Arba'een
Encyclopedia
Arba'een or Chelom ( "the Forty"), is one of the largest pilgrimage gatherings on Earth, in which over 10 million people go to the city of Karbala
Karbala
Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....

 in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. As it is known by Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

-speaking and Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

-speaking Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s in Central and South Asia, Arba'een is a Shia Muslim religious observation that occurs 40
40 (number)
40 is the natural number following 39 and preceding 41.Despite being related to the word "four" , 40 is spelled "forty", and not "fourty"...

 days after the Day of Ashura
Day of Ashura
The Day of Ashura is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram.It is commemorated by Shia Muslims as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10...

, it is observed all over the world. It commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

 which falls on the 20th day of the month of Safar
Safar
Safar is the second month in the Islamic calendar.The root of the name, صفر ṣafr, has three basic areas of meaning: 1) whistle, hiss, chirp; 2) be yellow, pale ; 3) to be empty, devoid, vacant...

. Husayn and 72 supporters died in the Battle of Karbala
Battle of Karbala
The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 of the Islamic calendar in Karbala, in present day Iraq. On one side of the highly uneven battle were a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson Husain ibn Ali, and on the other was a large military detachment...

 in the year 61 AH (680 CE), killed by Yazid
Yazid
-Given name:* Yazid I , second Umayyad Caliph upon succeeding his father Muawiyah* Yazid II, Umayyad caliph* Yazid III, Umayyad caliph* Yazid Kaïssi, French-born Moroccan footballer* Yazid Mansouri, French-born Algerian footballer...

's army. Chelom is also observed 40 days after the death of a family member or loved one. Forty days is the usual length of the time of mourning in many Islamic cultures.

The occasion reminds the faithful of the core message behind Husayn's martyrdom: establishing justice and fighting injustice, no matter what its incarnation—a message that strongly influenced subsequent Shi'a uprisings against the tyranny of Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...

 and Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

 rule.

In the first Arba'een gathering in the year 62 AH, Jabir ibn Abd-Allah
Jabir ibn Abd-Allah
Jabir ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn Haram al-Ansari was a prominent companion of Muhammad and his descendants, the Shi'a Imams.-Early life:Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari was born in Yathrib 15 years before the Hijra. He belonged to a poor family of Yathrib. He was from the tribe of Khazraj. His mother...

, a companion of the Prophet, was one of the people who performed a pilgrimage to the burial site of Husayn. Due to his infirmity and probable blindness, he was accompanied by Atiyya bin Saad
Atiyya bin Saad
Atiyya ibn Sad belonged to the Judaila family of the tribe known as Qays and his patronymic appellation was Abdul Hasan according to al-Tabari. Some accounts suggest Atiyya's mother was a Roman slavegirl.-Story surrounding his name:Saad bin Junada i.e...

. His visit coincided with that of the surviving female members of the Prophet's family and Husayn's son and heir Imam Zain-ul-Abideen, who had all been held captive in Damascus by Yazid I
Yazid I
Yazīd ibn Mu‘āwiya ibn Abī Sufyān , commonly known as Yazid I, was the second Caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate . He ruled for three years from 680 CE until his death in 683 CE. Many Muslims condemn Yazid's rule as contentious and unjust...

, the Umayyad Caliph. Imam Zain-ul-Abideen had been too ill to participate in the Battle of Karbala. He later devoted his life to Azadari and spreading the message of Imam Hussain's supreme sacrifice.

The city of Karbala
Karbala
Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....

 in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, the third holy place of Shia Islam, is the center of the proceedings where, in a show of humility, many crawl through the streets of the city while others fall on their hands and knees as they approach the Shrines of Husayn and his brother Abbas ibn Ali
Abbas ibn Ali
Al-‘Abbās ibn ‘Ali was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib and fourth Rashidun Caliph) and Fātimah bint Hizam al-Kilabiyyah .Al-‘Abbās is revered by Muslims for his loyalty to his half-brother Husayn ibn ‘Alī, his respect for the...

. Many pilgrims travel miles on foot to reach Karbala.

Observance of Arba'een in Karbala was banned for many years when Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

, was president of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. For nearly 30 years under Saddam's regime it was forbidden to mark Arbaeen publicly in Iraq. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

, the observance in April 2003 was broadcast worldwide.

In 2008, approximately nine million religious observers converged on Karbala to commemorate Arba’een. However, in 2009, the number of people visiting Karbala on Arba'een significantly increased. According to the official website of BBC News and Press TV (Iran), over ten million people had reached the city of Karbala one or two days before Arba'een. The number of pilgrims was expected to rise to 18 million during the next two days.

Use in political protest

Arba'een has sometimes been used as a political protest, at least in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. It was first used there to protest the killing of supporters
Movement of 15 Khordad
The demonstrations of June 5 and 6, 1963 in Iran, were a protest against the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after an angry speech by him attacking Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Israel and the United States...

 of Ayatollah Khomeini in Qom
Qom
Qom is a city in Iran. It lies by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 957,496, in 241,827 families. It is situated on the banks of the Qom River....

 on June 5, 1963 when a general strike was announced. A cycle of Arba'een public observance of mourning rituals of martyred protestors — where an arba'een public observance/demonstration was held to commemorate protesters killed in the preceding Arba'een protest demonstration — is often credited as part of the reason for the success of the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...

 in overthrowing the shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...

 in the 1978-78, although that explanation has also been questioned.

Arba'een in the Gregorian calendar

While Arba'een is always on the same day of the Islamic calendar, the date on the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...

 varies from year to year due to differences between the two calendars, since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar
Lunar calendar
A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...

 and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar
Solar calendar
A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun .-Tropical solar calendars:...

. Furthermore, the method used to determine when each Islamic month begins varies from country to country (see Islamic calendar
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...

).
  • 2005: March 31
  • 2006: March 21
  • 2007: March 10
  • 2008: February 28
  • 2009: February 15
  • 2010: February 5
  • 2011: January 25

External links

  • ARBAEEN by Mahmoud Ayoub, an article from the Encyclopædia Iranica
    Encyclopædia Iranica
    Encyclopædia Iranica is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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