Athletes at the Muharram mourning ceremony


During the Fatimid Caliphate, Imam Al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah (d. 365/975), the 14th Ismaili imam, instructed Syedna Al-Qadi al-Nu’man to proclaim in his Friday sermon the significance of ĘżAashura and elucidate the manner in which it should be commemorated. Al-Maqrizi (d. 845/1442), a medieval Egyptian historian, notes that in the Fatimi empire the Day of ĘżAashura was marked as a day of grief and markets were shut.