LAHORE: With Muharram right around the corner, most cinemas and other recreational outlets have announced a brief hiatus. On the other hand, Pakistani artists, such as Shazia Manzoor and Humaira ...

Keeping the occasion of Muharram in view, I would like to talk about the poetry related to the tragedy of Karbala, which in Urdu has come to stay as a distinctive poetic tradition. At one time these ...

One of these soul stirring traditions is that of the Marsiya— elegiac poems written and recited by mourners of Hussain Bin Ali (R), son of Fatima (R) and Ali (R), and grandson of the Prophet (PBUH).

Throughout history, elegies have been composed in different languages. Shakespeare’s works, Grey’s Elegy in a Country Graveyard, the 400 verses of Mr John Pong on the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (AS) ...