Noha

A noha, also spelled nohay or nowheh, is an elegy about the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali and his family and companions at the Battle of Karbala, recited within Shia Islamic mourning observance, particularly during Muharram. The genre is a sub-genre of the broader elegiac tradition of marsiya, sharing its lamentation purpose but centered exclusively on the Karbala tragedy, and is traditionally performed by reciters known as nohakhawan or maddahs to express communal grief and devotion. While noha has traditionally been composed in verse, some regional traditions, such as Kashmiri noha, developed a freer elegiac form unbound by conventional prosodic rules, with modern versions incorporating rhythmic elements synchronized to ceremonial practice.