Ashura-Oriented Historiographical Sources in the First Two Centuries of the Islamic History

Despite its bitterness, the Ashura episode has been a significant event in the Shiite history, hence it has proved of immense value and contribution to the development of the Shiite denomination. The mission of conveying the message and narrative of this event to the Muslim ummah has since led to the emergence of another kind of historiography that is generally called 'martyrdom account' (Arabic: maqtal). Therefore, writing maqtal generally conveys a sense of being related to the Ashura event
Granted that maqtals describe the tyranny that a cruel ruler committed against the Infallibles, this kind of writing generically pertains to Imam al-Husayn and his companions, all because of the tragic influence of the Ashura massacre. In the same way, the maqtal-authors have usually viewed it as a religious duty to develop such accounts, especially those which bring about the sharpest and most profound emotive influence on the audience. This tragic-cum-cathartic effect in turn led to much more popular support in favor of the Ahl al-Bayt. The present paper deals with the maqtals produced in the first two centuries of the Islamic history.