Rāwz̤ah-Khvānī

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RĀWZ̤AH-KHVĀNĪ

RĀWZ̤AH-KHVĀNĪ is the Persian ritual of public lamentation over the suffering of Imam usayn and other Shīʿī martyrs. Together with the taʿziyah (passion play) and the Muarrm mourning procession, known in Iran as dastah, it forms a part of the trilogy of the mourning observances that determines the basic popular ritual orientation in Shīʿī Islam. Similar rituals are known by different names in other countries with Shīʿī populations.

The recitation and chanting of eulogies for the Shīʿī martyrs, which has flourished in the Muslim world during the last thirteen centuries, produced a literary genre known as maqtal (pl., maqātil ). It was precisely at the beginning of the Safavid period (1501), when Shīʿī Islam became the state religion of Persia, that the major Persian maqtal masterpiece was composed. This was the work of usayn Vāʿi Kāshifī, titled in Arabic Rawat al-shuhadāʾ (The Garden of the Martyrs), from which rāwz̤ah-khvānī takes its name: The second word of the Arabic title was replaced with the Persian khvāni ("chanting" or "recitation") to yield rāwz̤ah-khvānī, or "garden recitation."

The public lamentation of rāwz̤ah-khvānī is performed most often during the first two months of the Muslim calendar, Muarrm and afar, in commemoration of the murder of Imam usayn on the tenth of Muarrm in ah 61/680 ce. As the son of ʿAli and the grandson of the prophet Muammad, usayn was the third imam of the Shīʿah, who consider his death at the hands of the caliph's troops the treacherous murder of the just and rightful ruler at the hands of an evil usurper. Mourning for usayn thus combines grief over his death with a strong condemnation of tyranny and injustice.

All classes of society participate in the rāwz̤ah-khvānī s (popularly called rawz̤ah s), which can be held in black tents set up for the occasion in the public square of a town or village, in mosques, or in the courtyards of private houses. During the late eighteenth and the nineteenth century, special edifices known as usaynīyah s or takīyah s were also built for the performance, often by official patrons. Richly decorated and carpeted, they displayed black standards and flags, as well as a variety of weapons intended to recall the Battle of Karbala.

The rawz̤ah usually begins with the performance of a mādda ("panegyrist") reciting and singing in praise of the Prophet and the saints. He is followed by the rawz̤ah khvān (also known as a vāʿi, "preacher"), who offers storytelling and songs about usayn and the other martyrs. His rapid chanting in a high-pitched voice alternates with sobbing and crying to arouse the audience to intense emotion. The rāwz̤ah-khvānī ends with congregational singing of dirges called nawah s. The performances last anywhere from several hours to an entire day and well into the night, and the emotional atmosphere that is generated can result in weeping, breast-beating, and body flagellation, as in the Muarrm parades. Through the choice of episodes and the modulation of their voices, a succession of chanters are able to excite and manipulate the emotions of their audiences so that they identify with the suffering of the martyrs, who will serve in turn as their intercessors on the Day of Judgment. At the same time, the rawz̤ah khvān s frequently make digressions into contemporary political, moral, and social issues, creating the kind of social and religious climate that is ripe for political action. There is no doubt that the religious symbolism of the just Imam usayn, martyred at the hands of a tyrannical ruler, played a major role in the Iranian Revolution of 19781979.

Outside of Iran, it is only in Bahrein that public lamentations for usayn and other Shīʿī martyrs follow the Persian model of rāwz̤ah-khvānī. The Shīʿah of India, Pakistan, Iraq, and Lebanon, along with smaller Shīʿī communities in Turkey and the Caucasus, observe the mourning months of Muarrm and afar according to various local traditions, although the intensity of the feelings is the same.

See Also

ʿshūrāʾ; Taʿziyah.

Bibliography

Mahmoud Ayoub's Redemptive Suffering in Islam (The Hague, 1978) is an important discussion of the philosophical concept of redemption. For discussions of rituals, see my Taʾziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran (New York, 1979); B. K. Roy Burman's Moharram in Two Cities: Lucknow and Delhi (New Delhi, 1966); G. E. von Grunebaum's Muhammadan Festivals (New York and London, 1958); and Gustav Thaiss's "Religious Symbolism and Social Change: The Drama of Husain," in Scholars, Saints and Sufis, edited by Nikki R. Keddie (Berkeley, Calif., 1972).

Peter Chelkowski (1987)