Battle of 'Ayn al-Warda

The Battle of 'Ayn al-Warda was fought in early January 685 between the Umayyad army and the group known as the "Penitents" (Ar. Tawwabun).

The Penitents were a group of pro-Alid Kufans, led by a certain Sulayman ibn Surad, who wished to atone for their failure to assist Husayn ibn Ali in his uprising against the Umayyads, which 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 began in November 684 to call upon his fellow Kufans to avenge their failure. Although some 16,000 pledged themselves to support him, only some 5,000 showed up at their mustering place. Undeterred, they moved up the Euphrates towards the Jazira.

At Qarqisiya, the Qaysi refugees from the Battle of Marj Rahit aided them with supplies and advice but refused to join them, seeing no hope in their endeavour. The Penitents pressed on to 'Ayn al-Warda (identified with Ra's al-'Ayn), where they met an Umayyad army of 20,000 under Husayn ibn Numayr. Although the Penitents held the upper hand in a first skirmish, over the next two days the numerical superiority of the Umayyad army began to prevail. Finally, the Penitents were surrounded and almost annihilated, with only a few survivors escaping under the cover of night and making it back to Kufa.