The Mourning of Ashura is the commemoration, central to Shia Islam, of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was killed with his companions at Karbala in the year 680 by the army of the Umayyad caliph Yazid. Observed on the tenth day, ashura, of the month of Muharram, and through the surrounding days, it is the most intense expression of Shia devotional life, a season of grief in which the community relives the suffering of Husayn and his family and renews its commitment to the ideals for which he is held to have died. For Shia Muslims Karbala is not merely a historical event but the enduring pattern of righteous resistance to tyranny and injustice, and its mourning is at once an act of love for the Prophet's household and a moral stance.
The observance takes many forms. Gatherings of lamentation, the majalis, recount the events of Karbala through sermon, elegy and poetry, moving the mourners to tears; processions pass through the streets; and passion plays, the taziya, dramatise the martyrdom. Some mourners practise forms of ritual self-mortification, beating the chest in unison and, among a minority, striking themselves so as to draw blood, practices that are controversial within Islam and within Shiism itself, discouraged by a number of leading Shia authorities who encourage instead acts such as blood donation and charity as expressions of the day's spirit. For most, the mourning centres on grief, remembrance and the recommitment to justice.