Ta'ziya: Difference between revisions

The heyday of ta'ziya was the Qajar era (1796–1925). The most elaborate example of Qajar patronage of taʻziya was the [[Takiya Dawlat]], which was built in Tehran in 1873 by the order of the Iranian monarch [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Naser-al-Din-Shah Naser al-Din Shah]. This takiya was built on a very grand scale. Nevertheless, it was in most ways a typical takiya. It consisted of a large circular amphitheater with several entrances surrounding a large open area; a tent was used as a roof. Its primary purpose was to provide a staging area for the most elaborate ta’ziya performances. Lady Sheil, a European traveler, resident in Tehran in 1856, gives a brief account of the taʻziya performance in the Takiya Dawlat in 1856, concluding, “It is a sight in no small degree curious to witness an assemblage of several thousand persons plunged in deep sorrow, giving vent to their sorrow” (p. 127).  

==Modern Trends==

Following the fall of the Qajar dynasty in the early twentieth century, the ta'ziya slowly declined until it was mostly abandoned in the large cities in the 1930s and 1940s. However, ta'ziyas have continued to exist in Iran on a smaller scale throughout the twentieth century, especially in traditional sectors. There were two reasons for this relative decline. The first Pahlavi king, [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Reza-Shah-Pahlavi Reza Shah], outlawed the ta’ziya. More importantly, as Iranian society changed modernized elites became less interested in sponsoring such traditional ritual events. Scholars of literature and drama as well as government agencies attempted to preserve this theatrical tradition in the 1970s, and again in the 1980s and 1990s. However, unlike the Qajar period, which was the heyday of the taʻziya ritual, the dominant public rituals since the 1930s have been the [[Muharram]] processions, and various forms of the rawza khani.