Karbala Paradigm
Robert
Iranian Shi'i believers claim that capturing sorrow and lamentation in their fullest sense falls beyond language and reason. They constantly refer to their inability to articulate in order to explain martyrdom and highlight a form of unsaid that explains all that appears impalpable for them. I undertake a journey among Iranian Shi'i youth to trace the unarticulated and the sense of wonder generated via religious experiences. By way of an ethnography of Muharram lamentation ceremonies, this article highlights how the unarticulated and the unsaid are socially and politically used in service of Shi'i militancy. I explore those uncharted terrains in the darkness of the Lacanian Real and in terms of how the Real is authenticated in order to address how realities are crafted and religious subjectivities are enacted in the realm of militancy.
I felt overwhelmed by a surge of indescribable feelings that were unknown to me. It was as if I were emptied out: I had no heartbeat, no bones in my legs, no eyes to see with. Instead, I had a knot in my throat. It was as if I had lost all my faculties to sense, think, reason, or speak. I was there to observe, participate. Anthropology as usual! I was among the black-clad Iranian volunteer militants who had gathered to mourn and commemorate the martyrdom of their holy imam. I had seen lamentation and mourning ceremonies many times, but this was my first among young Shia militia who would be deployed to Syria in few days. They gathered like most Shias to mourn the loss of their holy imams, but that night was different for all us: I felt different, and they were in pre-deployment excitement.
Something, he said. He did not say God, paradise, heavenly virgins, or that the chosen one called him. I was lost in the chaos within my head; sorrow, anguish, wailing, howling, tears, and cries all fused together in the darkness and prevailed over me.
The Iranian state has supported various resistance movements across the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Many young volunteers have been sent to fight alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hashd ul Sha'abi in Iraq, and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. My inquiry here focuses on those young people between 18 and 30 years old in Isfahan province, where one of the most important combat training centers is located. The youth receive basic training in rifle handling and ideological orientation from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps during the summer holidays. After training hours and outside the center, these youth tend to gather in certain mosques and hey'ats, religious collectives that organize ceremonies and religious festivals.
For Iranian Shi'is, Muharram, the first month of the lunar calendar, is the occasion for their most poignant rituals and moment of religious expression. While most (Sunni) Muslims celebrate Muharram as the beginning of a New Year, Shi'i communities wear black and prepare for mourning. They grieve the death of Hussain and his companions who were martyred in the desert of Karbala, in present-day Iraq. Hussain refused to pledge allegiance to the ruling caliph, and he and his companions were surrounded by the caliph's troops, who demanded his submission. Hussain's refusal resulted in the carnage that is still commemorated today by Shi'i communities across Iran and around the world. After the Islamic Revolution, the story of Karbala became the master narrative of martyrdom, sacrifice, and oppression (Ram 1996). However, this master narrative does not only produce resistance, martyrdom, and militancy. Mary Hegland (1983) shows in her ethnography of mourning ceremonies in Iran that some mourners choose to see Hussain as an intercessor and adopt to the ruling power rather than revolting by offering blood.
This form of mourning has been inspired by and learned from Iranian Azaries of Northern West of Iran,2 who mourn Hussain's martyrdom with a legendary passion, zest, and avidity that has made them the masters of azadari. They express their passion through what seasoned lamentation singers call harvaleh (mayhem or havoc). They passionately listen to poems without holding back their tears or grief. Azaries gather around and mourn while a lamentation singer entices them, or his apprentice encourages the crowd, by crying and lamenting louder and louder. This style of azadari appeals to the younger generation, who appreciate actively participating in lamenting through their tears and bodily performance rather than remaining a passive audience. Such desire for a certain form of azadari has made lamentation singers the cornerstone of every majlis.
I emphasize that the Lacanian Real is what mourners find elusive and unarticulated in the Karbala paradigm, and that the authentication of the Real, suggested by Van de Port (2005), occurs in the moments that highlight how people appropriate the unarticulated and uncharted terrain of lamentation. However, my emphasis leads to a broadening of the Lacanian Real within the anthropology of Islam and Shi'i rituals by addressing how the Real becomes a realm that is called on, referred to, and navigated by mourners through the traditions and ways of imagining that Shi'ism offers them. Therefore, mourners enable themselves to explain notions such as sacrifice, obedience, and indulgences like finding pleasure in pain and acts of mourning, refusing to account for these in any manner other than unspoken and unarticulated. It is noteworthy that the mourners protect themselves from the terror that they encounter in the revelation of the Real. They situate the Real within a familiar, tangible, reoccurring, and authentic narrative, such as miracles and unusual coincidences, which they see as sublime and divine interventions. Following this framework, I seek an alternative anthropological approach to the intricacies embedded in the Karbala paradigm, an approach that pursues the production of a production to expose how those committed to a Shi'i doctrine of lamentation and commemoration in the Middle East craft subjectivities, even as the precarious realities of war, violence, and bloodshed inscribe pain and suffering for them.
The conversation with Suleiman and his interest in meeting Alimi not only implied the Real but also brought me to question how the Real is forged. Does only the Real emerge during the formation of religious subjectivity, or are there hands that interfere with the Real and make its existence possible? Lamentation singers contribute to the emergence of the Real. The singers, cornerstones of every azadari, are known as maddah (panegyric), or traditionally as rowze-khan or nouhe-khan. They have become celebrities of the Karbala paradigm, so much so that clergy have begun to despise them. Fisher (1980) highlights this tension differently. He suggested the senior clergy frowned on emotionally induced religiosity and stressed orations and sermons. However, the situation has changed, and nowadays clergy use the emotional encouragement of rowzeh, which has created rivalry between them and lamentation singers. Until a decade ago, people would seek a majlis where the most eloquent, articulate, and famous clergy would offer his sermons. Nowadays, the name of a maddah is printed in large font on flyers and banners. Most people would say that they attend a majlis of this or that well-known maddah whenever I asked about their Muharram plans. I rarely heard anyone mention the name of a clergy as the reason they attend a majlis. A maddah initiates the covenant of sorrow and translates the tale of Karbala into language and performance. Language and performance come together to conjure the platform for the ineffable experience.
Younes Saramifar, PhD, is a lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and an Einstein junior research fellow at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He is involved with teaching and finishing his second book while trying to survive combat zones of Iraq and Syria. His research focuses on war memories, combat resilience, and militancy in West Asia.
This course offers a broad survey of contemporary Shi'i beliefs, practices, and politics with a focus on Twelver or Imami Shi'ism. Through a close examination of ethnographies, intellectual and political histories, theological writings, and more we will investigate the themes which define the politics and cultural practices of contemporary Shi'ism. In particular, we will highlight the ways in which Shi'is utilize their theological beliefs to negotiate and respond to the socio-political context of the times in which they live. The course begins by examining the early days of what would later be called "Shi'ism." We then examine the key theological concepts which distinguish Shi'ism from Sunnism, including themes of adalat (divine justice), shahadat (martyrdom), the Karbala paradigm, and the role of the imamate and clerical class. The rest of course is devoted to investigating the ways that Shi'ism informs and interacts with the social realm and vice versa, ranging from negotiations of the everyday to responding to moments of great civil and society unrest and to that which is called "sectarianism". Travelling from South Asia to the Middle East, from Africa to America, we will ultimately examine how Shi'i beliefs and identity act as a dynamic force for shaping the worlds in which they live today.
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The main ceremonies on Ashura, the tenth of Muharram, consist of public expressions of mourning and reaffirmation of a pledge to the principles exemplified by Imam Hussain (AS) and his companions against the corrupt Umayyad ruler of the time, Yazid.
One of the most common manifestations of this mourning is the ta'ziyeh. This term denotes expressions of "sympathy," "mourning," and "consolation," and can be understood as an Islamic drama that, through performances, poetic recitations, and songs, recounts the greatest tragedy of all times.
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