Taʿziyeh(orshabih) is the traditionally accepted term for the “theatrical” performances or dramas that reenact, recount, and recollect the lives of the extended family of the Prophet Mohammad during the month of Moharram. The venerated figures represented in thetaʿziyehare known as the “Fourteen Infallibles” (chahardah maʿsum) by Shiʿi Muslims.¹ They include the Prophet Mohammad himself, the Twelve Imams, starting with Imam Ali, and the Prophet Mohammad’s daughter, the mother of Imams Hasan and Hosayn, known as Fatemeh.² In thetaʿziyehdrama, these Fourteen Infallibles come alive on the stage of the Iranian “newest days” and take part...

This chapter explores some of the ways in which Shiʿi women experienced Moharram symbols and rituals in Qajar Iran. It is argued that Iranian women were extremely active in participating in Shiʿi rituals, and that Shiʿi symbols and rituals can be understood as affecting women on multiple, distinct levels. I will restrict the discussion here to four dimensions. First, Shiʿi symbols and rituals served deeply personal functions in the lives of pious Shiʿi women, including psychological, emotional, spiritual, and soteriological aspects. Second, Shiʿi symbolism, which was gender coded in significant ways, served as both a means to articulate gender identities...

In women’s mourning meetings (matam majles) during Moharram and Safar in Shiraz, Iran, the use of aesthetic expressions, such as visual imagery, ritual objects, and elegiac poetry, is so striking that one cannot ignore its potential devotional importance. Clearly, this local display of aesthetics is related to a broader popular Shiʿi Islamic tradition, historically and geographically. To develop an understanding of the ritual function of aesthetics, its application must, on the one hand, be related to Shiʿi Islamic martyrology and its promise of redemption and intercession and, on the other hand, be related to ritual participants’ understanding of the benefits...

Contrary to a popular belief that Islamic tradition and belief do not give an important place to women, women’s participation in jihad (i.e., Islamic struggle for a just cause, often war) and theirshahadat(martyrdom) are central, if often overlooked by scholars. This is perhaps because women’s participation is viewed as being more passive than active. However, this form of “passive” support, which is evident in the ritual lamentation chants, the elegies and eulogies of the Ashura poetry and prose, is a very important component of Shiʿi popular culture.

Persian literature is filled with information about prominent female Shiʿi religious...

The siege of Karbala and the tragedy of the martyrdom of Imam Hosayn and his companions is considered by Shiʿi Muslims to be the ultimate example of sacrifice and the cornerstone of their faith and culture. Representation of the role of the women of Karbala—the women related to Imam Hosayn and his slaughtered comrades—belongs to one of the most interesting artistic developments in Islam. The dramatic recitation of the heroic stand of the women inrowzeh khani¹ evolved into the dramatic action of thetaʿziyeh² performances, which in turn inspired the depiction of these dramas in paintings on...

This chapter consists of an ethnographic account of a women’smajles(pluralmajales) in Pakistan. Themajleswill be explored here as a communicative speech event where members of a speech community congregate and participate in an event based on common beliefs, values, and attitudes.¹ Themajleswill be investigated as an event where speakers and listeners share the knowledge of rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech.² The purpose of this essay is to provide a sociolinguistic mapping of the womennowheh-chanters’ discourse in the Pakistani languages using Hymes’ model of the ethnography of speaking and how ritual...

A majestically solemn shrine awaits the pilgrim-visitor who walks through the raucous markets of southeast Damascus. As one enters the arched gate of the shrine of Sayyedeh Zaynab, the gilded dome, the ceilings and walls glittering with mirrors, and the tear-filled eyes of the pilgrims all reflect the reverence and love that is accorded to this granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad, the older daughter of Fatemeh Zahra and Ali Ebn-e Abi Taleb. Pilgrims from diverse ethnic backgrounds and nationalities recite the prayers, such as the one quoted above. Many travel to the shrine not only to reaffirm their commitment to...

The Muslim community of South Asia is diverse: Islam adapts to various cultures and environments while retaining those features that maintain its universality. Belief in one God, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca are common to all Muslims. Devotional rituals connected with Islam’s early figures are aspects of religious life that display considerable diversity. A similar diversity is observed in life cycle rituals associated with birth, puberty, and death. Although research on popular Islam in South Asia is very scarce, Imtiaz Ahmad has discussed the diversity of observed Islam in India.¹ Some important beginnings have also been made by...

When Muslims come to America, what changes take place in religious beliefs, rituals, and practices? With so many people from Muslim societies migrating to the United States in recent decades, this question becomes all the more relevant. After September 11, 2001, even the most insular of Americans suddenly became aware of Islam and Muslims. Americans who are less familiar with Islam and Muslims have generally assumed Islam to be a monolithic religion consisting of beliefs uniformly held by all Muslims without regard to regional, generational, class, and cultural distinctions. Furthermore, many Americans see Islam and Muslims as existing “out there...

The notion of a split between public and private worlds was a common paradigm in the mid–twentieth century that was used to describe the behavior of men and women in Middle Eastern society. The woman’s world was supposedly the private world, the world of the family, a world not opened easily to strangers, a world where, it was granted, women might have had some domestic authority, or at least influence.” Man’s world was the public world, the world of politics, the market place, more open to strangers and new ideas, the world where “real power,” as well as perhaps...

Like Shiʿi Muslims around the world, Lebanese Shiʿis commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hosayn, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, each year during the first ten days of the Islamic month of Moharram. Lebanese metonymically refer to the entire ten-day period as Ashura—technically the term for the tenth of the month, the day on which the battle actually took place. Commemorating Ashura in Lebanon involves holding and attending both private and publicmajales, or mourning gatherings in which the history of the martyrdom is retold, and tenth-daymasirat, or lamentation processions, during which men often performlatam, a ritualized striking...