[38] Najaf al Sharif, or Mashhad 'Ali, 50 miles south of Karbala, the tomb and shrine of 'Ali.
[39] _Ziyarat_, 'visitation', especially to the tomb of the Prophet or that of a Muhammadan saint. The pilgrim says, not 'I have visited the Prophet's tomb', but 'I have visited the Prophet'. (Burton, _Pilgrimage_, i. 305.)
[40] The grave is said to be nine yards long: according to others, much longer. See the flippant remark of Burton, ibid., ii. 273 ff.
Celebration of Mahurrum.--The Tazia.--Mussulmaun Cemeteries.--An Emaum-baarah.--Piety of the ladies.--Self-inflicted abstinence and privations endured by each sex.--Instances of the devotional zeal of the Mussulmauns.--Attempted infringement on their religious formalities.--The Resident at Lucknow.--Enthusiastic ardour of the poor.--Manner of celebrating the Mahurrum in opposition to the precepts of the Khoraun.--Mosque and Emaum-baarah contrasted.--The supposition of Mussulmauns practising idolatry confuted.
My former Letter prepares you for the celebration of Mahurrum, the observance of which is at this time going forward here (at Lucknow) with all that zealous emulative spirit and enthusiasm which I have before remarked the Mussulmaun population of India entertain for their Emaums (leaders), and their religion.
This annual solemn display of the regret and veneration they consider due to the memory of departed excellence, commences on the first day of the Moon (Mahurrum). The Mussulmaun year has twelve moons; every third year one moon is added, which regulation, I fancy, renders their years, in a chronological point of view, very nearly equal with those of Europe. Their day commences and ends when the stars are first visible after sunset.
The first day of Mahurrum invariably brings to my recollection the strongly impressed ideas of 'The Deserted Village'. The profound quiet and solemn stillness of an extensively populated native city, contrasted with the incessant bustle usual at all other times, are too striking to Europeans to pass by unheeded. This cessation of the animated scene, however, is not of long duration; the second day presents to the view vast multitudes of people parading backwards and forwards, on horseback, in palkies, and on foot, through the broad streets and roadways, arrayed in their several mourning garbs, speeding their way to the Emaum-baarahs[1] of the great men, and the houses of friends, to pay the visit of respect (zeearut), wherever a Tazia is set up to the remembrance of Hasan and Hosein.