Noha: Shiite Poetry of Passion for the Drama of Kerbala – Ashura Feast Celebration

On the 10th September 2019, Shiites in Iran, Iraq and elsewhere, Alawites in Syria and Lebanon, and Alevites in Turkey, Azerbaijan, etc., commemorate the tragic death of Hussein, second son of Ali (first imam and fourth caliph of Islam) and grandson of the prophet of Islam, in the Battle of Kerbala (680 CE). This feast is called Ashura, i.e. the 10th of Muharram, which was the day Hussein and his co-fighters were killed. However, a totally independent topic is the passion itself, which was triggered among Shiite Muslims because of the event; the way this passion is felt - as part of the Shiite ritual, as poetry and literature, and as personal sentimentalism, mentality and spirituality - determined Shiite religiosity for about 1340 years. The present video offers a sample of Noha poetry recital and shows how Ashura feast is celebrated at Mashhad, NE Iran.