 |
| An Afghan Shi'ite beating himself with chains and blades |
Shi’ite Muslims celebrated Ashura on Thursday, marking a day of pain, pilgrimage, and pageantry that is one of the holiest in their religion.
The word Ashura means 10, and the holiday is the tenth day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. For Shi’ite Muslims, those ten days are a period of mourning and remembrance, where they commemorate the death of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. One of the central figures in the Shi’ite denomination, Hussein was beheaded in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD, and his martyrdom was a defining event in the split between Sunnis and Shi’ites. » | Nate Rawlings | Thursday, November 14, 2013
