Ta'ziya: Difference between revisions

==The Battle of Karbala==

Accounts of the Battle of Karbala can be summarized as follows. In the year 680 C.E., Husayn, who was also the third imam of the [[Shi'a]], was killed in the desert of southern Iraq along with over seventy of his family and close friends by troops loyal to the caliph Yazid. The women and children were taken prisoner and paraded in various cities, adding to the humiliation, but also providing opportunities for these women, particularly Husayn's sister [[Zaynab]], to speak out publicly against Yazid. Yazid is portrayed by the Shisa as notoriously corrupt, immoral, and oppressive. Hence, Husayn's rebellion and subsequent [[martyrdom]] is understood by the Shiʻa as an epic struggle between good and evil. For the Shisa this event has served as a vindication of the Shi'ite cause in the face of [[Sunni]] criticism, as well as constituting the central event in their understanding of human history.

Following the battle itself, popular elegies of the martyrs were composed. However, the earliest reliable account of the performance of public mourning rituals was recorded in 963 C.E. during the reign of Mu'izz al-Dawla, the [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/buyids Buyid] ruler of southern Iran and Iraq. When the [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/safavids Safavid] dynasty came to power in Iran a new type of ritual called [[rawza-khani]] emerged, consisting mainly of a ritual sermon recounting and mourning the tragedy of Karbala. This ritual was based on texts like Husayn Va'ez Kashfi's 1502 composition entitled [[Rawzat al-shuhada]] (The garden of martyrs). Kashfi's text was a synthesis of a long line of historical accounts of Karbala by religious scholars.

By the time the [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Qajar-dynasty Qajar] dynasty took power in Iran in 1796, the rawza-khani ritual had evolved into the much more elaborate ritual called shabih-khani or taʼziya. The ta’ziya, an elaborate theatrical performance of the Karbala story based on the same narratives used in the rawza-khani, involved a large cast of professional and amateur actors, a director, a staging area, costumes, and props.