A PICTURE OF MOURNING
iconography

Dawn.com takes a look at the various symbols prevalent in Muharram processions in Pakistan.

As cultural divisions widen, there is a need for someone who speaks for everyone.

Educator and Islamic scholar Abbas Husain.

Abbas Husain discusses Ashura’s relevance in the modern world.

A glimpse at how a small colony in Karachi’s Korangi Town marks the occasion.

A visual narration of the battle that has shaped the Muslim world.

MORE HIGHLIGHTS

Over the past few years, Dawn photographers have captured the passion and intensity of ritualistic mourning during Muharram in memorable images. Here, these images are accompanied by the recitation of a nauha by Syed Asad Jahan, who is the son of the celebrated marsia khuan Syed Nasir Jahan.

A marsia is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The marsia generally consists of six-line units with a rhyming quatrain, and a couplet on a different rhyme. The sub-parts of marsia are called nauha and soz, which mean lamentation and burning (of heart), respectively.