The story behind the day
Arbaʿīn, kept by Shia Muslims on the twentieth of Ṣafar, closes the forty days of mourning that follow Ashura. It remembers Imam Husayn, the Prophet's grandson, who was killed at Karbala in 680 CE. Its centre is Ziyārat al-Arbaʿīn, the visit to Husayn's tomb in Karbala, in Iraq. The visit draws millions of pilgrims, many of whom walk, and scholarly estimates put the numbers at around twenty million in recent years, which makes the Arbaʿīn one of the largest regular pilgrimages in the world.[1–6]
Origins
Husayn, son of ʿAlī and grandson of the Prophet, was killed at Karbala, in southern Iraq, on the tenth of Muḥarram in 61 AH, corresponding to 680 CE. Shia mourning rituals begin on the first of Muḥarram and climax on Ashura, and the period of mourning then continues for forty days. The forty-day mark is the Arbaʿīn, observed with a pilgrimage, Ziyārat al-Arbaʿīn, to the tomb of Husayn on the twentieth day of the month of Ṣafar. As with every Islamic date, it moves about eleven days earlier through the Gregorian year each year.[1–3, 7–8]
What it marks
Arbaʿīn is a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn, forty days after he was killed. The visit to his tomb belongs to a wider Shia habit of visiting the tombs of the imams and of their descendants, which one encyclopedia describes as an important feature of Shiite ritual life, and the same encyclopedia names the Arbaʿīn as the most important date of the year for pilgrimage to Karbala.[3, 9]
How it came to be
The Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein imposed a decades-long ban on collective expressions of Shiite faith, and the processions to Karbala were forbidden. After the fall of his government in 2003 the visit returned in full. Counts are always estimates: researchers at MIT report 22 million pilgrims for the Arbaʿīn of 2015, and a 2020 study in the journal Religions puts the figure at around twenty million.[5, 10–11]
How it is kept
Pilgrims go to Karbala from all over Iraq, in groups that carry flags and banners for Imam Husayn, and many walk. Along the roads, UNESCO notes, cooks and families offer hospitality and volunteers do much of the work, and service tents called mawākib offer food and shelter.[6, 12]
Sources
Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.
- CorrectedUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Provision of services and hospitality during the Arba'in visitation; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedInstitute of Ismaili Studies, Glossary, ʿĀshūrāʾ; The Open University.
- CorrectedThe Open University; Encyclopedia.com; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Provision of services and hospitality during the Arba'in visitation; Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- CorrectedMassachusetts Institute of Technology; Nikjoo, Sharifi-Tehrani, Karoubi and Siyamiyan, From Attachment to a Sacred Figure to Loyalty to a Sacred Route: The Walking Pilgrimage of A; UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Provision of services and hospitality during the Arba'in visitation.
- CorrectedMassachusetts Institute of Technology; UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Provision of services and hospitality during the Arba'in visitation.
- VerifiedThe Open University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- CorrectedEncyclopedia.com; The Open University.
- CorrectedEncyclopedia.com; The Open University.
- CorrectedMassachusetts Institute of Technology; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedMassachusetts Institute of Technology; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Provision of services and hospitality during the Arba'in visitation; Massachusetts Institute of Technology.