The Penitents are a group of pro-Alid Kufans, led by a certain Sulayman ibn Surad, who wish to atone for their failure to assist Husayn ibn Ali in his uprising against the Umayyads, which had condemned him to death at the Battle of Karbala in 680.

With the outbreak of the Second Islamic Civil War and the collapse of Umayyad authority across Iraq in 683/684, Sulayman ibn Surad had begun in November 684 to call upon his fellow Kufans to avenge their failure.

Although some sixteen thousand had pledged themselves to support him, only some five thousand show up at their mustering place.

Undeterred, they move up the Euphrates towards the Jazira.

At Qarqisiya, the Qaysi refugees from the Battle of Marj Rahit aid them with supplies and advice but refuse to join them, seeing no hope in their endeavor.

The Penitents press on to 'Ayn al-Warda (identified with Ra's al-'Ayn), where they meet an Umayyad army of twenty thousand under Husayn ibn Numayr.

Although the Penitents hold the upper hand in a first skirmish, over the next two days the numerical superiority of the Umayyad army begins to prevail.

Finally, the Penitents are surrounded and almost annihilated, with only a few survivors escaping under the cover of night and making it back to Kufa.