Mukhtar a Biograghy

Chapter 9 - Yazeed's Death After Kerbala, Yazeed never got peace of mind nor sound sleep; he had a constantly undying and unquenching thirst, and was always feeling hot within his body; his doctors advised him that there was no cure, but to relieve his claustrophobia, he should spend time out in the open, and pass the time in his favourite hobby, for distraction purposes: hunting; so at intervals, he used to go hunting in the wilderness.

Yazeed was in no doubt that his incurable illness was due to his atrocities against Imam Husein (as) at Kerbala, for he was often heard saying: "Mali min-al Hussein" (How has Hussein wronged me?).

Yazeed takes one of his frequent hunting trips, to Harwan in this case, with about ten personal bodyguards on 12 Rabil Awwal 64 AH; he spots a handsome deer the like of which he had never seen before and orders his group to hold back, while he alone tries to hunt the deer; he runs after her but cannot trap her for the deer always alluded him; this goes on for two days (to 14 Rabil Awwal 64 AH).

When Yazeed does not return to his bodyguards, they go searching for him for two days but find no trace and they decide to return to the city; on the way back they spot Yazeed's horse with Yazeed's thigh enclosed in his clothes, and they conclude that Yazeed had been killed.

Other reports say that when the bodyguards searched, they found Yazeed's body.

Whatever the case, the bodyguards return to Damascus and relate the tale, with Yazeed's horse and his thigh, or Yazeed's body, as evidence; Yazeed's thigh/body is buried; to-date, there is no trace remaining of his grave or its location.

After Yazeed's death, the Caliphate is offered to his son Muawiyah, who publicly refuses such an office due to the shame he felt of the abuse of the office by his father; he is nevertheless forced to accept it but does not step out of the palace due to the shame felt; after about eighteen days (some reports say forty days) Marwan Hakam engineered his murder for fear of the Caliphate slipping away from the Umayyad family dynasty.