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chapter one Saints Are “Real” People IMITABLE SAINTHOOD IN SHIʿISM Live like ʿAli, Die like Husain. Each month, the Shiʿi students’ association at Osmania University sponsors a mourning assembly (majlis-e ʿazā) to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Husain, his family members, and his supporters at the Battle of Karbala in 680 C.E. Each month a different majlis orator (ẕākir) is invited to deliver the discourse; in early June 2005, Dr. M. M.Taqui Khan spoke. A retired professor of chemistry at the university and a popular majlis orator, Khan sat in the mourning assembly and listened to the invocatory poems (salām and marṡiya) commemorating the wedding and martyrdom of Qasem before deciding that it was more appropriate to speak on this topic rather than the one he had prepared. Discoursing on Qasem’s martyrdom is a familiar subject for Khan. For decades, his family has hosted one of Hyderabad’s most popular 7 Muharram mourning assemblies dedicated to Qasem. Qasem and Fatimah Kubra’s battlefield wedding is observed with special vigor in South Asia. Although the events of 7 Muharram are some of the most popular in the Karbala cycle, not all Shiʿa recognize the historical veracity of Qasem’s battlefield wedding (see chapter 5). Throughout the Old City, where the majority of Hyderabad’s approximately two hundred thousand Shiʿa live, numerous mourning assemblies, both small and large, take place, representing Qasem and Fatimah Kubra’s wedding and sacrifice for faith and family in a special mehndī ritual.This event is one of the most popular in the Hyderabadi Shiʿi ritual cycle, in which vernacular social ideals, particularly the emphasis on the central role of marriage and the family, are fully integrated into the cosmopolitan drama of Karbala. For the Shiʿa of Hyderabad, this battlefield wedding invokes feelings of grief both for the 24 | SAINTS ARE “REAL” PEOPLE martyrdom of the thirteen-year-old bridegroom/warrior and for the plight of his bride, who, according to hagiographical tradition, became a widow after one night of unconsummated marriage. At the same time, the mourning assembly involves a deep sense of play, for in spite of this event’s tragic pathos, the frenzied struggle of male and female devotees to obtain a smear of henna as a means of making a good marriage alliance reflects the community ’s life-affirming optimism—an affirmation of the power of the ḥusaini ethic embodied by imitable saints such as Fatimah Kubra and Qasem. The Shiʿa of Hyderabad believe that the family of Imam Husain suffered and that modern Shiʿa must remember the events of Karbala to celebrate the joyful moments of life: marriage, pregnancy, and the birth of children. Khan believed that his decision to change the topic of his discourse was fortuitous, perhaps proof of Qasem’s powerful and positive role in the chemist’s personal spiritual life. Spontaneously changing the subject of his discourse was not a problem for Khan: a good ẕākir is expected to be an astute reader of his audience and must be able to draw from an expansive repertoire of topics to connect with his listeners. People typically go from one mourning assembly to the next during the days of mourning (ayyām-e ʿazā), which stretch over two months and eight days, from 1 Muharram until 8 Rabiʿ al-Awwal, and expect to hear something different at each majlis. Delivering the hagiographical account of the sufferings (maṣāʾib) of Qasem and Fatimah Kubra presented Khan with an opportunity to present a somewhat different perspective on their sacrifice. Rather than focus his discourse on Qasem’s battlefield heroics and martyrdom, Khan spoke almost exclusively about Fatimah Kubra’s embodiment of the ḥusaini ethic based on her willingness to sacrifice herself and her husband for the preservation of Islam. During the preceding couple of months, I had been meeting with Khan at his house in the Yaqutpura neighborhood of Hyderabad’s Old City, where we spent much time discussing points of Shiʿi theology, issues of gender in Islamic tradition, and Fatimah Kubra and Qasem. Our conversations were usually wide-ranging and intellectually stimulating; on many occasions, our discussions of Fatimah Kubra and Qasem became an inquiry into what Khan clearly saw as a feminist impulse within the Shiʿi tradition. In his discourse for the Shiʿi students’ association, Khan drew the majlis participants into Fatimah Kubra’s world, commenting on her embodiment of the ḥusaini ethic...

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