displaying a representation of it), carrying such
traditional items as mock coffins, poles topped
by the five-fingered hand (representing the five
members of the ahl al-bayt: Muhammad, Fatima,
Ali, Hasan, and Husayn), displaying banners
showing scenes from Husayn’s life, and carrying
scale models of the tomb of Husayn at Karbala
(called naql or darih) on a palanquin; perform-
ing “passion plays” (taaziya in Iran or shabih in
Iraq and Lebanon) reenacting the martyrdom at
Karbala; participating in collective rites of self-
flagellation (latam) using chains (zanjir-zani)
and swords (qumma-zani) or, more recently, razor
blades tapped on the forehead, and rhythmically
beating the chest in unison (sina-zani). Celebrants
set up a group of visual symbols for the events of
Muharram, an Imamzada. There are performances
of elegiac poetry and songs of devotion and vener-
ation for Husayn and the ahl al-bayt in the home,
and public recitals (rawda-khani) of the suffer-
ings and martyrdoms of all the Imams, especially
Husayn, at gatherings (majlis/majalis) in buildings
known as Husayniyyas in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon,
imambaras in India, and matams in Bahrain. For
many modern Sunni Muslims, particularly those
in the West, Shii religious sensibility has always
seemed extreme, even a bit frightening and repel-
lent. Thus, some contemporary Shiis have moved
away from Ashura rituals of “bloodletting” and
even the bloodless flagellation of rhythmic chest
beating, which function to evoke the “passion”
and suffering of Imam Husayn, and have recently
allowed the painless substitute of giving blood to
the Red Crescent (the Islamic equivalent of the
Red Cross).
The ongoing impact of the events of Karbala
and their annual commemoration during Ashura
lie in Shiism’s ideology of martyrdom, self-sacri-
fice, and redemptive suffering, and a strong direc-
tive toward community service and volunteerism.
The moral example of Karbala, of resisting over-
whelming evil even unto death, has illuminated
Shii life experience through the centuries whether
in the context of oppression of the minority Shii
umma by the Sunni majority or its oppression
by non-Muslim forces, as in Israel’s invasions
and bombings of southern Lebanon. Recent Shii
religio-political movements, such as hizbUllah,
continuously interpret their contemporary expe-
riences of persecution and suffering within the
trope of Husayn’s passion and martyrdom at
Karbala. Their sacrifice of blood and sweat, like
Husayn’s, is quite literal: “This is our Karbala, this
is our Husayn, we live on, Karbala lives on in the
Lebanese Resistance” (quoted in Deeb 159).
See also holidays; hUsayniyya; shiism.
Kathleen M. O’ConnorFurther reading: Kamran Scot Aghaie, The Women of
Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in
Modern Shii Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press,
2005); Lara Deeb, An Enchanted Modern: Gender and
Public Policy in Shii Lebanon (Princeton, N.J.: Princ-
eton University Press, 2006); Elizabeth W. Fernea,
Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village,
(New York: Doubleday, 1989), 216–250; Syed Akbar
Hyder, Reliving Karbala: Martyrdom in South Asian
Memory (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006);
Meir Litvak, Shii Scholars of Nineteenth-Century Iraq:
The Ulama of Najaf and Karbala (New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1998); Syed-Mohsin Naquvi,
The Tragedy of Karbala (Princeton, N.J.: Mohsena
Memorial Foundation, 1992); David Pinault, Horse of
Karbala: Muslim Devotional Life in India (New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 2000); Vernon J. Schubel, “Karbala as
Sacred Space among North American Shia: ‘Every Day
Is Ashura, Everywhere Is Karbala.’ ” In Making Muslim
Space in North America and Europe, edited by Barbara
Metcalf (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1996): 186–203.Karimov, Islam Abdughanievich
(1938– ) president of Uzbekistan
Islam Karimov came to power as first secretary of
the Communist Party of Uzbekistan in 1989 and
was named president of the Uzbek Soviet Social-
ist Republic in 1990. Shortly after Uzbekistan’sK 424 Karimov, Islam Abdughanievich