Mukhtar al-Thaqafi
After visiting Karbala, the army arrived at Qarqisia. The Tawwabin pressed on to Ayn al-Warda (identified with Ra's al-Ayn), where they met an Umayyad army of 20,000, under command of Husayn ibn Numayr. The battle started on 4 January 685 and lasted for three days. Although the Tawwabin held the upper hand in a first skirmish, over the next two days the numerical superiority of the Umayyad army began to prevail. Finally, Sulayman was killed and the Tawwabin were almost annihilated. Rifa bin Shaddad advised the survivors to return and brought them to Qarqisiya. The small number of Tawwabin who survived the battle, went over to Mukhtar al-Thaqafi. These Kufans, who formed the backbone of Mukhtar's movement, called themselves "Shia al-Mahdi", "Shia al-Haqq" or "Shia al-Muhammad". In his book, "The origins and early development of Shia Islam", Seyed Husain Mohammad Jafari argues that the Tawwabin were apparently defeated, but in fact they formed the first ever integrated Shia organization, which was influenced by Husayn's thinking, in order to serve the Shia community.