Bodies left on the plain
Umar b. Sa'd's army buried its own dead before leaving Karbala but left the bodies of Imam Husayn (a) and his companions unburied on the battlefield. Only after the army had marched away with the captives did the tribespeople of Banu Asad, who lived in the villages around Karbala, come to the field.
The burial
Historians place the burial on the twelfth of Muharram, with some giving the eleventh or the thirteenth. Working at night for fear of the Kufan garrison, the Banu Asad prayed over the martyrs and buried them where they had fallen: the Imam at the spot where his shrine now stands, Ali al-Akbar (a) at his feet, the companions together nearby, and Abbas (a) by the river where he had been martyred. Shia tradition holds that Imam Zayn al-Abidin (a) was present to identify his father's body and lead the burial.
Why it is remembered
The graves dug that night are the origin of Karbala as a city and a place of pilgrimage. The Banu Asad are honoured in the majalis for this act, and the tradition of "the burial of the martyrs" is re-enacted in some communities on this day, closing the first decade of Muharram.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
