After Karbala
Zaynab (a) outlived the massacre at Karbala by little more than a year. Returning to Madinah with the captives after the sermons in Kufa and Damascus that had turned opinion against Yazid, she continued to speak of what had been done to her brother, and the governor of Madinah is reported to have found her presence in the city dangerous enough to ask that she leave. Sources say she was sent from Madinah, and it is here that the accounts of her last months diverge.
Death and burial
She died on Sunday 15 Rajab 62 AH (some say the 14th). Three places claim her grave. Some historians, including al-Sayyid Muhsin al-Amin, hold that she was buried in al-Baqi in Madinah. The widely held view places her in the village south of Damascus that bears her name, Sayyida Zaynab, where a great shrine stands. Egyptian tradition holds that she went to Cairo and was buried there, in the mosque that is also a place of pilgrimage. Whichever is right, the shrines in Damascus and Cairo have been visited for centuries.
Observance
The fifteenth of Rajab is a day of mourning for the heroine of Karbala, kept with majalis and with the recitation of her sermons. In the devotional calendar the same day is also given to the practice of Umm Dawud, a day of prayer recommended in Rajab.
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.
