Ruqayya bint Husayn

Ruqayya bint al-Husayn
رُقَيَّة بِنْت ٱلْحُسَيْن
Bornc. 676 CE
Diedc. 680 CE
Damascus, Umayyad Caliphate
Resting placeSayyidah Ruqayya Mosque, Damascus
FatherHusayn ibn Ali

Ruqayya bint al-Ḥusayn (Arabic: رُقَيَّة بِنْت ٱلْحُسَيْن) is said to have been a daughter of Husayn ibn Ali, the third imam in Twelver Shia. Husayn and a small group of his supporters were massacred in the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE on the order of the Umayyad caliph Yazid (r. 680–683). Their women and children were then taken captive and marched to the capital Damascus, where it is said that Ruqayya died at the age of about three, possibly due to the hostility of her captors. The shrine associated with Ruqayya in Damascus is a popular destination for Shia pilgrimage. The child of Husayn who died shortly after Karbala is sometimes identified as Sakina.