TEHRAN - Many mothers across the country gathered on Friday, holding their infants to mark ‘Hosseini infants’ ceremony in commemoration of Ali Asghar (AS), the six-month-old baby boy of Imam Hussein (AS), who was the youngest person martyred 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 year on the first Friday of the mourning month of Muharram (this year falling on September 1-September 29) nationwide and also throughout the world in over 40 countries including Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain, India, and Turkey.

Mothers congregate in different cities nationwide bringing their babies dressed in special green and white clothes, which are said to resemble the clothing of Ali Asghar (AS). 

Babies also wear a headband with the name of Ali Asghar (AS) written on it.

Mothers hold the babies up, mourning for the 6-month-old martyr.

The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 Hijri 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 Hussein (AS), grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), was 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 Muharram (or also known as Ashura) became an annual holy day of public mourning.

FB/MG