Print
Email
Cite
Taziyah
Shii passion play, performed mainly in Iran, that reenacts the passion and death of Husayn , Muhammad 's grandson and the third imam. Husayn was murdered along with his male children and companions while contesting his right to the caliphate on the Plain of Karbala (in present-day Iraq) in 680 . The massacre is viewed as martyrdom and has been mourned ever since by Shiis worldwide. In Iran, taziyah received royal patronage when Shii Islam was established as the state religion in the sixteenth century.
