Athletes at the Muharram mourning ceremony


During Imam Al-Mustansir Billah’s (d. 427/1094) era, the 18th Ismaili Imam, audiences were encouraged to explicitly express sorrow and tears on the occasion of ĘżAashura as written in the majalis authored by Syedna Al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-Din al-Shirazi (470/1078).The 20th Musta’li Isma’ili Imam, Al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah (526/1132), presided over a congregation on the Day of ĘżAashura seated on an un-cushioned chair made of palm branches. The Imam wore a veil that day, and the reporter, Ibn al-Ma’mun, writes that sorrow and grief were clearly visible in his countenance. Ibn al-Tuwayr records that on the Day of ĘżAashura, the royal carpets in the palace would be replaced with straw mats.