Photos: Husseini Mawkibs torch-carrying ritual at Amir al-Mu'minin shrine at 8th of Muharram

Every year, on the 8th and 9th nights of the Islamic calendar month of Muharram, people of Najaf mourn alongside their traditional torches. The torches carried in this ceremony symbolize the ones that set fire to the tents of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam and the grandson of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), in the afternoon of Ashura. Ashura – the 10th day of Muharram – is a day when Imam Hussein (AS) and his 72 companions were martyred in Karbala, in today's Iraq, in 680 CE.