Why Arbaeen – the Shiite Muslim pilgrimage of mourning – has a deep significance that brings millions to Iraq each year

On August fifth, millions of Shiite Muslims will converge on the Iraqi city of Karbala for Arbaeen, an annual observance marking the end of a forty-day mourning period. As The Conversation reports, Arbaeen commemorates the death of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in six-eighty C.E. when he refused to recognize what he viewed as an unjust ruler. Pilgrims walk roughly forty-eight miles from Najaf to Husayn's shrine — about three days on foot — and this year's gathering is expected to draw an estimated twenty million or more pilgrims, making it possibly the world's largest annual gathering.

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