Karen G. Ruffle
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834756
- eISBN:
- 9781469602981
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877975_ruffle
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This study of devotional hagiographical texts and contemporary ritual performances of the Shi'a of Hyderabad, India demonstrates how traditions of sainthood and localized cultural values shape gender ...
More
This study of devotional hagiographical texts and contemporary ritual performances of the Shi'a of Hyderabad, India demonstrates how traditions of sainthood and localized cultural values shape gender roles. The author focuses on the annual mourning assemblies held on 7 Muharram to commemorate the battlefield wedding of Fatimah Kubra and her warrior-bridegroom Qasem, who was martyred in 680 ce at the battle of Karbala, Iraq, before their marriage was consummated. She argues that hagiography, an important textual tradition in Islam, plays a dynamic role in constructing the memory, piety, and social sensibilities of a Shi'i community. Through the Hyderabadi rituals that idealize and venerate Qasem, Fatimah Kubra, and the other heroes of Karbala, a distinct form of sainthood is produced. These saints, the author explains, serve as socioethical role models and religious paragons whom Shi'i Muslims aim to imitate in their everyday lives, improving their personal religious practice and social selves. On a broader community level, the author observes, such practices help generate and reinforce group identity, shared ethics, and gendered sensibilities. By putting gender and everyday practice at the center of her study, the author challenges Shi'i patriarchal narratives that present only men as saints and brings to light typically overlooked women's religious practices.Less
This study of devotional hagiographical texts and contemporary ritual performances of the Shi'a of Hyderabad, India demonstrates how traditions of sainthood and localized cultural values shape gender roles. The author focuses on the annual mourning assemblies held on 7 Muharram to commemorate the battlefield wedding of Fatimah Kubra and her warrior-bridegroom Qasem, who was martyred in 680 ce at the battle of Karbala, Iraq, before their marriage was consummated. She argues that hagiography, an important textual tradition in Islam, plays a dynamic role in constructing the memory, piety, and social sensibilities of a Shi'i community. Through the Hyderabadi rituals that idealize and venerate Qasem, Fatimah Kubra, and the other heroes of Karbala, a distinct form of sainthood is produced. These saints, the author explains, serve as socioethical role models and religious paragons whom Shi'i Muslims aim to imitate in their everyday lives, improving their personal religious practice and social selves. On a broader community level, the author observes, such practices help generate and reinforce group identity, shared ethics, and gendered sensibilities. By putting gender and everyday practice at the center of her study, the author challenges Shi'i patriarchal narratives that present only men as saints and brings to light typically overlooked women's religious practices.
Karen G. Ruffle
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834756
- eISBN:
- 9781469602981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877975_ruffle.5
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This book is a multidisciplinary ethnographic study of how hagiographical texts and performance commemorating the Battle of Karbala shape both spiritual and everyday life and practice in an Indian ...
More
This book is a multidisciplinary ethnographic study of how hagiographical texts and performance commemorating the Battle of Karbala shape both spiritual and everyday life and practice in an Indian Shi'i community. Devotional texts and ritual performances are integrally entwined, producing the desired effects of grief. More important, these performances also dynamically embody the social, ethical, and religious powers of the heroes of Karbala, transforming them into imitable exemplars. The hagiographical texts and ritual performance of the mourning assembly are forms of moral communication in which the imagination of Karbala and the family of Imam Husain generates shared sensibilities and an ethical worldview that orders the life of South Asian Shi'a. Both poetry and prose commemorating the sacrifice of Imam Husain and his family at the Battle of Karbala hold central places in the spiritual and everyday lives of the Shi'a in India and throughout the Islamic world.Less
This book is a multidisciplinary ethnographic study of how hagiographical texts and performance commemorating the Battle of Karbala shape both spiritual and everyday life and practice in an Indian Shi'i community. Devotional texts and ritual performances are integrally entwined, producing the desired effects of grief. More important, these performances also dynamically embody the social, ethical, and religious powers of the heroes of Karbala, transforming them into imitable exemplars. The hagiographical texts and ritual performance of the mourning assembly are forms of moral communication in which the imagination of Karbala and the family of Imam Husain generates shared sensibilities and an ethical worldview that orders the life of South Asian Shi'a. Both poetry and prose commemorating the sacrifice of Imam Husain and his family at the Battle of Karbala hold central places in the spiritual and everyday lives of the Shi'a in India and throughout the Islamic world.
