I am usual skeptical when a professor assigns their own book for a course. I have heard too many stories of academic egotism, of professors who only teach their own viewpoint. But in this case, I was pleased. Pinault, my Islam professor this quarter, wrote this book two decades ago as both an introduction to Shi'a Islam and some of its folk rituals as he observed them in Hyderabad, India in the late '80s.
Shia Islam emerged within a few decades after the death of Muhammad. Originally the split concerned disputes over who should succeed the Prophet as the guide of the Ummah, the Islamic community. However, these disputes have given the Shiites a distinctive theological outlook and unique rituals that most Sunni Muslims would condemn as bizarre or even idolatrous.
Pinault focuses on the rituals of matam that take place during Muharram every year. Muharram is a time of remembrance for Shiiite Muslims, remembrance of the death of Husayn (Ali's son) at Karbala in 680. Husayn, they believe, was the rightful guide of the ummah after Ali's death, but Husayn was killed by the man Sunnis believe was the rightful caliph. Shi'a Muslims view this death as a martyrdom, and use Muharram as a time to reenact that martyrdom and demonstrate their devotion to both Husayn and the family of Muhammad in general.
I won't post photos of the rituals. To an outsider they are gruesome. Some are calm, such as women and older men chanting devotional songs while beating their chests in sorrow and simulation of martyrdom. The more extreme practices involve flailing oneself with razors or sharp metal attached to a chain. Blood flies everywhere. These extreme practices are mostly performed by young men, who sometimes get so carried away in an ecstasy of religious passion (and, I suspect, adrenaline) that friends must stop them and carry them to the medical stations set up to cure devotee's self-inflicted wounds.
As gruesome as it sounds, this intense practice is deeply meaningful for the Shiites who practice it. It is a way to bring the present into the past, to relive the battle at Karbala and symbolically fight in that battle for the honor of Husayn and the family of the prophet. While it is gruesome, I remind myself that flailing and other forms of self-inflicted bloodshed have not been without parallel in Christianity. Indeed, it can be nice to remind ourselves at times that a standard term for the Eucharist, the "blood of Christ," should be disturbing. We forget it is because we hear it every week.
Pinault's researches focus on the mens' guilds in Hyderabad who put on the performance-cum-devotional rituals every year at Muharram. These guilds engage in friend;y competition over whose music and physical performance will be the best. Even Hindus sometimes join in (Hindus have a way of taking on religious holidays). He also interviews participants to better understand why they engage in these practices and how different members of the Shi'a community in Hyderabad feel about them. He finds, for example, that some dislike the rituals because the young men in them do not attend to the sermons and religious teaching offered during Muharram. He also examines these rituals in relation to interreligious relations and political events in Hyderabad. Most important, these Shiites want to remain apolitical, focusing on Allah and Husayn alone. They emphasize that these rituals do not make them warlike in the present, only defending the honor of their past hero-saint.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Pinault is a great writer who vividly brings to life the rituals he witnessed.
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