Wahhabi sack of Karbala
| Wahhabi sack of Karbala | |
|---|---|
The shrine of Husayn ibn Ali, as seen from the shrine of Abbas in Karbala, Karbala Governorate, Iraq
|
|
| Location | Karbala, Ottoman Iraq |
| Coordinates | 32°36′59″N 44°01′56″E / 32.616365°N 44.032313°ECoordinates: 32°36′59″N 44°01′56″E / 32.616365°N 44.032313°E |
| Date | April 21, 1802 or 1801 |
| Target | The shrine of Husayn ibn Ali |
|
Attack type
|
Land Army attack |
| Deaths | 2,000–5,000 |
| Victims | Inhabitants of Karbala |
| Perpetrator | First Saudi State |
| Assailants | Wahhabis of Najd led by Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad's son, Saud |
|
No. of participants
|
12,000 Soldiers |
| Motive | Fanaticism |
The Wahhabi sack of Karbala occurred on 21 April 1802 (1216 Hijri) (1801), under the rule of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad the second ruler of the First Saudi State. Approximately 12,000 Wahhabis from Najd attacked the city of Karbala. The attack coincided with the anniversary of Ghadir Khum event, or 10th Muharram.
Wahhabis killed 2,000–5,000 of the inhabitants and plundered the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and destroyed its dome, seizing a large quantity of spoils, including gold, Persian carpets, money, pearls, and guns that had accumulated in the tomb, most of them donations. The attack lasted for eight hours, after which the Wahhabis left the city with more than 4,000 camels carrying their plunder.
Following the teachings of Ibn Taymiah, Wahhabis "sough to to return to the fundamentals of the tradition-the Quran. They condemned some of the Shia practices such as veneration of the graves of their holy figures and Imams, which they called Bid‘ah, and did not limit themselves to academic confrontation. According to the French orientalist Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, it was also very well known that some of the Shia tombs of Karbala were repositories of "incredible wealth", accumulated over centuries.
Most European and Russian orientalists date the attack to March 1801, based on works by Rousseau, Corancez, Burckhardt, and Mengin. Arab historians and St John Philby date the fall of Karbala to March–April 1802, based on Ibn Bishr's report of the event. The reports dating the attack to 1802, written soon after the attack, are accepted by Ibn Sanad and Raymond. Alexei Vassiliev argues that 1802 is correct, pointing out that the "dispatch" sent from Karbala reached the Russian embassy in Istanbul no later than 1803, and as Rousseau's book describing the attack is almost identical in wording with the text of the dispatch with the exception of accounted dates, the error could be due simply to "negligence" by the author, Rousseau, or the compositor.
...
Wikipedia