Hussein, after receiving some favorable indications, sets out for Kufah from Mecca with a small band of relatives and followers.

According to traditional accounts, he meets the poet al-Farazdaq on the way and is told that the hearts of the Iraqis are for him, but their swords are for the Umayyads.

The governor of Iraq, on behalf of the caliph, sends four thousand men to arrest Hussein and his small band, trapping him on October 10 near the banks of the Euphrates River.

Hussein refuses to surrender, and he and his escort are slain, his head sent to Yazid in Damascus. (Shi'ite Muslims observe the first ten days of Muharram, the date of the battle according to the Islamic calendar, as days of lamentation in remembrance of Hussein's martyrdom.)

Revenge for Hussein’s death at the Battle of Karbala' is turned into a rallying cry that will help undermine the Umayyad caliphate and give impetus to the rise of a powerful Shi'ite movement, making permanent a division in Islam between the party of 'Ali and the Sunnite majority.

The Umayyads subdue Iraq, but rebellions in the name of this or that relative of 'Ali will continue, attracting more and more non-Arab support and introducing new dimensions to his cause.