to modern surround sound.
Corridors running outward from the center of the taki̅yeh were added to the central performing space. This arrangement allowed actors on horses and camels to come and go, as in a circus tent, rendering the entire building a performance space. Indeed, battles and other acts were enacted behind the audience, so that the feeling was one of being encircled by the dramatic action. This added effect enhanced audience participation. The taki̅yeh, in other words, became a microcosmic representation of Karbala that enabled spectators to participate in the historic events so central to their lives. The dynamics of the engagement of audience with performer through narrative enactment is one of the key features of events related to Muharram. Moreover, the theme of portable and temporary karbalā’s, the transposition of sacred space, is one to which I will return as the study proceeds to India and Trinidad in subsequent chapters.
In summary, ta‘zi̅yehs, like the muḥarram processions to be discussed at length below, developed historically as communal events, whether they were performed in houses, gardens, crossroads, or arenas, which makes them first and foremost social dramas. The important element in the observance was participation. An audience member could not just observe passively. The viewer had to show emotion by weeping in order to experience the suffering of Husayn, and only in this way could he or she completely identify with the martyr. Modern-day Muslim writers of polemical religious literature often even cite the physical benefits to be gained from weeping and wailing, just as New Age gurus, such as the laughing doctor of Mumbai, India, praise the healing effects of humor.32
In spite of the numerous historical transformations that contributed to the shaping of ta‘zi̅yeh as we know it today, the soteriological purpose remained constant: participation in the performance helped an individual obtain salvation through the intercession of the martyr. The vicarious suffering and death of Husayn was an instrument of redemption for all believers, and belief was manifested best in performance participation. Staged ta‘zi̅yeh has been central to the muḥarram observances in Iran for over four hundred years. It has also survived various political vicissitudes, such as the ban on ta‘zi̅yeh performance by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who, in 1932 decreed that mourning rites were incompatible with his program of modernization.33 Despite his views about the rite’s decadent and backward character, it has remained a creative force of religious and national expression, especially at times of weakness and oppression. At the same time, it has functioned as an agent of social change.34
In the next section, I want to shift to the contemporary situation and the material dimension of the Muharram ritual complex, for I wish to draw attention to some motifs that will recur as we move from Iran to the Indian subcontinent and then on to the Caribbean.
The Contemporary Phenomenon
I described above in historical fashion the interrelated phenomena of stationary and ambulatory performances pertaining to Husayn’s passion. Now I wish to pay a bit more attention to the processional aspect of the rite. Dasteh (procession) is the term used most commonly in Iran for ambulatory rituals held during the months of Muharram and Safar.35 That dasteh can also mean a “division of an army” should immediately alert us to the martial imagery intended by the use of this term, for the symbolism of battle is central to the occasion.36 The most spectacular dastehs take place on ‘āshūrā’ and arba‘i̅n, and their most salient feature in Iran, up until recently, has been ritual flagellation (taṭbi̅r) performed by male members of the mourning community.
The flagellants, aged twelve and upward, are arranged according to height, the smallest preceding the tallest. Some of them who strip to the waist and strike their chests with the palm of their hands are called sinezans (chest beaters). Others wear black shirts cut away in the back so that the chains of their whips can fall directly on their flesh and are known as zanji̅rzans (chain beaters). Another class of penitents known as the shamshi̅rzans (sword beaters) wear white burial shrouds symbolizing their readiness to sacrifice their lives, and they strike their foreheads with knives and swords, letting the blood drip down onto the shrouds. Yet another group, known as sangzans (stone beaters), scourge themselves with stones.37 All these various penitential groups compete against one another to see who could draw the most blood. Nelly Caron writes that the flagellation processions “tried to outdo one another in the severity of their self mortifications, the least of which consisted of locking padlocks to the skin.”38
Acts of self-mortification are accompanied with musical instruments. Cymbals (sanj) and large kettle and cylinder drums maintain the steady rhythm for striking blows. The leader of each subgroup, chanting dirges, follows the same rhythm. The entire dasteh will stop in front of a religious edifice or the tomb of a local saint, in front of the homes of prominent community members to receive donations, or in an open space. At such sites, the participants in one group beat themselves rhythmically while others join in the chanting of simple verses, such as the following:
It is the eve of Ashura.
Karbala is in commotion.
How sandy is Karbala.
It is the final evening.39
The tempo quickens until the excitement reaches an uncontrollable pitch. A sideshow may be performed, followed by more marching. The cries of the participants, who curse the villains while proclaiming sympathy for Husayn, are mingled with mournful songs. Canetti describes the communal nature of these processions as “an orchestra of grief … The pain they inflict on themselves is the pain of Husain, which, by being exhibited, becomes the pain of the whole community. The beating of their chests, which is taken up by the spectators, gives rise to a rhythmic crowd sustained by the emotion of lament. Husain has been torn away from all of them, and belongs to all of them together.”40
The Shi‘i dasteh is, by and large, the most common processional ritual performance, and it is a tradition that continues in many parts of South Asia today. Although it is one of the oldest forms of commemoration, more extensive accounts of the dastehs begin appearing during the Safavid period. Resident foreigners in Safavid Iran left very rich but often contradictory accounts of what they saw.41 One fairly typical account comes from Thomas Herbert, who wrote in 1698 C.E.: “Nine days they wander up and down, all the while shaving neither head nor beard nor seeming joyful, but incessantly beating their breasts; some tear their garments, and crying out Hussan, Hussan in a melancholy note, so long, so fiercely, that many can neither howl longer, nor for a month’s space recover their voices.… The tenth day they find an imaginary Hussan, whom they echo forth in sentorian clamours, till they bring him to his grave; where they let him sleep quietly till the next year’s zeal fetch him out and force him again to accompany their devotion.”42
Although these accounts are fairly repetitive and stereotypical and focus on the sensational, they are a virtual year-by-year record of the development of the pageantry; they chronicle the steady increase in the number of dasteh participants costumed to represent various Karbala episodes. For example, floats of living tableaux on wheels eventually came to follow riders on camels and horses. Various attributes that symbolized the battle of Karbala were featured individually. These included standards, banners, martial clothing and instruments, and a variety of ancient and modern weapons.43 Some of the weaponry (for example, firearms) may seem out of place to European observers, but the Shi‘ah attempt to bridge the historical gap between Karbala and the present.
Fischer describes nine floats paraded in Yazd during the 1970s that accompanied the dastehs in which many were performing self-mortification. The floats, which were located at both ends of the procession, included decorated camels and horses carrying Yazid, his men, and the blood-soaked corpse of Husayn; a green-clad Abbas attempting to get water; a large pan of water signifying thirst; and a man dressed as a lion mourning
