Poems That Lived Karbala: The First Echoes of the Battle of Karbala in Arabic Poetry with “Husayn b. Ali” and “Other” Images

The killing of Husayn b. Ali and his relatives in Karbala by the Emevi government deeply grieved the Muslims. A significant number of poetic or prosaic art have been created about this battle which made tremendous impact in the literature of Muslim nations. Since the battle took place in the Arabian geography, the first poetry work on this issue appeared in Arabic literature during the incident. From the moment of Husayn’s journey to Kufa, the poems experienced the Karbala incident in person, witnessed the event, and translated the emotions of the battle in a way. In this study, samples from the first poems about the Karbala Battle have been selected. The study is limited in the discussed poems were during-battle and early post-battle stages in terms of time. Contextually, the study was limited of Tawwābūn (penitents) and Mukhtar al Thaqafi movements which were related to this Battle. In this study which has been conducted in order to identify Husayn portrait and "the other" image in the poems and to determine the artistic value of the poems.