A literary history of Persia

KERBELA 227devotion ;but henceforth all this was changed, and a reminderof the blood-stained field of Kerbela, where the grandson of thethirst and surroundedApostle of God fell at length, tortured byby the bodies of his murdered kinsman, has been at any timesince then sufficient to even in the most lukewarm andevoke,heedless, the deepest emotion, the most frantic grief, and anexaltation of spirit before which pain, danger, and death shrinkof Muharramto unconsidered trifles. Yearly, on the tenth daythe tragedyis rehearsed in Persia, in India, in Turkey, inEgypt, wherever a Shi'ite community or colony exists ;andwho has been a spectator, though of alien faith, of these ta'ziyaswithout experiencing within himself something of what theymean to those whose religious feeling finds in them itssupremeexpression ? As I write it all comes back : the wailing^ chant,the sobbing multitudes, the white raiment red with blood fromself-inflicted wounds, the intoxication of grief and sympathy.Well says al-Fakhri * :"This is a catastrophe whereof I care not to speak at length,deeming it alike too grievous and too horrible. For verily it was acatastrophe than which naught more shameful hathA1 "iferbeii happened in Islam. Verily, as I live, the murder of['Ali] the Commander of the Faithful was the SupremeCalamity but as for this event, there happened therein such foul;slaughter and leading captive and shameful usage as cause men'sflesh to creep with horror. And again I have dispensed with anylong description thereof because of its notoriety, for it is the mostcelebrated of catastrophes. May God curse every one who had ahand therein, or who ordered it, or took pleasure in any part thereof !From such may God not accept any substitute or atonement !MayHe place them with those whose deeds involve the greatest loss,whose effort miscarries even in this present life, while they fondlyimagine that they do well "!"The tragedy of Kerbala," says Sir William Muir, 2 "decided notonly the fate of the Caliphate, but of Mahometan kingdoms longafter the Caliphate had waned and disappeared. Who that has seenthe wild and passionate grief with which, at each recurring1Pp. 138 et scqq. P. 324.