Peter J. Chelkowski, editor of Ta’ziyeh: Ritual and Drama
in Iran (New York: New York University Press, 1979),
provides invaluable insight into both the content and
import of Karbala Passion plays, while Staging a Re
Volution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of
Iran, by Chelkowski and Hamid Dabashi (New York:
New York University Press, 1999), is a superb visual
survey and analysis of the collective symbols used in the
Iranian Re Volution and the subsequent war with Iraq.
David Pinault provides on-the-ground understanding
of the emotive and theological power of the Karbala
story in The Shiites: Ritual and Popular Piety in a Muslim
Community (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992) and in
Horse of Karbala: Muslim Devotional Life in India (New
York: Palgrave, 2001).
Kamran Scot Aghaie’s detailed work on Shia
symbolism and ritual can be found in The Martyrs of
Karbala: Shi’i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 2004) and The Women
of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in
Modern Shi’i Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press,
2005).
Aisha
Nabia Abbott’s Aishah: The Beloved of Muhammad
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942) is the
classic biography in English, drawing on the earliest