shia rituals [63a81314]

• Hamdan, Faraj Hattab. “The ‘Ashurā Rituals and Visitation of Al-Arb‘ain,” n.d., 259.

Majlis Al-‘Aza may take the name majlis Husseini because they are held for Al-Hussein as they are called in the Iraqi dialect Majalis Al-Qraya (reading councils), and the person who presents this ritual is called Al-Qari (the reciter or reader).”

• Radood notes, March 24th, 2022 - Shia center for Karabala Studies

  • Interviewee: Radood Muntazir al-Husseini
  • He is 31 years old, started since he was 10
  • Originally from baghda%d

  • Process of Performing

    • Preparation, one has to pick the qasidas
    • One has to do wudu, and be spiritually clean and pure
    • The audience looks to the radood as a holy representative

  • Qualities that distinguish a radood?

    • Age is not a factor (also described by the Karbala Radoods School at Husseinya al Yassine at Mohammad Amin Street (حسينية ال ياسين في شارع محمد الامين))
    • Very important to pick the rhythm and lyrics

  • Lyrical choice depends on the theme of the event

    • There are 8 themes (maqam)

      • alkafeel.net/news/index?id=14391&lang=en

    • Example themes:

      • Saba, ajam, etc
    • Each theme has different branches, which total over 350
  • When Muntazir started, he used qasids from famous ones, before he had poets to write for him

  • There is a sub-industry of the poets and the writers, each of whom support each other

    • Sometimes you ask a poet based on the theme, sometimes a poet sends you ones to perform if you are famous
  • Has given radoods all over the world (Bahrain, Lebanon, Iran, Kuwait,Iraq)
  • Pointed out that when he went to Lebanon, they didn't understand the idioms

  • Radoods typically follow three ways:

    • Start with a slow beat
    • Go with a faster beat
    • End with one like a "pop song" and loud

  • How many radoods are there in Iraq?

    • (jokingly) more radoods than attendees
    • There's no exact number, but Muntazir describes that Iraqis have a sad voice, which is what people often look for in radoods

  • How do you feel about the changes such as the al-shur stuff post 2011?

    • Latmiyas change with time, but the new stuff is going both ways
    • Positive: More accessibility due to digital videos

    • Negative: More people are focusing on the rhythm

      • People like Bassim Karbalei have kept pace with changes
      • People like Mullah Jayyid have preferred to keep the old ways, which has casued him to drop in popularity

  • Why do people focus on rhythms more than lyrics?

    • lyrics are hard to transplant, rhythms are easier

  • Are changes happening at a faster pace?

    • yes, previously radoods were not very good and relied on memorization and were often illiterate
    • new tools have helped develop this, more educated and more academic as time has gone on

  • How do you learn to become a radood?

    • there are scholarly rawdids
    • largely about the structure of the throat

    • main ways

      • young age, realize you have a good voice, and then eventually you carve out a path
      • you can also go learn at one of the many schools
    • apprenticeships, now there are many out there

  • Who funds the radood schools?

    • All radood schools are private

• Radood notes, March 26, 2022 - Shia Center for Karbala Studies

  • Interviewee: Radood Muntazir al-Husseini, who is at the Karbala Center
  • Describes how there is a "comission from wealthy people" to the radood school, which supports all over Iraq
  • Definitely not a waqf, and not associated with the 3ttaba

  • There are radood schools in Baghdad, Karbala, Basra, Nasriya, Kut/Ammara

    • In baghdad, there is a big one in Kathimya and another in Sadr City
    • The Kathimyya one seems to produce more radoods now than the Karbala school

  • alkafeel.net/news/index?id=11772&lang=en

    • seems to describe the radood commission
  • Turkmen radoods as well seem to have their own thing going up in the north, probably worth validating
  • Radood commission is fully private, confirmed by Ali Tekmaji at the international relations part of the Hussein shrine

  • One of the main responsibilities of the commission is to issue licenses and certifications for radoods to perform outside of Iraq

    • Within Iraq, anything goes, anyone can perform at a specific place

• Interview with Ali Tekamji, March 26, 2022 - International Media Office at the Hussein Shrine

  • In Karbala city, during the 3rd of Muharram to the 9th of Muharram
  • Each one has a radood, and the songs are often about the electricity, or the services
  • around ~20 groups, each with 100 people

  • The professor from the shrine has his own mokeb, I was wondering if he has any ones related to that, since he's a native karbali

    • Ask the professor and mustafa again?
  • 2PM shrine has a choir, Hussein shrine is "Mullah Sahib al-Karbalai"
  • The shrine is purchasing land around it, and all the land around it was previously private

• Interview with mokeb administrator - March 27th, 2022

  • There does seem to be a certification process

    • <PICTURE OF THE ID>

• Differences between Lebanon husseinyyas and Iraqi husseinyyas

  • Lebanese ones allow politics but the Iraqi ones don't? Need to validate this claim
• Husseinyas are different than mosques, husseinyas can comprise of a mosque and a place of prayer, but also is a place to rituals and practice, broader in scope

• قصيدة

• some poets compose only for specific Radoods,

  • Bassim Karbalaei, for example, supposedly receives qasidas in the middle of the night and free wheels it in the morning

"As a poetic project, the notion of pilgrimage induces Indonesian Muslims to travel to Ḥ aḍramawt by framing such a journey as a transformative process.”

The iraqi shia also have a deep understanding of this, because they say the spiritual rewards for the pilgrims are high, shifts from being consumers to producers, because crying at a majilis al-aza reflects an re-enactment of a different time, similar to ta'zieh (in farsi) or tashabiya (in arabic)

“Ali Al- Wardi (1913-1995), is one of the main pioneers of Iraqi sociology. In his book Lamahat Ijtimaiyya min Tareekh Al-Iraq Al-Hadith (1971), he focused on the nature of the emergence and structure of modern Iraqi society since the Ottoman era until the end of the twentieth century. Al- Wardi builds an argument to demonstrate that the beating celebration (Majalis Al-Latm) and the processions of Al-Hussein (Al-Mawakib Al-Husseinyya) in Iraq during the nineteenth century onward appeared for the first time in Al- Kadhumya city”

• Most focus on the economy of mourning, and of crying
• What about morning as a political force? Transformation of mourning from mourning the dead and occupying a state into political action, how does this happen?
• Places to take this: in Sadr city? in Karbala city?
• What is my intervention? The bureacratization of muharram has actually made rituals more political, because as they become bureacrtaized and regularized, we see it seep into politics

• Ali al-wardi
• Ibrahim Al-Haydari, (1936- ), an ethnographical scholar, in his social anthropology study Trajidiya Karbala: Susyulujiya Al-Khitab Al-Shi‘i (1999), searches ‘Ashurā mourning in the socio- political dimensions and folklore in Iraq until 1969.
• Robert Ferna - Shaykh and Effendi
• Icon in the Sub culture: A field study in baghdad city

• Safar 15 is I think when people start walking from Najaf? Arbaeen is on the 20th, so this gives 5 days of walking

• www.academia.edu/9348708/Tuwairij_Run_An_Introduction_to_the_Running_Pilgrimage_to_Karbala_Iraq

• Culture of service, everyone feels compelled to do a mowkeb
• Specific mowkebs are known for different things (abu ali's tea, thailand mowkeb, etc)
• Similar to sufi guest lodges, although not funded by waqf, and requires constant maintanence

• making people present

  • twitter.com/jawadabubakar7/status/1570739286873612290?s=12&t=4SEocIV7_UwqzoNz-ydOKQ
  • taking a photo of them with karbala in the background

• Branding and public nature

  • Shia rituals get campy because of a style of iteration and play, because the iteration and public nature engeders a casual one-upping, each iteration begets a more interesting and louder spread
  • Organic spread of differences, why do people create mowkebs? Because they simply want to serve a different fish

  • Dragons at the end of safina, what does this mean?

    • Representing the snakes and the coming of tragedy to hussein
  • Public performance, showing of the azeribajian flag

• Why do people gather in circles during latm?

  • center role in latm circles
  • publization of radats
• August 31st: AAH twitter.com/IraqiQahwa/status/1565018551857160195

• Lots of mock graves for Qassem and Muhandis
• Lots of iranians, and met with some ahwazi arabs too

• Iranians negotiating on price

  • common complaint about iranians
  • after popping a blister, I decided to take a bus for 100 poles, which led to an interesting conversation between me, the bus driver, and two other iraqis
  • complaints about services, and usage, and ideaology, iranian nationalism abounds
• amount of garbage generated
• Do people live on the trail? Seems difficult

• Talking with turkman from the north in a husseiniyya, who seemed very interested in my walking

  • turkman teacher in arabic from the north, impressed by the fact that I went to tel afar
• medical tents and blisters
• language was a common problem, medical tents would often be swarmed with doctors who would claim "faqat arabi"
• lack of checkpoints
• Next year maybe walk from baghdad?

• Interesting claim is that the western shia are more drawn to a veneration of rationality than mysticism
• Circumscribing mysticism and removal of wonder