Sublime

Aurangzeb reneged on his promise and secretly had Murad arrested. After three years in prison the Prince was accused of murder and sentenced to death. He died at the age of 37, on the 14th December 1661.

When asked for a decision, Shah Soltan Hosein would tend to agree with whoever approached him last – usually with the words Yakhshi dir (‘It is good’ in the Turkic court language).

Every year, during the first ten days of the month of Muharram and culminating on the tenth day, or Ashura, the Shi‘ah commemorate Husayn’s martyrdom through lamentation assemblies, where stories of the martyrs are read by religious specialists called zakirs, and mourning processions, in which sacred objects belonging to Muhammad’s family are carri

But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

prophet, myself. Among

Did he do a deal with Nader? We will probably never know. The Nezam does seem to have been given an easier ride in the collection of tribute than the other great nobles; Nader’s warning to Mohammad Shah about the Nezam before he left could have been a dark joke, a double bluff.

Some accounts say that the Nezam ol-Molk and Sa’adat Khan directly invited Nader to invade, and in later years the story that the Nezam in particular had betrayed his master, was widespread.

For the Shi‘ah, the Muharram rituals signify a moral choice; they are a public statement that, in the words of one participant, “if we had been there at Karbala we would have stood with [Husayn] and shed our blood and died with him.” Perhaps equally important, these rituals serve as an act of proselytizing. As another participant explained to David