Yazid ibn Muawiyah

Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah (died 64 AH / 683 CE) was the second Umayyad caliph, ruling from 60 to 64 AH. He was the son of Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, whom he succeeded as caliph following his father's death in 60 AH — a succession that his father had arranged, making Yazid the first hereditary caliph in Islamic history and setting a precedent that defined the Umayyad dynasty's system of rule.

Yazid's three-year reign was marked by three major crises that shaped Islamic history profoundly. The first and most momentous was the tragedy of Karbala in 61 AH, when Husayn ibn 'Ali — grandson of the Prophet ﷺ and son of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib — traveled to Kufa in response to invitations from its inhabitants, who promised to support him in challenging Yazid's authority. The Kufans then abandoned him, and Husayn's small party of family members and companions was surrounded by a large Umayyad force at Karbala in modern Iraq. Husayn refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid and was killed along with most of his male companions, while the women and children of his family were taken captive. The massacre of Karbala became the defining tragedy of Islamic history, the event around which Shia identity crystallized, and a moment whose moral weight has been weighed and contested by Muslim scholars across all traditions for fourteen centuries.

The second crisis was the Siege of Medina (63 AH) and the Battle of al-Harra, in which Umayyad forces suppressed an uprising in the holy city, resulting in significant casualties among the inhabitants of Medina. The third was the Siege of Makkah, where 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr had established a rival caliphate; this siege ended with Yazid's death. Sunni scholarship holds measured and complex views on Yazid: acknowledging his caliphate while condemning his actions in the events leading to Karbala, and applying the principle that Muslims are not permitted to curse specific individuals without established proof of their dying outside of Islam.