The Battle of Karbala

Yazid I was the son of Mu'awiya, the second caliph of the Umayyads, and the sixth caliph overall. (Note: for a coin of Yazid's father see: Roman baths in 7th century). Today's coin of interest was struck by Yazid's governor of Basra and Kufa, Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad. Ubayd Allah led the Umayyad army that fought against Hussein ibn Ali, the Prophet's grandson, at the Battle of Karbala. The battle occurred on 10 Muharram 61 AH (9 or 10 October 680 AD), during the year in which these coins were minted.

Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Yazid I ibn Mu'awiya, AH 60-64 / AD 680-683. Drachm (Silver, 33 mm, 4.05 g, 3 h), Arab-Sasanian type, citing governor ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad (AH 54-64 / AD 673-683), BH (unknown mint), AH 61 = AD 680/1.

Obv: Draped bust resembling Khosrau II to right, wearing an elaborate mural crown; behind head, ‘GDE / ʾp̄zwt'’ (‘[may his] glory increase’ in Pahlavi); before head, ‘ʾwbytʾlʾ / Y zyyʾtʾn’ (‘ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad’ in Pahlavi); in the outer margin, ‘bism Allāh’ (‘In the name of Allah’ in Arabic).

Rev: Fire altar with ribbons, flanked by two attendants; above altar, star and crescent; to left, date in Pahlavi; to right, ‘BH’ (abbreviation for an unknown mint in Pahlavi).

Ref: Album 12. Lightly toned. Areas of weakness, otherwise,  virtually as struck. From an important collection of Arab-Sasanian coins.

Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Yazid I ibn Mu'awiya, AH 60-64 / AD 680-683. Drachm (Silver, 33 mm, 3.99 g, 3 h), Arab-Sasanian type, citing governor ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad (AH 54-64 / AD 673-683), BH (unknown mint), AH 61 = AD 680/1.

Obv: Draped bust resembling Khosrau II to right, wearing an elaborate mural crown; behind head, ‘GDE / ʾp̄zwt'’ (‘[may his] glory increase’ in Pahlavi); before head, ‘ʾwbytʾlʾ / Y zyyʾtʾn’ (‘ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad’ in Pahlavi); in the outer margin, ‘bism Allāh’ (‘In the name of Allah’ in Arabic).

Rev: Fire altar with ribbons, flanked by two attendants; above altar, star and crescent; to left, date in Pahlavi; to right, ‘BH’ (abbreviation for an unknown mint in Pahlavi).

Ref: Album 12. Lightly toned. Some doubling and scratches, otherwise, virtually as struck.

The Mint

Although the auction house described these coins as "unknown mint", The British Museum offers that the mint, written as BH, is probably the Sasanian VH (Veh Ardashir) a suburb of Ctesiphon. This was the city originally known as Seleucia, and rebuilt and renamed in 230 CE by the founder of the Sasanian Empire, King Ardashir I (CE 224-240).

Map of the metropolis of Ctesiphon by Renato de carvalho ferreira, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Context

In the decades after the death of the Prophet Muḥammad (632 CE), the Muslim community expanded rapidly across the Middle East. Political leadership, the caliphate, was meant to preserve unity and justice, but in practice became contested. The Umayyad family, based in Damascus, established the first dynastic rule under Muʿāwiya I (r. 661–680). He named his son Yazīd I as successor, it marked the first hereditary transfer of power in Islam - a change some early Muslims viewed as inconsistent with elective tradition. Among those who opposed this new dynastic model were al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, the Prophet’s grandson, and his cousin ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr. They believed the caliphate should be based on moral merit, not dynastic inheritance.

This illustration comes from the Rawdat al-shuhada of Husayn Wa’iz al-Kashifi. This 15th century work gives an account of the twelve Shi’i Imams but is focused around the events of the Battle of Karbala. In the miniature, Husayn (top left quadrant) is depicted with a veil and a flaming halo, watches his second cousin ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr charge the enemy lines, lance raised. Husayn and most of his supporters were slain during the battle and later came to be revered as martyrs by Shiite communities around the world. Public domain image.

The Death of Husayn

After Yazīd’s accession in 680 CE, Kufans (in today’s Iraq) invited Ḥusayn to lead a revolt and promised him support. Ḥusayn left Mecca with about 70 family members and companions, including women and children. Before he arrived, Yazīd’s governor ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād crushed the movement in Kufa and sent troops to intercept him.

Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Yazid I ibn Mu'awiya, AH 60-64 / AD 680-683. Drachm (Silver, 33 mm, 3.99 g, 3 h), Arab-Sasanian type, citing governor ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad (AH 54-64 / AD 673-683), al-Basra, AH 62 = AD 681/2.

Obv: Draped bust resembling Khosrau II to right, wearing an elaborate mural crown; behind head, ‘GDE / ʾp̄zwt'’ (‘[may his] glory increase’ in Pahlavi); before head, ‘ʾwbytʾlʾ / Y zyyʾtʾn’ (‘ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad’ in Pahlavi); in the outer margin, ‘bism Allāh’ (‘In the name of Allah’ in Arabic).

Rev: Fire altar with ribbons, flanked by two attendants; above altar, star and crescent; to left, date in Pahlavi; to right, ‘bclʾ’ (‘al-Basra’ in Pahlavi).

Ref: Album 12. Minor roughness, otherwise,  good extremely fine. From an important collection of Arab-Sasanian coins.

On 10 October 680 (10 Muḥarram 61 AH), at Karbala, Ḥusayn’s small group was surrounded by roughly 4,000 soldiers. When water was cut off and negotiations failed, battle broke out. Ḥusayn and almost all his male followers were killed; his family was taken captive.

Although Yazīd secured his throne temporarily, the killing of the Prophet’s grandson shocked many Muslims. It discredited the regime morally and triggered further revolts across the empire. Over time, Karbalāʾ became the foundational story of Shiʿi Islam. Shiʿis (literally “the party of ʿAlī”) came to see Ḥusayn’s martyrdom as the ultimate act of faith - sacrificing life rather than accepting injustice.

30-Mar-2005 - millions of Shia Muslims gather around the Husayn Mosque in Karbala after making the Pilgrimage on foot during Arba'een. Arba'een is a forty day period that commemorates the martyrdom of Husayn bin Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and seventy-two of his followers at the Battle of Karbala in the year 680AD. Public Domain image via Wikimedia Commons.

Today

Each year on the 10th of Muḥarram (ʿĀshūrāʾ), Shiʿi communities mourn Ḥusayn’s death through public processions, sermons, and passion plays; forty days later, Arbaʿīn marks the end of mourning and pilgrimage to his shrine in Karbala. For Sunnis, who form the majority of Muslims, the event is also tragic but not central to theology; they remember it as a moral warning against civil war among Muslims.