Horse of Karbala is a study of Muharram rituals and interfaith relations in three locations in India: Ladakh, Darjeeling, and Hyderabad. These rituals commemorate an event of vital importance to Shia Muslims: the seventh-century death of the Imam Husain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battlefield of Karbala in Iraq. Pinault examines three different forms of ritual commemoration of Husain's death - poetry-recital and self-flagellation in Hyderabad; stick-fighting in Darjeeling; and the 'Horse of Karbala' procession, in which a stallion representing the mount ridden in battle by Husain is made the center of a public parade in Ladakh and other Indian localities. The book looks at how publicly staged rituals serve to mediate communal relations: in Hyderabad and Darjeeling, between Muslim and Hindu populations; in Ladakh, between Muslims and Buddhists. Attention is also given to controversies within Muslim communities over issues related to Muharram such as the belief in intercession by the Karbala Martyrs on behalf of individual believers.

DAVID PINAULT is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University. He is the author of The Shiites: Ritual and Popular Piety in a Muslim Community.

Initiation: Hyderabad, 1989 An Introduction to the Shia Tradition in Islam Blood, Rationality, and Ritual in the Shia Tradition 'Would That You Could Bury Me, Too, Beside My Brother!': Women's Roles in Shia Devotional Literature Shia Ritual in a Sunni Setting: Muharram Observances in the Hill Station of Darjeeling, West Bengal Horse of Karbala: Ladakh, Shia Ritual, and Devotional Literature Relating to Zuljenah Muslim-Buddhist Relations in a Ritual Context: An Analysis of the Muharram Procession in Leh Township, Ladakh Shia Lamentation Rituals and Reinterpretations of the Doctrine of Intercession: Two Cases from Modern India The Day of the Lion: A Ladakhi Shia Ritual Determined by the Zodiacal Calendar Shia Encounters in the U.S.: Notes on Teaching the Shia Tradition in American Classrooms