Elsewhere...

Elsewhere, it is reported that the first elegy on Imam al- Husayn was composed by Bahil al-Jumhi, who expressed himself as follows: Drowsy and drunkard are the Umayyads' eyes, While the Taff incident never lets the friends sleep a wink. Ever since the Karbala tragedy, there have been innumerable poets who gained the grace of composing an elegy in praise of and in memory of Imam al-Husayn b. Ali, or the heartbreaking and woeful Karbala tragedy and its mournful consequences.

Such a line of devotional literature has never stopped and will never cease. The tradition of elegizing Imam al-Husayn and the Karbala tragedy has by no means been confined to the Arab or Arabic-speaking, poets; poets of other languages have also made significant contributions as well. In the Urdu language, there is a long list of poets who gained fame and reputation for their elegies on Imam al- Husayn.

Among them are Mir Babar Ali Anis (1801-1874), Mirza Salamat Ali Dabir (1803-75), Muhammad Baqir, the founding father of Urdu journalism (d. 1857), Shams al-Ulama Mawlana Muhammad Husayn Azad Dihlawi (d. 1910), the 9 poet Mawlana Hasan Raza Khan (d. A.H. 1326/ 1908) and the poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz (d. 1984). In Persian, a great host of poets are known for their poetry and elegies on Imam al-Husayn. Mulla Husayn Vaez Kashefi Sabsevari (d. A.H.

910/1532) included many such poems in his work Rawzat al-Shohada. Of Persian poets who elegized Imam al-Husayn, the most well-known is Muhtasham Kashani (d. A.H. 996/1588), who used to serve at the court of Shah Tahmasb the Safavid. Others in the same line include Abulmajd Majdud Sanayie (d. A.H. 1131/1719), Adibulmamalek (d. A.H. 1308), Mahmoud Khan Malek al-Shoara (d. A.H. 1311), Safi Ali Shah (d. A.H.

1316/1890), the author of Erfan al-Haq, Bahr al-Haqaeq, and Mizan al-Ma`refah, and Yaghmayie, a professor of Persian literature at Dar al-Fonoun College in Tehran. In Turkish, quite a good number of great poets have composed poems in memoriam Imam al-Husayn b. Ali and the heartbreaking incidents of the Ashura tragedy. Among them, mention must be made of the following: Lameie (d. 1531), Hairati (d. 1535), Fuzuli Baghdadi (d. 1555), Abidi (d. 1572), Safi (d. in the 16th century), Shamsi Pasha (d.

1580), and Sabouhi (d. 1647). In line with the above, English-speaking poets, whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu, etc., have also made significant 10 contributions to produce elegies for Imam al-Husayn and the Karbala tragic incidents.