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Demolition of the tomb of al-Husayn

هدم قبر الحسين

c. 850 CE · 236 AH

In 236 al-Mutawakkil ordered al-Husayn's tomb demolished with the houses around it, the site ploughed into farmland and visits forbidden — he was known for nasb; the Muslims grieved, Baghdadis wrote curses on walls and mosques, and poets lampooned: 'by God, if Umayya did the killing of the Prophet ﷺ's daughter's son wronged, his father's sons did the like — his tomb demolished' 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

In time

840850860 c.
The Early Abbasid Caliphate

Overview

In 236 AH the caliph al-Mutawakkil ordered the tomb of al-Husayn and the houses around it demolished, the place to be made into farmland, and people were forbidden to visit it. The site was ploughed and remained a desert. 2

The reactions

al-Suyuti says that al-Mutawakkil was known for hostility to the Prophet's family, and that the Muslims were pained by it. The people of Baghdad wrote curses against him on the walls and the mosques, and poets satirised him. Among the verses transmitted is one saying that if the Umayyads had killed the son of the daughter of their Prophet unjustly, his own paternal kin had brought upon his tomb the same thing, demolished. 2

Note

The description "hostile to the family" is in al-Suyuti's words. The file does not include a second source, and it needs an additional source.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
al-Mutawakkil ala Allah

People and things also explored

al-Mufarraj ibn Sallam's Conquest of Twenty-Four Fortresses· al-Qummi's War on the Buja Lands· Bugha al-Kabir's Pacification of the Armenian March· The Conquest of Barah· The Founding of al-Mutawakkiliyya· Christians Bound to Wear the Honey-Coloured Dress· Al-Mutawakkil's resolve to reside in Damascus· The Byzantine raid on Damietta

Sources

  1. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 539
  2. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p.539
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Demolition of the tomb of al-Husayn”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/demolition-of-husayn-tomb/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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al-Mufarraj ibn Sallam's Conquest of Twenty-Four Fortresses

In al-Baladhuri: after Khalafun rose a man called al-Mufarraj — one copy: al-Mufarrikh — ibn Sallam who opened twenty-four fortresses and seized them; he wrote the postmaster in Egypt his news and that he deemed the absentee prayer unlawful for himself and the Muslims with him, asking the imam to contract him over his district and appoint him, to leave the state of usurpers — and he built a congregational mosque. Then his companions mutinied and killed him; Sawran — also read Sudan — succeeded and sent his envoy to al-Mutawakkil asking patent and letter of appointment, but al-Mutawakkil died before the envoy reached him, and al-Muntasir died whose caliphate was six months; al-Musta'in Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tasim ordered his Maghreb agent Utamish — the caliph's mawla — to contract it for him, but before his envoy could leave Samarra Utamish was killed and Wasif the caliph's mawla took the district and contracted and dispatched it.