Islam. 121was able to insist, the ulama should concentrate on fiqh. Majlisi
introduced into Iranian Shiism a distrust of mysticism and
philosophy that is still prevalent today.
To replace the old Sufi devotions, such as the communal
dhikr and the cult of Sufi saints, Majlisi promoted the mourn-
ing rituals in honour of Husain, the martyr of Kerbala, to
teach the populace the values and piety of the Shiah. There
were elaborate processions, and highly emotional dirges were
sung, while the people wailed and cried aloud. These rites
became a major Iranian institution. During the eighteenth
century the taziyeh, a passion play depicting the Kerbala
tragedy, was developed, in which the people were not passive
spectators, but provided the emotional response, weeping and
beating their breasts, and joining their own sorrows to the suf-
fering of Imam Husain. The rituals provided an important
safety valve. As they moaned, slapped their foreheads and
wept uncontrollably, the audience aroused in themselves that
yearning for justice which is at the heart of Shii piety, asking
themselves why the good always seemed to suffer and evil
nearly always prevailed. But Majlisi and the shahs were careful
to suppress the revolutionary potential of these rites. Instead
of protesting against tyranny at home, the people were
taught to inveigh against Sunni Islam. Instead of vowing to
follow Husain in the struggle against injustice, the people
were told to see him as a patron, who could secure their ad-
mission to paradise. The rite was thus neutralized and made
to serve the status quo, and urged the populace to curry
favour with the powerful and look only to their own inter-
ests. It was not until the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 that
the cult would once again become a means for the oppressed
to articulate their grievances against corrupt government.
But some of the ulama remained true to the older Shii tra-
ditions, and their ideas would inspire reformers and revolu-
tionaries right up to the present day, not just in Iran but