Lucknow flourished as the capital of the Awadh nawabs from the mid-eighteenth century until 1856, when British annexation ended its independent existence; the city remains a major center of South Asian Twelver Shia Muslim culture, distinct from but interwoven with the broader Sunni majority of northern India. The Bara Imambara, built in 1784 by Asaf-ud-Daula as part of a famine-relief construction project, is one of the largest vaulted halls in the world without supporting beams and serves as a major focal point of Muharram observances, alongside the Chota Imambara and Husainabad complex. Lucknow's Jama Masjid and the Aasifi Mosque are among its principal Sunni mosques. The city is also famed for its refined Urdu poetry, particularly the marsiya elegies of Mir Anis and Mirza Dabir, which remain part of the Muharram literary tradition. Today Lucknow continues to host one of the most elaborate Muharram processions in India.