The Shahi Zarih procession, which marks the beginning of Muharram, the first month of Islamic calendar, and azadari (mourning), was taken out from Asafi (Bada) Imambara to Chhota Imambara on Friday.

Mourners clad in black clothes took part in the procession as they performed ‘seenazani’ (chest beating) and listened to groups reciting ‘soz’, ‘salaam’, and ‘noha’ (lamentations depicting the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his 71 companions) along the route.

The procession was started by Nawab Mohammad Ali Shah in 1837 to commemorate the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Imam Hussain and his companions in Karbala in 680 AD.

The procession was led by members of the royal family followed by shehnai players, an elephant and camels, children marching with coloured flags, band artistes playing elegiac tunes, alams, sozkhwans, a horse with red-stained white cloth on top, Hazrat Ali Asghar (Imam Hussain’s six-month-old son) ka jhula, Shahi Mom ki Zarih and Abraq ki Zarih.

While Bada Imambara, Chhota Imambara and Rumi Darwaza were decked up with lights, the gateway also had a poster reading ‘Labbaik Ya Hussain’ (We are at your service, O Hussain). Sabeels (stalls serving water and tea to azadars) were also set up in the name of Imam Hussain along the procession route as Imam Hussain and his companions were denied water and food by their enemies for three days at a stretch before they were martyred in the plains of Karbala on the 10th day (Ashura) of Muharram, according to a cleric.