Another early religious rite that contains elements that clearly suggest links with the later Taʹziyeh performances takes place every year in the month of Mehr, around September, in Mashad-Ardehall, a place close to the city of Kashan. During the ceremony, people wearing black and carrying sticks pick up a sacred rug from the shrine of Sultan-Ali, take it to the river nearby, wash it and return it to the shrine. All through this ceremony, the crowd wave their sticks angrily and curse the killers of the holy man (Sultan-Ali). This ritual refers to an event that occurred in the ninth century, when the people of Kashan invited Sultan-Ali to their city to be their religious leader. Before he arrived he was killed and torn into pieces by the infidels. His followers found the mutilated body, wrapped it in a rug and washed it in the river before burial. The rug was kept in the shrine so that it could be taken to the river to be washed every year in his memory. In this ceremony, which takes place every year, people mourn for Sultan-Ali as well as for Imam Hussein and the martyrs of Karbala by singing the mourning songs of the Karbala tragedy and linking them directly to the martyrdom of Sultan-Ali.61 In fact, for them the rug has become a symbol of the martyrs of Karbala and, above all, of Hussein himself. This Iranian ritual exhibits many parallels with the Egyptian story in which Osiris was torn to pieces and his body was found and washed by Isis in the River Nile and then buried.
The rituals of Osiris, Siavush and Hussein share certain structural features that were to have an important influence on the structure of the Taʹziyeh. The main theatrical elements to be found in all three rituals are the use of procession, choral laments, and the carrying of coffins and banners (Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6).62
I have already explained that shuhadat (martyrdom) was a key element in the development of both Shiʹism and the Taʹziyeh. It was also an important aspect of the Siavush myth. In many parts of Iran Siavush is a symbol of martyrdom or unjustified oppression. Once again we can see that there is a close correspondence between the Siavush myth and the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. The two heroes share certain characteristics. Shahrokh Meskoob writes:
5, 6. The Karbala procession. The coffin of Imam Hussein is carried by mourners.
Shuhadat is a sacred phenomenon and consequently is mixed with religious beliefs. After the advent of Islam, the religion and the way of life changed radically. However, some of those old beliefs and traditions that had been deposited in the depth of his unconsciousness remained with him. After a while, a part of it was forgotten and another part was mixed with new life and beliefs and produced new ideas and images. The story of Siavush was one of those that lasted. Sacred Siavush was replaced by Imam Hussein, and the mourning for Siavush was transformed into the Taʹziyeh.*63
SHIʹISM AND THE WRITING OF STORIES AND POEMS OF MARTYRDOM
From the death of Imam Hussein on the plain of Karbala in 680 until 1501, when Shah Ismail Safavid took power and established the Safavid dynasty and proclaimed Shiʹism the state religion, Iran had been primarily an Islamic state with multiple Islamic groups. However, the Sunni school of Islam was dominant in some parts of the country.
The proclamation of Shiʹism as the main religion of the country was not simply a religious decision, but a political one as well. Iran had been at war with the Sunni Ottoman Empire for some years and needed a strong unified religion that could unite the people against the Turkish invaders. The hostility between Iran and the Ottoman Empire also brought Iran into closer contact with Europe. The two became natural allies, as the imperialistic policy of the Ottoman Empire was dangerous to both Iran and Europe.
The proclamation of Shiʹism as the state religion in Iran had an enormous effect on the religious and political foundations of the country. One of its effects was to accelerate the speed of development of the Taʹziyeh, which became an independent form of religious presentation.
It was only after the establishment of Shiʹism as the state religion that the Shiʹa followers were able to participate in the religious ceremonies of Muhharam without feeling any fear of attack from Sunnis or other religious groups. With the support of the government, the followers began practising the Muharram mourning ritual with such passion and enthusiasm that the ceremony soon became a national event in the calendar of the country. Meanwhile, poets who had formerly written about lovers and flowers and nightingales, and writers who had been writing historical love stories, all of a sudden began writing about the Karbala events. Soon these poets and writers had created a unified plot composed from the scattered stories of the Karbala events. This first step towards the dramatization of these events was absolutely necessary for the development of the Taʹziyeh. The writing of stories and poems of martyrdom became so popular during the Safavid period that it developed into a separate literary movement in Persian literature.
A group of people known as rowza-khan, the readers or tellers of the tragedies of the Karbala, who had good voices, began to narrate those stories for the people who usually gathered in the mosques or private houses during the holy month of Muharram. Often, after the readings or rowza, many of the mourners stood up and formed circles and began to sing those religious poems while beating their chests in harmony with the songs. Following the rowza, the mourners left the mosques and took to the streets, singing and beating their chests, so that more people could watch them. I wish to argue that this para-theatrical event, with its use of voice and movement, was the first theatrical representation of the Karbala stories. In fact, most of the Taʹziyeh plays took their plots and characters and even their poetic language directly from the stories.
Among the poets who wrote these religious and devotional verses, Muhtasham Kasbani and Qa’ani were two who helped most in the development of the Taʹziyeh. Their poetry was particularly rich in visual imagery and colloquial language, and both features were to become important elements in the Taʹziyeh.
Muhtasham Kashani (1587), who lived during the reign of Shah Tahmaseb of Safavid, was particularly gifted in his ability to visualize events. It was Muhtasham, in fact, who wrote the most powerful of all elegies about the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. In his 12-verse stro phes, he used a highly visual and emotional language to portray the virtues and sufferings of Hussein:
Again, what is this uprising
among all creatures of the world,
this mourning, lamentation,
weeping, tragic song,
this great Rebirth
which reaches from earth
to the Empyrean without
the blowing of the final trump?
Can the Sun have risen in the West,
has this riot and confusion
penetrated every atom
of the universe?
It would be no metaphor
to call this ‘Resurrection here-and-now’,
this general and public arising
named Moharram!64
The style of language used in the writing of elegies was soon replaced by a simpler and more dramatic one, which was also closer to the language of ordinary people. It was Qa’ani (1807–53) who developed a form of poetry that was dramatically suitable for the dialogue of the Taʹziyeh. This language was extraordinary theatrical in nature and needed only to be spoken by separate characters rather than by a single narrator/rowza-khan for it to become ‘theatre’ in the full sense:
What rains down? Blood! Who? The Eye! How? Day and Night!
Why?
From grief! What grief? The grief of the Monarch of Karbala!
What was his name? Husayn! Of whose race? Ali’s!
Who was his mother? Fatima! Who was his grandsire? Mustafa!
How was it with him? He fell a martyr! Where? In the plain of Mariya! Karbala!
When? On the tenth of Muharram! Secretly? No, in public!
Was he slain by night? No, by day! At what time? At noontide!
Was his head severed from the throat? No, from the nape of the neck!
Was he slain unthirsty? No! Did none give him to drink? They did!
Who? Shimr!65
Such religious verses clearly influenced the development of the Taʹziyeh.
Religious stories, or maghtal, were also to have a great influence on the development of this important dramatic form. Among those religious stories Khavaran-nameh, Hamla-ye- Haydari and Rowzatuʹll Shuhada must be mentioned.
Khaivaran-nameh66 was written in 1426 by Ibn-e-Hassam. The book dealt with Imam Ali’s wars with Kobad, the king of Khavaran, and included other fantastic tales such as a fight with a dragon.
Hamla-ye-Haydari,67 a story about the life of the Prophet and Imam Ali, was written by Bazel, who died before the book was completed. However, Abotaleb Isphahani continued working on it after Bazel’s death, and the book was finally finished in the early sixteenth century.
Although neither Khavaran-nameh nor Hamla-ye-Haydari dealt directly with Imam Hussein and the events of the Karbala, they showed other writers what could be achieved by writing religious stories. Mullah Hussein Kashefi was one writer who was deeply influenced by these two earlier books. Around 1500, Kashefi wrote Rowzatuʹll Shuhada68 using both prose and poetry. This work concentrated on the tragedy of the Karbala plain, and provided a text with a unified plot that could easily be adapted by those who were keen to turn these events into a theatrical presentation.
In Garden of the Martyrs (Rowzatuʹll Shuhada), Kashefi unified all the events of the Karbala in an epic narrative structure that enabled each event to be presented independently while still maintaining a clear connection with the events of the Karbala cycle as a whole. In the following description of the martyrdom of Hussein, we can see how close to dramatic and theatrical form Kashefi’s work is:
Kholi-ibn-Yazid came down from his horse to cut Imam Hussein’s head off, but his hands began to shake…when Imam Hussein fell down on the ground, someone else came to end his life. Imam Hussein looked at the man and said: ‘Go! You are not the one who is meant to kill me. I would be sad to see you punished by the fire of the Hell.’ At this, the man wept and said: ‘You, the Son of the Prophet, you are in this condition and yet you are still thinking about my not being burned by the fire of Hell!’ The man went back to Omar Saʹad. Omar asked him: ‘What have you done? Did you kill him?’ The man answered: ‘No, but I am going to kill you.’ With that he attacked Omar Saʹad, but was immediately surrounded by soldiers and was wounded in the struggle with them. The man turned his face to Imam Hussein and said: ‘Son of the Prophet, be witness that your love caused me to be killed. Tomorrow, find me and take me to Heaven with the martyrs of your army.’ Imam Hussein cried: ‘Be certain that I will do this. You will be with me tomorrow.’*69
The book’s elaborate plots, vivid characters and passionate language made it readily adaptable for recitation in the processions and mourning ceremonies of Muharram. Later, these aspects of The Garden of Martyrs would be incorporated into the Taʹziyeh plays.
ROWZA-KHANI AND PROCESSION
In the Safavid period, some performers who had good voices began to tell the stories of the Karbala for the crowds that usually gathered in mosques and in larger houses during the month of Muharram to participate in the mourning ceremonies (Figure 7). They not only told the stories, but also sang some of the religious verses in such a way that it made the crowds emotionally involved in the events. The main religious-literary source of their stories was the book of Rowzatuʹll Shuhada, and this led the readers of the book to be known as rowza-khan or ‘reader of rowza’. In the beginning, these recitations were purely acts of devotion. Gradually, however, the performers became professionals and performances became commercial enterprises as well as religious events.
At the end of each rowza, which usually dealt with an episode of the Karbala events, the rowza-khan gave his place to a maddah or eulogist. This person, who was always someone who had a good voice and the ability to sing, asked the mourners to stand in a circle. He then began to sing some of the religious verses relating to Imam Hussein’s martyrdom and asked the crowd to repeat some parts with him while beating their chests with their hands in harmony with the songs. Soon this singing and recitation became a ‘question and answer’ style of performance that took place between the maddah (leader) and the crowd (chorus). This interaction between the leader and the chorus was to be the first major performance element of the Taʹziyeh in its development into a complete form of theatre.
7. Rowza-khani. The mullah sits on the pulpit telling the stories of the Karbala events for the mourners.
8. A religious procession of Muharram from the Qajar period (1787–1925).
In the evening, the groups of mourners, singing elegies and beating their chests, left the mosque or the takiyeh and went into the streets to continue mourning in front of a larger audience outside (Figures 8, 9, 10). It was into these processions that symbolic theatrical properties such as the coffins of the martyrs, flags, banners and animals such as lions and horses were introduced. Each property had symbolic significance. For example, in most of the processions a man appeared in a lion skin. He moved up and down, beating his head and crying. This symbolized the fact that even the king of animals was in mourning for Imam Hussein. Since the lion was a central figure of the country’s coat of arms, this showed that the entire country mourned for the dead hero.
The next development involved the introduction into the processions of actors impersonating the central characters of the Karbala story. The managers of the ceremonies introduced such characters as Imam Hussein, his two sons and the killer, Shimr, into the processions. Imam Hussein and Shimr rode their horses up and down the procession, brandishing their swords and challenging each other.
By analysing a piece of rowza, one can see how potentially dramatic this processional form is. In particular, it demonstrates how the rowza contains, in embryonic form, both dramatic characters and dialogue. The rowza of Imam Abbas, step-brother to Hussein, deals with his martyrdom.
Yazid’s army has surrounded Imam Hussein’s followers and cut them off from any water supply. When Abbas realizes that women and children are dying of thirst, he decides to fetch water for them. He knows that he has to pass through the strong army of Yazid in order to reach the water supply:
(Rowza-khan begins): When Abbas ibn Ali, who carried the banner of Imam Hussein’s army, saw the condition of his brothers, he wept bitterly. (As Abbas): Where have my brothers and friends gone? (As rowza-khan): He took the banner and went to Imam Hussein and gave it back to him. (As Abbas): Brother, it seems that I am going to carry this banner on judgment day. Have mercy and give me permission. (As rowza-khan): Imam Hussein wept and said: (As Imam Hussein): Brother, you were the symbol of my army. If you go, my army will disperse. (As rowza-khan): Abbas
9, 10. The religious procession of Muharram in recent times. Women beat their chests as a sign of mourning for Imam Hussein.
said: (As Abbas): Son of the Prophet, I wish I could sacrifice myself for you. I can bear it no longer… I want to take revenge on these oppressors…(As rowza-khan): Imam Hussein said a few words to him and gave him permission to go. Abbas was a brave and famous warrior who derived his power and strength from Haydar Karar… He rode on his horse with his Egyptian sword and Arabian shield and went to the battlefield.*70
After the rowza had been performed, it was turn of the mourners to stand up and sing elegies together, beating their chests as a sign of lamentation for the heroic death of Abbas. Usually the main singer, the maddah, stood in the middle while the mourners made a circle around him and began to sing together. In addition to the singing, the sound and the rhythm of beating on chests and the movements of the feet of the mourners were part of the overall performance. The main duty of the leader (solo) was to create and to orchestrate a harmonized rhythm between songs and the movements of the chorus members. During the performance of this ritual, the mourners often entered a trance-like state of ecstasy and forgot who they were in reality. They became transformed into being the actual martyrs of the Karbala plain and spoke with a single voice:
Chorus: Farewell, fare
well, today is the day of Ashura Around the tent this is Zahra beating on her head
Solo: Farewell, farewell, today is the day of Ashura
Chorus: Around the tent this is Zahra beating on her head Farewell, farewell, today is the day of Ashura
Solo: Farewell, farewell, today this is the unhappy bride
Chorus: The unhappy bride is thinking of tomorrow Farewell, farewell, today is the day of Ashura Around the tent this is Zahra beating on her head
Solo: Farewell, farewell, today this is the disturbed Leila
Chorus: The disturbed Leila is thinking of tomorrow Farewell, farewell, today is the day of Ashura.*71
The contribution of the rowza-khans was significant in the development of the Taʹziyeh since they introduced important theatrical elements into the mourning rituals by embodying the characters and speaking their dialogue. Now enactment replaced narration and dialogue replaced description.
STORY-TELLING AND PARDEH-DARI
For hundreds of years, there have been solo performers in Iran known as naghals or storytellers. According to the style of story-telling and the subject of the stories, they have been given different titles. Nevertheless, every story-teller had one goal: to give life to a story and its characters for an audience. In the pre-Islamic period, the story-telling was known as ghavali or minstrelsy, and involved telling a story accompanied by song and music.
After Iran was converted to Islam, the musical accompaniment ceased as it was prohibited by the new religion. In addition, the subject matter of the stories had to be adapted to the new culture. A group of story-tellers who followed Shiʹa Islam began telling the stories of the Prophet and His family. This type of story-teller was called managheb-khan (eulogy-teller). Another group of story-tellers, who were Sunnis, began telling the stories of three caliphs, Abu-Bakr, Omar and Uthman. A story-teller of this type was called fasilat-khan or virtue-teller. This kind of story-telling was in practised in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
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