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7. In the Footsteps of Martyrs
FROM SHI‘ISM TO KHOMEINISME ARLY I N THE morning on the tenth day of the Islamic month of
Muharram, in the sixty-first year of the Hijra (October 10, 680 C.E.),
Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the de facto
head of the Shi‘atu Ali, steps out of his tent one last time to gaze across
the vast, withered plane of Karbala at the massive Syrian army encir-
cling his camp. These are the soldiers of the Umayyad Caliph, Yazid I,
dispatched from Damascus weeks ago with orders to intercept
Husayn and his party before they can reach the city of Kufa, where a
brewing rebellion awaits his arrival.
For ten days the Syrian forces have besieged Husayn at Karbala.
At first, they tried to storm the camp in a stampede of cavalry. But
having anticipated the assault, Husayn had pitched his tents near a
chain of hills, protecting his rear. He then dug a semicircular trench
around three sides of his camp, filled the trench with wood, and
ignited it. Gathering his men in the center of this crescent of fire,