The Islamic Drama (Special Issue of Journal of Israel Affairs)

173 Pages·2004·3.84 MB·English

by  Jamsh Malekpour

The Islamic Drama

The Islamic Drama

Jamshid Malekpour

FRANK CASS
LONDON • PORTLAND, OR.
First published in 2004 in Great Britain by
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

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Copyright © 2004 Jamshid Malekpour
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Malekpour, Jamshid
The Islamic drama
1. Taziyah 2. Theater—Iran
I. Title
792.1′6′0955
ISBN 0-203-50426-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-58441-4 (Adobe e-Reader Format)
ISBN 0-7146-5565-1 (Print Edition)
ISBN 0-7146-8446-5 (Print Edition)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Malik’pur, Jamshid.
The Islamic drama = Ta’ziyah/Jamshid Malekpour.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical reference (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-7146-5565-1—ISBN 0-7146-8446-5 (pbk.)
1. Ta’ziyah—History and criticism. 2. Persian drama—History and criticism.
3. Drama—Iran—History and criticism. 4. Islamic drama—Iran—History
and criticism. I. Title. Ta’ziyah. II. Title.
PK6422.M297 2003
891′.5520516–dc21 2003055201
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher of this book.
Contents

Foreword by Don Rubin vi
Acknowledgements ix
List of Illustrations x

Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Iran, the Birthplace of the Ta’ziyeh 5
Chapter 2 Islam and the Ta’ziyeh 16
Chapter 3 The Origin and Development of the Ta’ziyeh 25
Chapter 4 Ta’ziyeh Plays 57
Chapter 5 The Ta’ziyeh in Performance 78
Chapter 6 The Ta’ziyeh in the Islamic World 121
Chapter 7 The Ta’ziyeh Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 126

Appendix: Collections of the Ta’ziyeh 130
Glossary 138
Bibliography 140
Index 144
Foreword
IS THERE SUCH a thing as Islamic drama?
Is it proscribed by the Qur′an?
These questions come up again and again in international theatrical discourse. They
certainly came up often in my work on the World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre
project. Now, at long last, precise and profound answers are available thanks to the
impressive research offered by Iranian scholar Jamshid Malekpour in his important new
scholarly volume The Islamic Drama.
The answer to those old questions, of course, is ‘yes, there is an Islamic drama’, and
Professor Malekpour argues that it is called Ta′ziyeh. ‘A ritualistic form of theatre’ akin
to early Greek drama but more closely related to the medieval European drama or even
the spectacular communal elements of the 2,500-year-old Abydos Passion Play of Egypt
with its public reenactment of the death and resurrection of Osiris, Ta′ziyeh requires
elements of both participation and belief for its theatrical realization. In such events, the
secular and the ritualistic merge in a dramaturgically rich imaginative.
Originally performed in inn-yards of caravan stops (caravanserai), Ta′ziyeh is
identified not just as Islamic but more specifically as a Shi′a form of Islamic ritual. The
second largest branch of Islam, Shi′a is Iran’s official religion and today, as Professor
Malekpour tells us, some 70 million Iranians practise it. Yet even among the Sh′ia, Ta′
ziyeh is not so frequently seen, meaning that Professor Malekpour’s research is special
indeed.
When Ta′ziyeh is done, it is always during the month of Muharram, the first month of
the Islamic calendar and the month of mourning for every Shi′a Muslim. The exact date
changes from year to year. The subject matter of Ta′ziyeh is always connected to one
particular event in the history of the Shi′a: the death of the venerated Hussein, the son of
Muhammad, on the plains of Karbala in AD 680. In its most traditional form—dating
back to the tenth century—Imam Hussein is the historical protagonist and the tragic
events of his death are ritually reenacted.
The basic structure of Ta′ziyeh was more or less fully evolved by the late eighteenth
century, but that has not stopped writers since from using the form—particularly in the
last hundred years or so—in a variety of new ways while managing to maintain the root
story and its call to grieve and to believe. In this rich study, Professor Malekpour
examines not only the classical Ta′ziyeh texts but some very modern Ta′ziyeh as well.
The reader is even provided with a list of the many texts available and where they can be
found. It is interesting to note in this regard that the repository of one of the largest
collections of Ta′ziyeh texts is the Vatican library in Rome.
WHAT DOES TA′ZIYEH LOOK LIKE FROM A THEATRICAL
STANDPOINT?
As Professor Malekpour explains, Ta′ziyeh is part ritual, part history, part poetic
recitation, part storytelling, part music and part song. And because there are clear
elements of improvization within the structure, Ta′ziyeh offers room for political and
religious interpretation. It is this element particularly which has caused Ta′ziyeh political
trouble. Ta′ziyeh performances, we learn, eventually found themselves under such
secular pressures that organizers eventually moved them away from the large cities
almost entirely both to protect practitioners and to avoid further controversy. Yet it
remained alive in those smaller communities and, since 1979, has gradually been allowed
to re-emerge in other parts of Iran.
The stated purpose of Ta′ziyeh, we are told here, is ‘to make the audience emotionally
involved so that they empathize totally with the martyrs’. Clearly, participation in Ta′
ziyeh is much more an act of religious faith than it is theatrical exhibition. But it is a real
part of the performative spectrum and the whole community is called upon to participate,
to enact its personages and its emotions.
Because it is rooted in mourning ritual, those involved wear black and must maintain a
skilled level of ritual suffering. Flags and banners are waved by the community at
appropriate moments in the scenario and, as in the Greek drama, all the central roles—
even those of women —are played by men. Music is another significant part of the event
as are choral laments, structured eulogies, and communal recitations. Ta′ziyeh also
involves large communal processions, the carrying of coffins and banners. Originally
only in verse, Ta′ziyeh, especially in its early manifestations, even included masks and
puppets.
Ta′ziyeh is obviously an event that requires some size and, although it has been
performed indoors, it seems at its most comfortable in the open air, where its battle
scenes can and have involved as many as 4,000 people. I suppose the closest Western
equivalent might well be the Oberammergau Passion Play—still seen every ten years in
Germany—which maintained itself as both an important religious and theatrical event for
several hundred years while also going through a variety of textual interpretations.
Professor Malekpour traces Ta′ziyeh’s roots even further back in time than the
Oberammergau stagings—to Zoroastrianism and to Mithraism in its development as part
of early Shi′a Islam. In doing so, he pays special attention to the form’s essential dramatic
conflict between the Olya and the Ashghya, that is, between the believers and the non-
believers, the good and the bad, the faithful and the pagans.
Without doubt, a scholarly study of this importance to an understanding of Islamic
drama is long overdue, and Professor Malekpour effectively positions Ta′ziyeh within a
lively discourse of religiously rooted theatre and ritual. He is obviously determined to get
theatrical respect for the form, and I believe he achieves his goal brilliantly.
Director Peter Brook is quoted in this book as saying that, for him, theatre must be ‘a
mirror of the invisible’. When Brook first encountered Ta′ziyeh in Iran he felt that it was
precisely that ‘mirror of the invisible’ for its community. Obviously this book will not
lead to a rash of Ta′ziyeh productions around the world, nor should it, but it will, like a
UNESCO heritage designation, help ensure that Ta′ziyeh will be more appreciatively
seen, understood and, it is to be hoped, kept alive for generations to come.
On behalf of the world of theatrical scholarship, I must say how very grateful we all
must be to Professor Malekpour for this timely and important book.
Don Rubin
Editor, World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my editor Sian Mills for her care and expertise. My thanks also go
to Dr Ali Montazeri, former head of the Dramatic Arts Centre of Iran, for his support,
friendship and encouragement.