EMPIRE OF THE UMAYYADS-a-sPlace topped where for the H ussein n ight- Modern Po lit ical l:lorders
Imam Hussein's Route to Karbala
69When Yazid heard that the Prophet's younger grandson was on the
move, he sent an army to swat him down. Hussein posed no real threat to
the empire, but Yazid wanted to crush him with overwhelming force as a
warning to other radicals who might be tempted to play the God-chose-
me card. The army he sent outnumbered Hussein's little group by enough
to make it no contest. Legends put that number at anywhere from four
hundred to forty thousand.
Whatever its size, this imperial army caught up with Hussein in the
desert just south of Karbala, a city near the southern border of Iraq. If you
glance at weather reports for that part of the world on any summer day,
you'll see temperatures ranging upward of 115 degrees. On just such a
sweltering day, the emperor's army trapped Hussein's little band within
smelling distance of the Euphrates River but cut off from the water. Hus-
sein, however, did what his father had failed to do. He refused to settle,
compromise, or bargain. God had chosen him to lead the community of
virtue, he said, and he would not disavow that truth.