Described by Peter J. Chelkowski as “the sole form of serious drama to have developed in the world of Islam,” taʿziyeh is a performance form comprising elegiac, devotional performances in commemoration of the martyrdom of Husain ibn ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (626–680 CE), the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the third Imam of Shii Muslims.1 The revered Imam confronted the much larger army of Caliph Yazid ibn Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan on the desert plain of Karbala—south of modern Baghdad—where Husain and his followers bravely fought and became martyrs in 680 CE. According to tradition, the lamentation rituals for the Karbala martyrs were immediately performed by the Imam’s surviving family and supporters. Though performed differently in various localities today, the mourning rituals, known as Muharram, have developed into major communal events in Iran and other regions with large Shiʿi populations, where members of a village, a local...

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