Threads of Remembrance
The vocabulary of the remembrance — the days, the gatherings, the poetry, and the pilgrimage that keep Karbala alive. Each is explained here in brief.
The tenth day of Muharram, the day Imam al-Husayn (a) and his companions were martyred at Karbala. It is the central day of mourning in the month, marked by gatherings, elegies, and remembrance.
The confrontation on the plain of Karbala in 61 AH between Imam al-Husayn (a), with about seventy-two companions, and the army of Yazid. A military defeat remembered as the triumph of truth over tyranny.
The first month of the Islamic calendar and the month of the tragedy. Its first ten days form a period of intensifying mourning, culminating in Ashura.
The practice of mourning for Imam al-Husayn (a) — the gatherings, weeping, recitation, and commemoration through which the memory of Karbala is kept alive.
The fortieth day after Ashura, marking the end of the principal mourning period and associated with one of the largest annual pilgrimages in the world, to the shrine of Imam al-Husayn (a).
A mourning gathering at which the events of Karbala are recounted and the martyrs remembered, often combining narration, lament, and reflection.
An elegy — a poem of mourning composed to lament the martyrs of Karbala and to move the listener to grief and reflection.
A form of lamentation poetry, often recited rhythmically in mourning gatherings, expressing grief for the household of the Prophet (s).
The broad tradition of mourning poetry for Karbala, in many languages, grown over fourteen centuries to keep the memory and meaning of the tragedy alive.
A well-known salutation and supplication addressed to Imam al-Husayn (a), recited especially on Ashura, expressing devotion to the martyrs and dissociation from their oppressors.
The city in Iraq whose people invited the Imam with thousands of letters and then abandoned his emissary Muslim ibn ‘Aqil — the broken promise at the heart of the tragedy.
An early name for the region of Karbala; the events are sometimes called the Event of Taff, the title under which the earliest historical accounts were recorded.