The librettos giving the words actually spoken by the actors in the ta'ziyas are not often met with, though litho- Libretto of the “Passion-plays.” graphed copies exist, of which, by the kindness of my friend the late George Grahame, formerly Consul in different parts of Persia, I possess half a dozen. As an example of their style I shall here cite a passage from the “Martyrdom of Ḥurr ibn Yazíd ar-Riyáḥí ,” * wherein an Arab from Kúfa brings to the Imám Ḥusayn the news of the execution of his cousin Muslim ibn 'Aqíl.

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