Hussainiya

A hussainiya is different from a mosque. The name comes from Husayn ibn Ali, the third of the Twelve Imams and the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Husayn was martyred at the Battle of Karbala on 10 October 680 CE during the reign of Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad. The Shia commemorate his martyrdom every year on Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram.[3] There are also other ceremonies which are held during the year in hussainiyas, including religious commemorations unrelated to Ashura.[4] and may not necessarily hold jumu'ah (Friday congregational prayer).

In South Asia, a hussainiya can also be referred to as an imambara, imambargah, or ashurkhana. In Afghanistan and Central Asia, it is also called a takyakhana. In Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in other Gulf States it is called a ma'tam (Arabic: مأتم).

From the time of the Safavid was ruling in Iran, when Shia tended to hold the religious and mourning ceremonies, not only the passageways or the roofed places were used for the religious communities, even to make the Hoseynias and also Takyeh(s) became commonplace.[5] Any Hosseynia had some booths (or rooms) and arcades, both in large and small sizes. Also in many alleys and streets, on the days near Ashoura, the religious people blackened the walls and the roofs and illuminated them, by the colorful lights... From the age of Zand, many bigger and vaster Takye(s) was made just to hold Tazia, where there was a stage by the height of one meter from the floor, to show the different senses of Tazieh.[6] Expense of the Hussainiya is provided by Charitable donations and endowments.[7][8]

The Asifi Imambara in Lucknow, the capital city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Hussainiya was used during Muharram, Safar, and Ramadan for mourning, Rawda Khwani, Sineh Zani (a Customary form of mourning ceremony which shows their grief with chest-beating).[9] Also, Hussainiya is a place for accommodations of passengers[10] and pilgrims and feeding the poor.[1] Since hussainiya serves as a focal point for Shi’i gathering, it also plays a very significant role in consolidation of religious identity specially for Shi’i population in diaspora.[11]

A historic image from Zanjan azam Hussainiya in Iran

A Hussainia in Iran

Imambara Wazeer Un Nisa in Amroha, India

• Hosseinieh Azam Zanjan Mosque, in Zanjan, Iran
• Azakhana Syed Dost Ali, Mohallah Katkoi, Amroha, built in 1766/1767
• Hussaini Dalan, in Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Prithimpasha Nawab Bari Imambara, in Kulaura, Bangladesh
• Bara Imambara, in Lucknow, India
• Chhota Imambara, in Lucknow, India
• Hooghly Imambara, in Hooghly (W.B.), India
• Nizamat Imambara, in Murshidabad, India
• Badshahi Ashurkhana, in Hyderabad, India
• Dar uz Zehra, Alipur, Karnataka, India.
• Hosseiniyeh Ershad, in Tehran, Iran
• Hussaini Imambara Asim Raza Abdi, in 100/46, Colonel Ganj Kanpur,
• Imambara Ghufran Ma'ab, in Lucknow, India
• Imambargah Mir Vilayat Husain, in Karari Allahabad, India
• Azakhana Wazeer-un-Nisa, located in Amroha, India. The Azakhana was built in 1802 (1226 Hijri) with one Mosque.
• Imambargah Haveli Sa'daat, one of the oldest Imambargahs in Gujranwala, Pakistan. It was built by the Naqvi Sadat family, who migrated from Fatehgarh Churian, Punjab, India.
• Imambargah Bait Aal e Imran, in Kotla Arab Ali Khan, Gujrat, Pakistan. The site was donated by Choudhary Ghulam Hassan, a sunni by birth, and his wife in 1979.
• Imam Bargah mosque, Afghanistan, targeted in the 2021 Kandahar bombing

• Ashura
• Mourning of Muharram
• Battle of Karbala
• Husayn ibn Ali
• Hussaini Dalan
• Tasu'a
• Imambaras of Lucknow
• Rawda Khwani