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"text": "A head mask for a Zuljinah at Haveli Bilo Shah, in 2018. The mask is adorned with a mirror in the center. The fish figurines that hang from the headdress represent water and freedom of movement. ",
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"text": "Kashif Shah, who works as a caretaker for a Zuljinah, holds stirrups during a preparatory ceremony at Haveli Bilo Shah, in 2018. While a Zuljinah wears the saddle during the procession, no one is allowed to ride it.",
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"text": "A security check at the procession in Krishan Nagar, in 2017. “As Muharram and Ashura draw closer, expression of anti-Shia sentiment becomes more active,” Nad said, adding that “riots are common, and a Zuljinah being shot down or poisoned is not unheard of.”",
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} A torrent of bodies dressed in black, with indiscernible faces and flailing arms, surges towards a centre that is bruised red. Enveloped by a warm tungsten hue, the crowd pours through a narrow alley and into a large open space. Its seething movement creates a seamlessness that lends a sense of duration to an otherwise static frame. The focus of the image, and the crowd, is the undefined centre: a barely visible horse draped in a bright red cloth.
The image belongs to the Pakistani photographer Nad-e-Ali’s ongoing photo series “The Other Horses,” which documents Lahore’s annual Shabih-e-Zuljinah processions. Held during the month of Muharram, the Shia mourning processions commemorate the death of Hussain ibn Ali, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in the seventh-century Battle of Karbala. The Shia–Sunni rift, which dates back to the death of Muhammad, in 632, is said to have intensified after the battle. The horses at these processions, called the Zuljinahs, represent Murtajiz, the loyal stallion that Hussain rode into battle. Legend has it that Murtajiz refused to leave his master’s side after his death, only to return to camp, covered in blood, to deliver the news of the killing.
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