Friday, January 7, 2011: 9:30 AM
Room 204 (Hynes Convention Center)
Among Twelve-imam Shi‘i scholars of medieval and early modern Islam, ritual cursing of the first three caliphs and some of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions was regarded variously as a religious duty or a noble deed to be performed in prayer. In Shi‘i popular culture, the people practiced the ritual publicly. When the Safavids seized power in Iran in 1501 and imposed Twelve-imam Shi‘ism as the faith of the realm, they appropriated the practice in the service of the “state,” compelling their subjects to publicly curse the first three caliphs – or face death. Both the royal court and the emerging Shi‘i religious establishment understood that in a largely oral society controlling the medium meant controlling the message, and therefore society itself.
I argue that the demand for public cursing by Safavid rulers Isma‘il I (1501-1524) and Tahmasp (1524-1576) was more than a coercive act. It was also a strategy to draw people into public acceptance of the state’s centralizing ideology of Twelve-imam Shi‘ism. Moreover, in a society where public ritual practices were already established, the ritual of public cursing served the performative interests of the people for whom it became more than an act of compliance. The shahs’ recognition that public ritual could connect people with their vision of Twelve-imam Islamic leadership converged with the people’s selective acceptance of that vision through their own experience.
By privileging the concept of the public, I place emphasis on the “street”, rather than on the court. By focusing on the performative aspect of the cursing ritual, I stress the dramaturgical value of Shi‘i ritual and public assembly in fostering a collective identity among the people of Iranian cities in the first three quarters of a century of Safavid rule (1501-1722).
I argue that the demand for public cursing by Safavid rulers Isma‘il I (1501-1524) and Tahmasp (1524-1576) was more than a coercive act. It was also a strategy to draw people into public acceptance of the state’s centralizing ideology of Twelve-imam Shi‘ism. Moreover, in a society where public ritual practices were already established, the ritual of public cursing served the performative interests of the people for whom it became more than an act of compliance. The shahs’ recognition that public ritual could connect people with their vision of Twelve-imam Islamic leadership converged with the people’s selective acceptance of that vision through their own experience.
By privileging the concept of the public, I place emphasis on the “street”, rather than on the court. By focusing on the performative aspect of the cursing ritual, I stress the dramaturgical value of Shi‘i ritual and public assembly in fostering a collective identity among the people of Iranian cities in the first three quarters of a century of Safavid rule (1501-1722).
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