Word: muharram
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...military threat happened to coincide with the start of Muharram, a monthlong sacred period for Iran's dominant Shi'ite Muslims, which this year begins the Islamic 15th century. Last year it also marked the start of mass demonstrations that eventually brought down the Shah, and thus it has acquired a revolutionary tinge. Excited by that combination, roaring crowds numbering in the tens of thousands surrounded the embassy. Their frenzy was so great that even the youths occupying the embassy urged the mob through loudspeakers to calm down. Dozens of people fainted in the crush and were passed unconscious over...
...demonstration came near the climax of the holy month of Muharram, on which Iran's devout Shi'ite Muslims traditionally take to the streets in a frenzy of self-flagellation to mourn the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Husain, who was martyred in the 7th century. This year the critical days, Sunday and Monday, had a special meaning: they were to be the occasion for mass protests against the Shah. From his headquarters outside Paris, Khomeini called again for a general strike and the Shah's downfall. "Paralyze the regime," he urged the faithful. "Flee your barracks...
...whole country is buckling up for the big bash." So warned a senior Iranian analyst in Washington last week. The Administration, like Iranians themselves, anxiously awaited the start of Muharram, the month of mourning observed by Shi'ite Muslims. Expectations were that this tense, emotional period, which began on Saturday, would almost certainly be the gravest test yet of the Shah's ability to keep control of his troubled land, one of the West's most strategic allies...
...workers to repeat last month's two-week strike that cost the country more than $1 billion in crude-oil revenues. As the holiday began, residents of Tehran broke the curfew and crowded into the streets to see if the new moon had appeared, signaling the start of Muharram. Government troops opened fire on the chanting crowd with automatic weapons. Official sources said that nine persons had been killed and 35 wounded, but diplomats, making independent checks, pegged the number of fatalities at a score or more. Two Newsweek correspondents and a reporter for the London Daily Telegraph were...
...Muharram holiday is particularly significant to opponents of the Shah; it symbolizes the Shi'ites' struggle against an evil, corrupt leadership in the earliest years of Islam. The mourning, which culminates on Dec. 11, commemorates the death of the 7th century Imam Husain, a grandson of Muhammad who was beheaded by Sunni Muslims from Damascus intent on maintaining their rule over dissident Persians. Muharram is traditionally observed with huge processions through the streets, at which the faithful whip themselves with chains or draw blood with knives and swords in anguished enactments of Husain's suffering...