and method of rational argumentation. By the late
12th century, it had become the dominant Sunni
theological tradition and was officially taught as
a subject in Sunni centers of learning. Among
the most prominent members of this school were
al-Baqillani (d. 1013), al-Baghdadi (d. 1037),
al-ghazali (d. 1111), and al-Razi (d. 1209). For
centuries, the Ashari School gave a rational basis
to Sunni faith and provided an intellectual defense
against speculative philosophy and Shii doctrines.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, it gave way
to currents of Islamic modernism and secularism
that swept the Muslim world as a result of Euro-
pean colonial expansion and the influx of new
ideas from the West. Many Ashari tenets, however,
continue to hold an important place in contempo-
rary Muslim religious thought.
See also allah; anthropomorphism; madrasa;
theology.
Further reading: Richard M. Frank, Al-Ghazali and the
Asharite School (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press,
1994); W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period of
Islamic Thought (Oxford: One World Press, 1998).
Ashura
Ashura is the 10th day of the first Islamic month,
mUharram, and the most important holiday of the
year for the Shia. It had been a day of Fasting for
pre-Islamic Arabs and for Jews (identified with
Yom Kippur) and was recognized by Muhammad
(d. 632) as an Islamic day of fasting, though when
the month of ramadan was made the holy month
of fasting for Muslims, the fast of Ashura became
voluntary rather than mandatory. Islamic tradition
has associated this important day with biblical
events recognized by Jews and Christians: It has
been considered to be the day when Noah’s ark
landed after the Flood and when Jonah was freed
from the fish that had swallowed him.
A more documented event occurred on this
day in the year 680, one that was to have serious
implications for Islamic history. hUsayn ibn ali,
the grandson of the prophet, was killed in the
desert of karbala in iraq by the Umayyad caliph
Yazid’s (r. 680–683) forces. This event has come
to symbolize in sacred history and ritual the rift
between Shiis and Sunnis and led to the develop-
ment of martyrdom as a definitive value of shiism.
So, for the Shia the first 10 days of the month
of Muharram, leading up to the day of Ashura,
are a time of mourning for the death of Husayn.
In iran and other Shii-dominated areas (for
example, Lebanon, Bahrayn, and Shii communi-
ties in pakistan, india, aFghanistan, Tajikistan,
as well as immigrant communities in Europe and
North America), mourners express their sorrow
in a complex of public and private ceremonial
gatherings, street processions, and morality plays.
Public lamentations sometimes reach a frenzy in
which men beat their breasts or slash their heads
to draw blood in commemoration of the spilling
of Husayn’s blood at Karbala. Theatrical perfor-
mances reenact the events of the Karbala tragedy.
Another rite performed during Ashura in Iran
and areas influenced by Persianate culture is the
rowzeh khani (also known as a qiraya, “reading,”
in Arabic-speaking iraq), which consists of lam-
entations, moving sermons, and improvised read-
ings about events that transpired at Karbala. The
name rowzeh is derived from a book of Karbala
narratives, The Garden of the Martyrs (Rawdat al-
shuhada), written by Husayn Waiz Kashifi around
1503, in connection with the establishment of the
Shii saFavid dynasty in Iran. People of all classes
participate in these gatherings, including Sunnis,
and, in India, Hindus and Buddhists. Women
often organize Ashura gatherings in their homes.
See also calendar; holidays; hUsayniyya;
tWelve-imam shiism; Umayyad caliphate.
Mark SoileauFurther reading: Kamran Scot Aghaie, ed., The Women
of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses
in Modern Shii Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press,
2005); Peter Chelkowski, ed., Taziyeh: Ritual and
Drama in Iran (New York: New York University Press,Ashura 67 J