Ashura

A procession of men, young and old clad in black, which is tens of thousands strong slowly proceeds down the street. Giant flags and hand-shaped standard rise high above the crow, from which a steady, fervent chant emanates as the marchers beat their chests to the beat. Women are also in the march, along with young children. This scenario is repeated in varying scales in world cities, wherever a sizable Shi’a Muslim population is present. The event is the commemoration of Ashura. What does it mean? What kind of moral lessons do the Shi’a gain from this occasion?

The historical events are relayed by Islamic historians of all stripes. On the tenth day of the first Islamic month of Muharram in 680 A.D., a notable martyrdom occurred. Hussain ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the third Shi’a Imam, along with his family and companions (72 is the number in the religious tradition) were massacred in a battle in which they were vastly outnumbered. These events took place in Karbala, now a city in modern-day Iraq. For three days leading up to the deaths, this group of people was deprived of food and water by the then caliph, Yazid. Two main questions arise: why did this martyrdom happen, and what has it come to represent for the Shi’a?

Yazid’s father was the first caliph of the Umayyad Dynasty, Muawiya. It is he who is considered responsible for the assassination of Hussain’s father, Ali. After Ali’s assassination, Hussain’s older brother Hasan had challenged Muawiya’s rule for a time, but ended up signing a peace treaty to avoid more violence between Muslim factions. Muawiya gave the caliphate to his son, Yazid. The dynasty’s capital was Damascus, now the capital of Syria.

Historically, Yazid is attributed with making improvements to Damascus and reforming the tax system of his Islamic empire, particularly easing the burdens on Christian residents. At the same time, Muslim historians in particular describe his character as outright immoral. There were several elements in the political and religious fabric of this emerging Islamic world that fought against him.

The residents of Kufa, another area now part of Iraq, people railed against Yazid and invited Hussain to join them and to help him claim the Caliphate. Yazid’s governor of Basra was sent out to intimidate and terrorize Kufa’s residents into submission. After receiving the news of this oppression, Hussain became more resolute and set out with his small party from Mecca.

Karbala would be their last camp. Roughly on October 10 of 680, several thousand of Yazid’s troops massacred the small fighting contingent that Hussain had mustered. Not only were they killed, but their bodies were posthumously mutilated. The people of Kufa had made clear that they would come to Hussain’s assistance, but they never arrived.

This was a disaster for the Shi’a movement to claim the Caliphate, and became an annual time of mourning for them. Yazid took on a demonic role in the religious history, and the infallibility of Hussain was heightened. A survivor of the massacre, Hussain’s sister Zainab ibn Ali was the leader of those who remained. In Shi’a history, she is the one credited with the first commemorations of Hussain’s death. This event also greatly exacerbated the schism between Sunni and Shi’a, as the Ummayyads continued their caliphate for almost another century.

Today, in countries where Shi’a Muslims reside, processions and passion plays put followers into an intense state of sadness; it is highly discouraged to have celebration of any kind during the first two months of the Islamic calendar, and particularly the first ten days. These events have left a feeling of betrayal and injustice for the Shi’a, though the form these feelings have taken, for the most part, are introspective to their own community. It is truly not a festival, as it is commonly referred to in western media, but a mourning period.