him, for he has close kinship to the Prophet and a great
claim.”
If Yazid had only heeded him, centuries of strife and
division could perhaps have been avoided. But one way
or another, history is often made by the heedless.
On April 22 in the year 680, Yazid was acclaimed
Caliph. He moved swiftly to consolidate his position,
reconɹrming Ziyad’s son Ubaydallah as governor of Iraq
in the hope of squelching any incipient uprising there.
At the same time, he ordered his governor in Medina to
arrest Hussein. “Act so ɹercely that he has no chance to
do anything before giving public allegiance to me,” he
wrote. “If he refuses, execute him.”
But the same governor who had done Muawiya’s
bidding was not so quick to obey Yazid’s orders. To
prevent Hasan from being buried alongside Muhammad
was one thing, but to kill Hussein, Muhammad’s one
remaining grandson? That was beyond the pale. “I could
not do this, not for all the wealth and power in the
world,” he said.
Perhaps it was the governor himself who warned
Hussein of what was afoot, or perhaps someone in his
employ. All we know is that later that night, under cover
of darkness, Hussein gathered together all his blood kin
and ɻed the two hundred and ɹfty miles from Medina to
Mecca.
That was when they began to arrive, messenger after