3- Viewed from this broad perspective...

3- Viewed from this broad perspective, one may come up with a classificatory scheme of Ashura literature. That is, it may be classified as a) pre-Islamic vs.

b) post-Islamic accounts of lament on Imam al-Husain While of the former there are just some reports in certain hadith-based exegeses (tafs?rs) of the Holy Quran, the latter can (conveniently and irrespective of the language used) be subdivided into poetic prose pieces, lectures and sermons, and poems, all focusing on the captivating personality of Imam al-Husain, his speeches, addresses, the poems (ascribed to him), and particularly the hardships he and his matchless adherents endured.

As such, 23 several centuries ahead of its taking place. (There are some outstanding and high-ranking Shiite ulema [clerics] who have written various accounts1 of the similarities observable between the attributes and fates of the Christian apostle John [Arabic Yahy?] and Imam al-Husain.) Such literary forms are entirely devoted to revealing the purest and noblest kinds of sincere feelings of their composers as well as serving as accounts of the hardships and afflictions Imam al-Husain's front suffered and endured in the Ashura tragedy.

2 In the Islamic period, since the Ashura tragedy onward, almost every devout belletrist, author, or researcher, however amateur or proficient, has produced (at least) a work, literary or scholarly, chiefly to mark his or her reverence and tremendous respect for Ashura literature proves to be one of the most interesting literary genres not only far beyond the frontiers of Islam but signifying a linking thread between (at least) such Abrahamic religions as Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Unfortunately, such an archetypal and symbolic tragedy seems not to have received the due attention it deserves in most Western or Islamic literary circles. Needless to say, Ashura literature cannot logically be restricted to any predetermined languages and genres, nor to the faith and denomination of anyone who composes such a devotional piece of literature. 1- See, for example, J. Sh?shtar?, Dam? al-?ayn ?al? Khas?'is al-Husain, Persian title [Ashk-e Rav?n bar Amir-e K?rav?n], trans.

Sayyed Muhammad Hosseyn Shahrestani (first lithographic ed., 1313 AH/1895; 9 th ed., Qom: Dar al-Ketab, 1381 Sh/2002), pp. 439-443, and pp. 423-450, for Imam al-Husain's similarities with other prophets and apostles; cf. the Arabic original under the title of Al-Khas?'is al- Husain?yya: Khas?'is al-Husain wa Maz?y?