Gender, Sainthood, and Everyday Practice in South Asian Shi’ism

4 A BRIDE OF ONE NIGHT, A WIDOW FOREVER: Text & Ritual Performance in the Constitution of an Idealized South Asian Shi'i Selfhood

chapter four A Bride of One Night, a Widow Forever TEXT & RITUAL PERFORMANCE IN THE CONSTITUTION OF AN IDEALIZED SOUTH ASIAN SHIʿI SELFHOOD Marriage is my sunnah. He who does not follow my sunnah does not follow me. —Prophet Muhammad In the Yaqutpura neighborhood in Hyderabad’s Old City, Dr. M. M. Taqui Khan’s family has been hosting the mehndī mourning assembly for nearly sixty years.1 In the early 1950s, this area was comparatively sparsely populated . The members of the Khan family had relocated from their residence on the banks of the Musi River to their current location near Nawab Shawkat Jang’s palace. One year, Khan’s grandmother remarked, “We have such a big house and this open space. Why don’t we host the seventh of Muharram majlis here?”2 Around 1955, the Khan family began sponsoring an annual mehndī mourning assembly. The family’s first ʿāshūrkhāna was a simple structure built of canvas tents and bamboo screens; the members of the Khan family subsequently replaced this modest structure with a permanent ʿāshūrkhāna located in the spacious courtyard behind their large house, which sits on Yaqutpura’s main road. Every 7 Muharram around one o’clock in the afternoon, more than one thousand men and boys flock to the Khan family ʿāshūrkhāna for the men’s mehndī mourning assembly. Thousands of other men participate while standing in the street outside. Inside the ʿāshūrkhāna, the blaring of horns, the buzz of traffic, and the shouts of vendors and children are diminished. Stately palm trees (nakhl), symbolic of Imam Husain and the youths of Karbala, wave in the breeze, their fronds rustling in accompaniment to the chanting of marṡiya and nauḥa poems.3 The present ʿāshūrkhāna features a large hall where the ʿalams (metal 122 | A BRIDE OF ONE NIGHT, A WIDOW FOREVER battle standards symbolizing various members of the ahl-e bait) are displayed during Muharram and where the action of the majlis takes place: mourning poetry is recited, the majlis orator (ẕākir) narrates the events of Karbala, and devotees slap their chests in time to the chanted poems. Behind the main hall, several rooms are curtained off, enabling women to observe purdah yet still participate in the men’s (mardāne) mourning assembly.When the ʿalam is brought out for procession, a certain degree of relaxation of the purdah regulations occurs, and women stand in doorways or move the curtains to better observe the activities of the men’s majlis. I first met Khan during Muharram in 2005. A retired chemistry professor at Osmania University, Khan has also been a ẕākir (majlis orator) for several decades. Such mixing of careers is not unusual in the Hyderabadi Shiʿi community, where both men and women with doctorates in various fields (including the sciences, Urdu literature, geography, and Persian history) have pursued careers as professors, lawyers, and scientists while becoming acclaimed ẕākirs and ẕākirahs, speaking at countless assemblies during the mourning period, which lasts two months and eight days (known in Urdu as ayyām-e ʿazā [the days of mourning]), from 1 Muharram to 8 Rabiʿ al-Awwal. Khan enthusiastically responded to my inquiries about the Hyderabadi observance of Fatimah Kubra and Qasem’s wedding, and he invited me to come to his house to observe his family’s preparations for the mehndī mourning assembly to be held later in the day. Preparations for the afternoon mourning assemblies were well under way by late morning, with a steady stream of devotees coming to “visit” (ziyārat) the ʿalams installed along the center of the ʿāshūrkhāna’s back wall.4 The central and largest ʿalam is dedicated to Qasem (fig. 4). Tied to the pole supporting the ʿalam is a red cloth (ḍhaṫṫī), over which multiple garlands of roses and jasmine have been placed. In front of the ʿalam, a silver tray sits on the ground—devotees will leave offerings of fruit, which others will subsequently take as blessed food (tabarruk). Devotees light incense, and its smoke rises and mingles with the heady sweetness of the jasmine and rose garlands.The smell of the smoke is pleasing , bringing to mind the purity of the ahl-e bait. Men, women, and children approach the ʿalam, making their offerings and lighting incense; they bend and kiss the ʿalam as a sign of their respect for the ahl-e bait. Each person cups the grace (baraka...