Mahmous (Arabic: محموص‎) an Arabic rice dish popular in Qatif and al-Hasa regions in Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain regions. Its primary ingredients are rice and onion. The dish may have originated before the rise of oil in Saudi Arabia when the people in Qatif were too poor to offer such dish with chicken, fish or meat so onion was used instead. And because of its black color and it can be prepared with relative ease with inexpensive ingredients, it is widely offered during Ashura to the audience to indicate a climate of grief during that period.