Hyderabad December 14-17

My overnight bus from Shirdi arrived in Hyderabad at 6:15 in the morning on Wednesday December 14 and I walked around a bit, passing by the old office building of the Henry Martyn Institute, before going to the new Henry Martyn Institute campus on the south side of the city.

The old HMI building

This time around I had arranged to stay at the HMI hostel during my days in Hyderabad. I spent much of the day chatting with various HMI faculty and staff members. In the afternoon I went to the Old City, where I walked around the 12er Shi‘ite areas, seeing what was going on for Muharram, the ten-day commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D.

A mural in the Old City showing the major 12er Shi‘ite shrines.

The next day, Thursday December 15 was the eighth day of Muharram. I spent the day at HMI and spent some time inquiring about arrangements for the HMI students to attend a Shi‘ite majlis session of mourning for Husayn that evening. Things worked out and at 5:45 I went with Christy Femila, one of my former students who is now a faculty member at HMI, and several of the students in the Islamic studies program to the Old City. We walked around the 12er Shi‘ite areas, before meeting Fatimah Ali Khan, a member of HMI’s academic committee and professor of sociology at the University of Hyderabad, at the Badshahi Ashurkhana (shrine for Husayn). She spoke to us about Muharram customs before taking us to a majlis session nearby that went on for a couple of hours. She then took us to the prominent Aza Zahra Ashurkhana and the Dar al-Shifa compound in the heart of the 12er Shi‘ite area of the Old City.

The next day Friday December 16 I stayed at HMI and lay low, suffering from a sore throat and head congestion. Preparations at HMI were underway for the Christmas program that evening and at 2:30 I joined a group for carol singing. The Christmas program was followed by a dinner.

HMI staff and students making the rounds of the campus singing carols

The HMI staff and family members

The HMI students singing at the Christmas program. From left students from
Germany, UK, Tanzania, South Korea and India, including two from Nagaland.

Saturday December 17 was the tenth of Muharram, the culmination of the mourning period for Husayn, marked by a procession of self-flagellants in the Old City. In the afternoon I went with the HMI group to the Old City to see the procession. We got onto the balcony of a building overlooking the procession route, so we had a good view. The procession with several thousand participants took about two hours to pass by. I had witnessed the procession three other times during my years in Hyderabad, but it is always interesting to see again.

A group of self-flagellants cutting their scalps with knives

A video of a group of self-flagellants. Note the person spraying the participants with water.