Time Out of Memory: Ta'ziyeh, the Total Drama

Abstract

This collection of articles traces ta'ziyeh from its origins in Karbala in Iraq through its development as a serious dramatic form in Iran; its adaptation in Lebanon, India, and the Caribbean; and its debut on Western stages, culminating in a 2002 performance at Lincoln Center in New York City and a historic symposium at the Asia Society, where this issue got its start. Karbala and the relationship between Shiite and Sunnite Muslims, the origins of which are represented in the plays and rituals that commemorate the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein, have become major preoccupations of the Western media since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. An examination of ta ziyeh reveals many of the historical, cultural, religious, and political paradigms that have made Karbala the touchstone for Shiite Muslims everywhere.

The dramatic form known as the passion play is often associated exclusively with Western, and specifically, Christian theatrical tradition. However, one of the most highly developed and powerful examples of this genre is, in fact, the ta'ziyeh—the passion play of the Shiite Muslims performed in Iran, and recently adapted in South Lebanon—which recounts the tragedy of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. It is the only serious drama ever developed in the Islamic world, except for contemporary theatre, which was introduced into Islamic countries along with other Western influences in the mid-19th century. In an extraordinary development, the Lincoln Center Summer Festival 2002 included three ta'ziyehs, performed in July by Iran's foremost actors. The production was staged for only the third time in a Western country, after receiving critical acclaim and playing to packed houses in Avignon and Paris in France, and in Parma, Italy. It was later staged again in Italy in July 2003 in an innovative, interactive format that mixed videos of a ta'ziyeh audience in Iran with a live performance in an abandoned factory in Rome. The famous film director, Abbas Kiarostami, arranged this spectacle.

The tragedy reenacts the death of Hussein and his male children and companions in a brutal massacre on the plain of Karbala (about 60 miles south/southwest of modern day Baghdad), in the year 680 C.E., year 61 of the Muslim calendar. Hussein's murder was the outcome of a protracted power struggle for control of the nascent Muslim community following the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Two factions arose with competing views on the process for determining the new head of the community, or caliph. The Sunnites believed that the caliph should be elected according to ancient Arabian tribal tradition, while the Shiites advocated for the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad—through his daughter Fatemeh Zahra—called Imams, who they claimed possessed a divine right to authority in both spiritual and temporal matters. Hussein became the head of the Shiites after religio-political opponents assassinated his father and elder brother. His refusal to swear allegiance to Yazid, the Sunnite caliph in Damascus, made it necessary for Hussein to leave Medina and seek refuge in Mecca. Eventually with his family and a group of supporters, he set out for Kufa, a city in southern Iraq where he had numerous partisans.

On the journey to Kufa, Hussein and his party were ambushed by Yazid's troops and forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the Sunnite leader as the price of their freedom. Tradition has it that this took place on the first day of the month of Muharram. For ten days, Hussein's company was cut off from water in the scorching desert of Karbala and subjected to physical and psychological pressure. Despite the knowledge that his supporters in Kufa had abandoned him after being terrorized by Yazid's army, Hussein refused to take the oath. On the 10th day, known as Ashura, after an intense battle, all the male members but Hussein's 22-year-old son, Zain'l Abedin, who was ill and being nursed by the women in their tents, were savagely killed. Their heads were cut off and taken as trophies to...