a great warrior a huge army to face him. Zaid Prophet placed on the gallows
and grandson of Imam Hussain recited the following war poem: entirely naked. For four years, his
annually in an outskirt district of "Disgraceful life and honourable body remained on the gallows.
Babylon called al-Kifl. He is Zaid death: both are bitter morsels, Five years later, when Walid
ibn Imam Ali ibn Imam Hussain, but if one of them must be Ibn Yazid ibn Abdu'l-Malik ibn
also known as Zaid the Martyr chosen, my choice is honourable Marwan became caliph, he
(695-740 A.D). death." ordered that the skeleton be
Zaid was eventually killed during taken down from the gallows,
His Story fighting in the battle on the burnt, and the ashes scattered to
second of Safar in 738 A.D. the wind.
Due to the unjust ruling and His son, Yahya, took his body
oppression of the Umayyads from the field and buried him His Shrines
against the people in the 8th away from the city near the
century, Zaid, a member of the riverbank, causing the water to History claims there are two
Hashemite Clan, led a rebellion flow over it. However, the grave shrines for Zaid: one is in Kufa,
known as the Zaid Rebellion was discovered and, under Iraq, and the other is in Karak,
demanding the rights of the Yusuf's orders, the body was Jordan. The shrine in Jordan
people, renewing hostilities that exhumed, and Zaid’s head was may be the final resting place for
existed between the Umayyads cut off and sent to Hisham in the head of Zaid ibn Ali ibn al-
and the Hashemites. Syria. In the month of Safar, 738 Hussain.
The governor of Kufa, Yusuf ibn A.D., Hisham had the sacred
Hussein Revivalism 31
