Shafaqna English- Every year, millions of Shia Muslims from around the world walk to Karbala to participate in the Arbaeen pilgrimage. But how did this event become global, and who was the first person to walk to Karbala on foot during the modern era?
In Shia Islam history, before the contemporary era, the situation of the Arbaeen walk was as follows: “The first time Lady Zaynab (SA), Imam Sajjad (AS), and Jabir ibn Abdullah Ansari, along with a group of Banu Hashim, visited the holy shrine of Imam Hussain (AS) 40 days after his martyrdom. In the years that followed, the Imams (AS), Shia leaders, and their followers continued this tradition.
For centuries, the Arbaeen walk, especially from Najaf to Karbala, was common, and prominent Shia figures promoted this type of pilgrimage. They themselves, along with their followers, would walk to visit the shrine of Imam Hussain (AS). In Iran, during the rule of the Buyid and Safavid dynasties, the pilgrimage to Karbala on foot was promoted by scholars, and in more recent times, figures such as Sheikh Ansari, Akhund Khurasani, Muhaddith Noori, and others walked to Karbala with their companions and students.
Among them, Muhaddith Noori would walk to the pilgrimage every year and played a special role in promoting the Arbaeen pilgrimage.” In the modern era, with the rise of automobiles and the expansion of road networks, the Arbaeen walk, and pilgrimage on foot in general, diminished.
But later, the Arbaeen walk became the largest annual gathering in the world: “Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Shahrudi (1883–1974) would walk to the shrine of Karbala every year with his students, and his actions initiated a new movement… Ayatollah Shahrudi was the reviver of the Karbala walk and the founder of the first pilgrimage office in Makkah and Madinah.
By the 1970s (1970s), the Arbaeen walk had become a major event, and it is recorded in written sources that pilgrims came from various ethnicities and nationalities, but among them, groups chanting Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu mourning songs were more numerous than others.”
Then, as it is known, starting from 2003 (2003), the Arbaeen walk became a million-strong event, and since the early 2010s (2011–2020), the ceremony has been held with a population between 15 to 26 million people.
