TEHRAN —The Hosseini infants ceremony was held nationwide on Friday in commemoration of Ali al-Asghar, the six-month-old baby boy of Imam Hossein (AS) who was the youngest person killed in the Battle of Karbala.

The ceremony was held in 2003 for the first time in Tehran, but since then mourners have been congregating every day on the first Friday of the Mourning month of Moharram (September 11- October 11) nationwide and also throughout the world in over 40 countries including Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain, India, and Turkey.

Normally in order to attend the ceremony mothers dress their babies in special green and white clothes, which are said to resemble the clothing of Ali al-Asghar. Babies also wear a headband with the name of Ali al-Asghar written on it. 

The Battle of Karbala took place on Moharram 10, in the year 61 Hijri year of the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 AD) in Karbala, in present-day Iraq. 

The battle was a military engagement in which a small party led by Imam Hossein (AS) grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was defeated and massacred by an army sent by the Umayyad caliph Yazid. The battle helped secure the position of the Umayyad dynasty, but among Shia Muslims the 10th of Moharram (or also known as Ashura) became an annual holy day of public mourning.

MQ