ABSTRACT
O N the day of Ashura all the people of Aleppo throng the Antioch Gate till nightfall, a great gathering of men and women mourning ceaselessly the Holy Family. For on Ashura the Shi'ites lament and wail and weep for the tragedy of Kerbela; they tell over the oppressions and persecutions suf fered by the Holy Family at the hands of Yazid and Shimr. The noise of their shrieks of grief and woe fills the entire plain and desert.