Nowadays, taEziyah can be performed throughout the
year, but originally it was staged only in the month of
Muh:arram and the following month of S:afar. From the
crossroads and public squares where they were first pres-
ented, taEziyah performances soon moved to caravansaries
and private houses, and then to a special type of theater called
tak ̄ıyah or H:usayn ̄ıyah. Over the next century and a half the-
aters of various sizes and constructions were built, reaching
enormous proportions in the elaborate Tak ̄ıyah Dawlat
(State Theater) built by Na ̄s:ir al-D ̄ın Sha ̄h in the 1870s.
In all these performance areas or playhouses the main
action takes place on a raised circular or square platform
around which the audience is seated on the ground, but the
movement of the actors in and around the audience preserves
the traditional interaction of performers and spectators in the
Muh:arram celebrations. Audience participation is so intense
that men and women weep and mourn as though the histori-
cal scenes before them were taking place in the immediate
present.
The protagonists, dressed predominantly in green, sing
their parts, while the villains, who wear red, speak their lines.
Symbolic stage properties, such as a bowl of water to repre-
sent a river, are improvised according to need, particularly
in the villages, where costumes are few. The director/
producer is omnipresent on the stage as prompter, property
man, and regulator of the actors, musicians, and viewers. Vil-
lagers and townsmen participate when professional actors are
scarce, but troupes of actors travel from place to place, with
men playing the women’s roles. Parts are often passed from
father to son in family groups: acting is a hereditary trade.
The Islamic Revolution of 1978–1979 utilized the
H:usayn paradigm and was carried out in accordance with
the Sh ̄ıE ̄ı calendar. The stationary rituals such as taEziyah and
the rawz
̈
ah-khva ̄n ̄ı served as political rallies at which the as-
sembled people were stimulated by speakers who mixed the
Karbala mourning slogans with political ones. The digres-
sions and the comparisons of the plight of H:usayn with the
contemporary political, moral, and social situation have long
been a tradition at these rituals and can evoke in the audience
a particular social and religious climate which can move the
audience to political action.
TaEziyah reached its peak in Iran in the second half of
the nineteenth century. In the 1960s and 1970s, because of
overt westernization and other social and political factors, the
performances, which had been an urban creation, retreated
to the rural areas. The fate of this original theater form in
the world of Islam is now uncertain. The Sh ̄ıEah of the Cau-
casus (part of Iran until the early nineteenth century) and of
Iraq and southern Lebanon know it on a more limited scale.
Innovative Western theater directors and producers are now
very much interested in the taEziyah as a means of breaking
down the barriers that divide the audience from the actors
in Western theater.
On the Indian subcontinent the name taEziyah is given
to a symbolic miniature reproduction of H:usayn’s tomb as
well as of the tombs of other Sh ̄ıE ̄ı martyrs. These taEziyahs
are not literal facsimiles of any particular tomb but imaginary
recreations. Usually made of bamboo and/or sticks covered
with colorful paper and papier-mâché, these structures re-
semble Indian architecture more than the architecture of
Western Asia, where the original tombs were built. The
taEziyahs are carried in processions (during the months of
Muh:arram and S:afar) and are housed in ima ̄m-ba ̄rahs and
private houses, including those of Sunn ̄ı Muslims. They may
be small enough for two men to carry or immense structures
carried by many people. At the conclusion of the procession
some of the taEziyahs may be buried in a local “Karbala
ground.” Other models, known as z
̈ar ̄ıh:s, are made of dura-
ble material, generally silver, and are not carried in proces-
sions or buried.SEE ALSO EA ̄shu ̄ra ̄D; Ra ̄wz
̈ah-khva ̄n ̄ı.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chelkowski, Peter, ed. Ta!ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran. New
York, 1979.
Pelly, Lewis. The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain (1879). Re-
print, Farnborough, U.K., 1970.
PETER CHELKOWSKI (1987)TEARS have always played important roles as symbols and
signs in religious life around the world, yet they have only
recently begun to attract significant scholarly interest. From
the tears shed in love and longing for the absent Kr:s:n:a by
the gopis (milk maidens) in Brindavin to those shed by ShiEi
Muslims during the annual remembrance of the martyrdom
of al-Husayn; from the tears of compunction of Christian
mystics to “the welcome of tears” of the Tapirapé people of
central Brazil (in which friends literally bathe each other
when meeting), tears are ubiquitous in the world’s religions.
A general overview of tears in the history of religions based
on a general phenomenology of tears enables us to appreciate
many of symbolic associations tears have had in diverse reli-
gious traditions, as well as their many uses in religious rituals.
No attempt is made here to exhaust the diverse examples of
ritualized tears in the history of religions. Instead, what fol-
lows is a brief discussion of some of the central functions
tears, or the acts of weeping, crying, and lamentation, have
served in religious ritual activities, as well as in narrative, pic-
torial, and dramatic representations.
THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL NATURE OF TEARS. Defined in
physical terms, tears are a transparent saline liquid secreted
from the lachrymal ducts around the eyes. The physiological
functions of tears are to keep the cornea moist, wash away
irritants from the eyes, and, with the antibacteriological
agents they contain, fight infection of the eyes. It is not these
physiological functions but rather the symbolic import of
tears, the various meanings that people have attributed to
them, and the diverse ways that tears have been ritualizedTEARS 9023