ABSTRACT
The political uses of Karbala symbols, rituals, and simple mourning practices date almost as far back as the Battle of Karbala itself (680).1 However, the more elaborate Sh¥ ¥ ritual, commonly referred to as the ‘Muªarram procession’, did not develop until the tenth century. The earliest reliable account of the performance of public mourning rituals which in any way resemble what we now call Muªarram processions (especially with a political connotation) concerns an event which took place in 963 during the reign of Muizz al-Dawla, the Buyid ruler of southern Iran and Iraq. The Buyid rulers, who were themselves Sh¥ ¥s, promoted this practice partly in order to enhance their religious legitimacy and to strengthen the sense of Sh¥ ¥ identity in and around Baghdad. It should be noted, however, that during this period popular sentiment for the family of the Prophet was not restricted exclusively to the Sh¥ ¥s. The famous fourteenth-century Arab historian, Ibn Kath¥r states that:
On the tenth of Muªarram of this year [AH 352], Muizz al-Dawla Ibn Buwayh, may God disgrace him, ordered that the markets be closed, and that the women should wear coarse woolen hair-cloth, and that they should go into the markets with their faces uncovered/unveiled and their hair dishevelled, beating their faces and wailing over Hussein Ibn Abi Talib. The people of the Sunna could not prevent this spectacle because of the Shi a’s large numbers and their increasing power (zuhur), and because the sultan was on their side.2
