A Summary of The Historiography of àshura A Chronicle

The immensity of the Karbala incident and its vast and profound social and political impacts in the history of Islam, and especially that of the Shiah, lead every inquisitive and interested mind that wants to better understand historical facts, towards a more through grasp of the sources which have registered reports on this incident. This is especially true in light of the orientalist's claim that most historical accounts in Islam had written-wise remained unaccounted for until the middle of the 2nd century A.H.In this paper, by giving a brief introduction on "Maghtal al-Husayn", a major work on the topic, by Abu Mukhannaf, we have tried to demonstrate that many of the main relators of the àshura incident had been eyewitnesses present on the battle- scene themselves; and hence, the information that has been passed to us this moment-of-truth event is of great historical value to scholars.