The Mesopotamian mourning ritual of The Death and Resurrection of Dumuzi Amaushumgalanna is probably one of the earliest ‘mourning rituals’ created, and was the prototype for many similar, later versions.20 Dumuzi was a Sumerian god called Tammuz in Babylonian and Adonis in Greek. He was the god of spring and flowers, green plants and young animals of the herd. The goddess of love and fertility, called Inanna in Sumerian (Istar in Babylonian and Venus in Latin) fell in love with him, but he was abducted by the demons of the underworld and taken to the land of death. Inanna decided to go in search of him, so she had to descend to the underworld to retrieve her husband from the clutches of death.
The ritual consisted mainly of a mourning procession for the dead god, Dumuzi or Tammuz. The leader of the mourners was a young widow, mother or sister to Dumuzi, who carried a banner or flag in front of the procession. There were also people who played music and recited eulogies. Two important theatrical elements found in this ritual, namely ‘procession’ and ‘recitation’, were to be incorporated into the Taʹziyeh. The existence of the similarity between the ritual of Tammuz and the Taʹziyeh has been acknowledged by G.E.Von Grunebaun, who writes:
This ritual [Muharram], which is without parallel in Islam where a saint is never commemorated by a re-enactment of his funeral, incorporates rites of an earlier cult. A number of details regarding the arrangement and the symbolism of the procession corroborate the general parallelism of the ceremony with the festival of Adonis-Tammuz.21
Another ‘death and resurrection’ ritual that incorporated ‘theatrical elements’ but never developed into a full-scale drama was the Abydos Passion Play.22 This ritual, which dramatized the death and resurrection of the Egyptian god Osiris, was most probably performed each year on the first day of spring in the period around 2500 BC. Rosalie David writes:
Unlike the rituals which were performed daily, it seems that the Osiris Mysteries were performed only once a year at Abydos. The Festival of Osiris included both the dramatic re-enactment of the death and resurrection of Osiris held out of doors for the mass of the people and also the hidden mysteries performed in the Temple. Unfortunately, at Abydos the halls of the Osiris Complex are in such a poor state of repair that the exact nature of the ritual is lost.23
The limited knowledge of the Abydos ceremony that we have has been gleaned primarily from three sources. Ikhernefret (1887–49 BC), a high official and participant in the ceremony, is the first source, while the others are the Greek historians Herodotus (c. 484– c. 425 BC) and Plutarch (c. AD 40–c. 20).
The Abydos ritual shows several parallel features. Just as the Taʹziyeh deals with the tragic death of Imam Hussein, so the ritual drama of Abydos is about the death of Osiris. The Osiris myth is as follows: Geb, the earth god, and Nut, the sky goddess, had four children, Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. As the eldest son, Osiris was the rightful king of Egypt. He married his sister, Isis, the goddess of the earth, who gave birth to Horus, the sun god. However, their golden rule was soon disturbed by their jealous brother, Seth, the god of darkness. (In the case of Siavush, it was Garsivaz who was jealous of Siavush, and in the case of Imam Hussein, it was Yazid who was jealous of Hussein. Osiris, Siavush and Hussein were all martyred, partly because of this jealousy.) Violence and chaos spread, and finally Osiris was killed and his body was covered up somewhere on the river bank in the district of Abydos. Isis wept so much that the River Nile overflowed and the body was found by Isis. She shaded him with her wings and gave him the breath of life so that he returned from the dead and grain grew out of his body. Meanwhile, Horus, the sun god, began to fight with Seth, the god of darkness, to avenge his father’s death.24
Budge records another version of this myth, which says that on one occasion, when Isis went to see her son, Seth took advantage of her absence, found the grave of Osiris, took the body out, cut it into 72 pieces and scattered these all over the land of Egypt.25 (Imam Hussein and his followers numbered 72 in the plain of Karbala when they were massacred by Yazid’s army.) Isis, ashamed of her negligence, found all the pieces and gave the body a proper burial.
According to the valuable inscription on the Stella Ikhernefret,26 this ritual drama telling the Osiris story was performed annually at Abydos. The statue of Osiris was carried by pilgrims on a boat during a magnificent procession. James Henry Breasted outlines what we know about the drama:
There must eventually have been multitudes of such pilgrims at this Holy Sepulchre of Egypt [Abydos] at all times, but especially at that season when in the earliest known drama the incidents of the god’s myth were dramatically reenacted in what may properly be called a ‘passion play’. Although this play is now completely lost, the memorial stone of Ikhernofret, an official of Sesostris III, who was sent by the king to undertake some restorations in the Osiris temple at Abydos, a stone now preserved in Berlin, furnishes an outline from which we may draw at least the titles of the most important acts. These show us that the drama must have continued for a number of days, and that each of the more important acts probably lasted at least a day.27
The Stone of Ikhernefret (Figure 2), which provides much of what we know about the Abydos passion play, reads as follows:
I. I arranged the expedition of Wep-Wawet28 when he went to the aid of his father.
II. I beat back those who attacked the Bark of Neshment29 and I overthrew the foes of Osiris.
2.The Ikhernefret Stone, early evidence of the ritual drama of Abydos.
III. I arranged the Great Procession and escorted the god30 on his journey.
IV. I launched the god’s ship, and… Thoth…the voyage. I provided a crew for the ship of the lord of Abydos who is called He-Who-Appears-in-Truth. I decked the ship with gorgeous trappings so that it might sail to the region of Peker.31
V. I conducted the god to his grave in Peker.
VI. I championed Wenen-ne-fru [Unnefer], on the day of the Great Combat and overthrew all his adversaries beside the waters of Nedit.
VII. I caused him to sail in his ship. It was laden with his beauty.
VIII. I caused the hearts of the Easterners to swell with joy, and I brought gladness to the Westerners at the sight of the Bark of Abydos; and Osiris, the first of all Westerners, the lord of Abydos, was conducted to his palace.32
The dramatic elements referred to in the Ikhernefret account have been interpreted in a number of different ways. Some scholars argue that the death and resurrection of Osiris were re-enacted by a crowd of people and priests, included battle scenes and processions and was performed in different locations. Other scholars have seen it as a simple ritual for the dead Pharaohs, denying the existence of the theatrical elements for which other scholars argue. A few historians have even argued that the development of Greek theatre was influenced by the ritual drama of Abydos. These scholars, including Oscar G.Brockett, have pointed out that Herodotus, the Greek historian who visited Egypt about 450 BC, discussed the possibility of a connection between Osiris and Dionysus and argued that Dionysus was in fact, another version of Osiris.33 In this case, the origins of drama have roots in Egypt as well as in Greece.
3. The mourning pilgrims carrying the boat of Amun, the creator god of Hermopolis, at the Abydos processions.
Plutarch’s version of the Egyptian myth of kingship, which uses Greek names, is another source that suggests a possible connection between the Egyptian myth of the death and resurrection of Osiris and similar stories in Greek mythology and drama. In Plutarch’s account, Seth cut the body of Osiris into 14 pieces (14 is also a sacred number in Shiʹism, representing the ‘14 infallibles’—the Prophet, His wife and the 12 Imams) and scattered them throughout the land.34
Of all the Iranian rituals of ‘mourning the dead’, Mourning for Siavush is the one that is most similar to the death and resurrection of Osiris, in terms of both form and context. This ritual is considered by some scholars (such as Ehsan Yarshater)35 to be the original source of the Taʹziyeh. Even though, this theory has not been accepted by some
scholars, it is difficult to deny the resemblance between the characters of Siavush and Hussein.
Siavush was the son of Kia-Kaʹus, the Shah of Iran. His stepmother, Queen Saudabah, fell in love with him, but he rejected her because he did not want to bring shame upon his father. This rejection caused Saudabah to hate him.36 She tore her robe, disarrayed her hair and accused him of raping her. According to tradition, Siavush had to pass the fire-test to prove his innocence.37
Siavush rode his black horse through the flames and came out unharmed. He was thus proved to be innocent. Kia-Kaʹus wanted to kill Saudabah for the false accusation she had made against his son, but Siavush, the symbol of goodness and mercy, forgave her and asked his father to spare her. Meanwhile, news came that Afrasiyab, the ruler of Turan, had advanced towards Iran with a huge army. Siavush, who wanted to be far away from his father and stepmother, asked permission to command the army of Iran in the forthcoming battle against the army of Turan. Siavush’s petition was granted and he went to fight against the army of Turan, which was commanded by Garsivaz, brother of Afrasiyab.
The two armies fought for three days and on the fourth day the army of Turan was driven back. Afrasiyab offered peace and Siavush agreed on condition that 100 men of Turan, close to Afrasiyab, be handed to Iran as hostages. This was intended to act as a deterrent to ensure that Turan would never again attack Iran. However, Kia-Kaʹus did not accept this peace deal and, in anger, dismissed Siavush as commander of the army. He then ordered that hostages be sent to him to be put to death. Siavush disobeyed this order and went to join up with Afrasiyab, who received him with all honour and loved him as his son and even gave his daughter, Frangis, to him. Meanwhile, Garsivaz, Afrasiyab’s brother, jealous of Siavush’s rising power and popularity, began to poison Afrasiyab’s mind about Siavush and accused him of plotting against Turan. Finally, Siavush was forced to fight with the army of Turan. He was captured and dragged to a dusty place where his head was cut off by Garsivaz. The dust did not absorb the warm blood. According to the legend, where Siavush’s blood had been spilled, a green plant called ‘the feather of Siavush’ or ‘the blood of Siavush’ sprang up and was nourished by the hero’s blood.38 The more the plant was cut, the more it grew.
Among Iranian scholars, Mehrdad Bahar was the first to notice that there was a connection between the death and resurrection of Siavush and the seasonal mourning rituals of Tammuz. He writes:
The ritual of Siavush is related to the ritual of native gods of vegetation and to the ritual of Tammuz and Ishtar of Babylon, and furthermore to the Sumerian rituals. Perhaps the Avestan39 word ‘Syavarsan’,40 meaning the black man or the black face, had something to do with the black colour or black mask that people used to put on their faces in such rituals.*41
The first description of the performance of Mourning for Siavush is provided by Abo-bakr Mohammad-ibn-Narshakhi in Tarikh-e-Bukhara, which was written in the tenth century. After explaining how Siavush was killed and buried in Bukhara42 and how the Zoroastrian priests honoured his grave, he writes:
The people of Bukhara have strange songs about the death of Siavush and the minstrels call them ‘Kiive-Siavush’43, and it has been three thousand years… And the people of Bukhara have many mourning songs on the death of Siavush which are known in all the states and the minstrels call them ‘Garistan-e-Mughan’,44 and this story is more than three thousand years old.*45
There are several contemporary Iranian scholars who also believe that there is a connection between the mourning rite of Siavush and the Taʹziyeh. Bahram Bayzaie,46 Janati-Ataie,47 Farrokh Ghaffary48 and Sadaq Humayuni49 have all written about this connection. All these critics, however, have mainly relied on Narshakhi’s account and have not provided further evidence to support their claims that there is a connection between the mourning rite of Siavush and the Taʹziyeh. In addition, none of these critics has made any comparative analysis of ritualistic and theatrical elements that might be found in the rite of Siavush and in the drama of the Taʹziyeh. Apart from Mahrdad Bahar, the only person who has tried to provide a comparative analysis that might establish a real connection is Ehsan Yarshater, who writes:
Many other parallels can be drawn between the passion of Siyavush and that of the Imam, but it is hardly necessary to demonstrate the basic similarity between the two. Of course, this is not to say that the passion of Hussein, as it appears in the Taʹziyeh, is only a late reincarnation of Siyavush’s legend. The origin and development of the Taʹziyeh could be drawn also from Mesopotamian, Anatolian, and Egyptian myths. The whole legend of Siyavush presents a striking similarity to the myth of Tammuz, the youthful Mesopotamian god who died and rose annually with dying and reviving vegetation… The unmistakable point, however, is that ritual mourning festivals of the Taʹziyeh-type have clear precedents in pre-Islamic Persia. The passion of Siyavush bears too close a resemblance to the Taʹziyeh of the Imam in ritual, imagery, and emotive underpinnings to be ignored in an explanation of the emergence of the genre.50
4. The wall painting of Mourning for Siavush. The coffin is carried by four men and surrounded by lamenting women.
In 1951, the argument in favour of a connection between the Siavush mourning rite and the Taʹziyeh was given credence by an archaeological discovery in the ruins of Panjikent, 68 kilometres east of Samarkand.51 A wall painting (Figure 4) depicting the mourning rite of Siavush was identified by A.Y.Yakubovski and A.I.Terenozhki.52 A copy of it was later published by Alexander Mongait.53 This wall painting, dated 3000 BC, provides important pictorial evidence of the nature of the mourning rite. We see Siavush, who is in a large open coffin, carried by a few men. Many women and men surround the coffin, beating their faces and chests and probably lamenting. The details are so precise that it seems unlikely that the painter could have depicted it so accurately if he had not seen or experienced the ritual himself.
The sacred blood spilled during the martyrdom of Osiris, Siavush and Hussein had a mystical connection with nature, and in particular with crops. The earth, water and plants are significant elements in all three myths. When Osiris was killed, grain grew out of his body. Similarly, when Siavush was murdered, a plant grew out of the dust and was nourished by his blood. According to a hadith recorded by Zamakh-shari,54 a sacred tree near Jerusalem wept blood when Imam Hussein was killed in the Karbala plain. Kashefi quotes Zamakh-shari’s hadith:
There is a hadith from Zamakh-shari in Rabi-el-Barar that says: the Prophet, peace be upon him, was sleeping in my tent. When he woke up, he asked for water. He washed both his holy hands and then gargled and spilled the water on a bramble that was on the other side of the tent. When we woke up at the next sunrise, we saw that a huge tree had grown on that spot laden with fruits … At once we saw that pure blood was coming out of the trunk of the tree and the leaves were dead. We thought that a terrible accident might have happened. When night fell, we heard crying and lamenting coming from around the tree, but we did not see anyone there. Suddenly we received the news of the death of Imam Hussein. We wept so much and performed the mourning ceremony.*55
We have seen how the earth refused to absorb Siavush’s warm blood when he was killed. There are also stories about how Hussein’s warm blood was found under every piece of stone around Jerusalem on the day he was killed.56 Of all the Iranian heroes, I have found only of Siavush and Hussein that their ‘warm blood’ remained unabsorbed on the earth for ever. The symbolic meaning of ‘warm blood’ is very clear: these two heroes, Siavush and Hussein, are not dead. Iranians believe that they are alive (symbolically) and they are a focus of worship for them.”
In all three rituals of Osiris, Siavush and Hussein, a beloved hero, a symbol of light, life and purity, is killed by an evil man who cannot tolerate the righteousness and popularity of his opponent. In fact, usurpation and jealousy are among the main causes of these tragedies. In the Osiris story, it is Seth, Osiris’s brother, who is envious of him for being the ruler of Egypt and the husband of his beautiful sister, Isis. Seth kill
s Osiris to gain both. In the Siavush story, it is Garsivaz, Siavush’s uncle-in-law, who is envious of him because of his popularity at the court of Afrasiyab. He kills Siavush to take his place as ruler. In the Hussein story, it is Yazid who is afraid of Hussein because he knows that he has usurped Hussein’s place as the caliph of the Muslims. It is interesting to notice that in these three tragedies, the killers are punished and the martyrs, in differing ways, come back to continue living as immortal souls.
Seth is killed by Horus, Osiris’s son, and Osiris himself comes back to live as the judge of the dead. Afrasiyab and Garsuvaz, the killers of Siavush, are both slain by Kia-Khusrau,58 Siavush’s son. Siavush himself returns as a plant or as Kia-Khusrau (his son), who later vanishes to to come back as the saviour of his people. Shimr, one of the Imam’s killers, is killed by Mokhtar, and his body is torn to pieces by wild dogs. Imam Mahdi, Hussein’s grandson, also vanishes to come back as the saviour of the people in order to enforce order and justice in the world. There is another similarity between these stories. Isis and Frangis give birth to their sons, Horus and Kia-Khusrau, after their husbands, Osiris and Siavush, have died. Neither Horus nor Kia-Khusrau see their fathers.
There are further parallels between the earlier mourning rituals and the Taʹziyeh depicting Hussein’s martyrdom. A version of the Osiris myth says that Seth cut the body of Osiris into 72 pieces and scattered them all over the land of the Egypt.59 In similar fashion, in the Hussein story there are many references to this number. It has been noted that Hussein and his followers numbered 72 in the battle of Karbala, and, according to Kashefi, Imam received 72 wounds during the battle.60 There are also many Taʹziyehs with the title The Seventy-two Martyrs of the Karbala (Haftado do Shahid-e Karbala).
The Islamic Drama Page 6