Lecturer: Cyrus Zargar, Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor, University of Central Florida (affiliation at the date recorded)

Duration: 1 hour 20 minutes

Date Recorded: April 2025

Subject: Accounts of the final stand of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, often celebrate one key virtue, karam, or “nobility.” This presentation explores nobility as a virtue, both in the context of the Battle of Karbala, and in the larger context of Islamic ethics. It investigates ways in which Karbala, as a memorialized instance of karam, comments on a socio-cultural rupture in the history of Islam.