The story
Ashura in Karbala in Karbala
Ashura marks the tenth day of Muharram in the Islamic lunar calendar, the day Imam Hussein was killed at the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE. Karbala fills with mourning processions, chest-beating matam, black mourning dress, and recitation of the Karbala narrative at the shrines of Hussein and Abbas, forming the emotional peak of the ten-day Muharram mourning period.
On the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram, Karbala fills with mourners commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, killed alongside most of his male relatives and companions by Umayyad forces at the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE.