glassen_muharram ceremonies in istanbul at the end of the xixth and the beginning of the xxthe...

7/30/2019 Glassen_Muharram Ceremonies in Istanbul at the End of the XIXth and the Beginning of the XXthe Century

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Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universitt Freiburg

ERIKAGLASSEN

Muharram-ceremonies (Azdr) in Istanbul at the end

of the XIXth and the beginning of the XXth century

Originalbeitrag erschienen in:Thierry Zarcone (Hrsg.): Les Iraniens dIstanbulParis: Institut Franais de Recherches en Iran, 1993, S. 113-129


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Les Iraniens d'Istanbul, (eds. T. Zarcone, F. Zarinebaf-Shahr), IFEA/IFRI, Istanbul - Tehe-ran, 1993, 113-129.

ERIKA GLASSEN

MUHA R R A M-CER EMON IES ( ` A Z D R i )IN ISTANBUL AT TH E EN D OF THE XIXthAND THE BEG INNING OF THE XXth CENTURYIt was not only a sign of religious tolerance on the part of the Ottoman -

Turkish authorities to allow the Shilte Muharram-ceremonies to be cel-ebrated in the heart of the capital of the Sun nite Caliphate, as some o f mysources em phasize, but it wa s at the sam e time an indication of the strengthand selfconfidence of the Iranian comm unity.

When Joseph v. Hammer-Purgstall published his book: Constantino-polis und der B osporus in 1822 he had written in the second volume aboutthe different ethnic groups of the inhabitants of Constantinople in thosedays. There w e find also half a page ab out the Persians. He w rites: "Theirnum ber is so small, that they are drow ned in the vast ocean of people... Mostof them are m erchants or dervishes... As Shiltes, that mea ns heretics (Ket-zer), they are now here allowed to raise their heads. And as here tics they aremo re hated than the Jew s by the fanatic, i.e. orthodox Sun nis."

This mea ns that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the Persiansin Istanbul were not yet a respected comm unity, which could celebrate theirreligious cerem onies publicly. At that time the Persian m erchants did notyet live in the Valide Hani and the Vezir Han i as they did at the end of thecentury. In the same book in the first volume H amm er has a chapter about"Chane u nd Ka rawa nserais". There he describes the Valide Ham an d theVezir Han i, but does not m ention in connection with these khns Persian1) Joseph von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosporus, Ortlich u nd geschichtlich bes-

chrieben, 2 Ihnde (1822), Neudruck Biblio Verlag Osnabriick 1967, D ie Perser,1 I, p.390: "Der-selben sind in Constantinopel so wenige, dass ihr Daseyn in dem unermesslichenVOlkergewoge verschwindet. Es sind meistens nur Kaufleute und Derwische. Als Schiis,d.i.Ketzer, diirfen sic nirgends ihr Haupt erheben und sind als solche vom fanatischen Sunnid.i. Rechtglubigen noch mehr gehasst, als die Juden."


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114rika GLASSENmerchants. But he tells us that Persian merchants lived in the Hoca Hamnear Mahmud Paa. This was a khan with 70 rooms 2 , which was similarlydescribed by Evliya Celebi. 3Colonel Charles White in his book T hree years in C onstantinople, or do-m estic m anners of the T urks, which came out in Berlin at the same time asthe English original in 1844, 4 mentions the Vezir Ham, as the boarding-house of the first class of the Persian merchants and the Ziinbtil Ham forthe lower class of the Persian shawl-traders.The Valide Ham, which is de-scribed as well by White, seems to have had at that time no connection withthe Iranians s . And in his chapter on "Public Festivals" White tells us, thatthe tenth of Muharram, the day of mourning for Husayn, the younger sonof 'Ali, who was martyred and whose family and supporters were massacredat Karbala on the tenth of Muharram 61 A.H. (=October 10, 680 A.D.) bythe Umayyad army, that is the day of Àshurd, was celebrated by the Shiltesin Persia as a day of commemoration of this bloody event. Although it wasnot permitted to the Sunnis to celebrate it, secret celebrations were held inConstantinople in the mosque or tekye of Koca Mustafa Paa. 6 But thereis no word about the participation of Iranians in these secret celebrations.

We learn from the memoirs (written 1930) of Khan Malik-i Sasni, whowas a former Iranian diplomat in Istanbul, that the Iranian community inIstanbul didn't dare to celebrate the majalis-i rauza-khwani in Muharrampublicly before the time of Mirzd Husayn Khan (later Sipahsdlar). MirzaHusayn Khan was ambassador in Istanbul for twelve years before he be-came sadr-i a`zam of Nash ad-Din Shah in 1271. That means the Iraniancommunity started to celebrate the rauza-khwani publicly in the sixties ofthe XIXth century. But at this time only the m ajalis-i rauz a-khw ani werepublicly held, while the bloody qama-zadan (sword-beating) was still for-bidden. Malik-i Sasani continues: "In later times the Iranian community inIstanbul wanted to extend their àzadari and to practise the qama -zadan(sword-beating) as well. So they used to built a huge tent in the Valide Hamon the first day of Muharram and did the rauza-khwani at night, while thedastas (groups) of the sina-zanan (breast-beaters) made their processionswith flags and torches, and in the night of Àshura near sunset they put ontheir kafans (grave-cloth) and beat their heads with a qama (sword)." 7

2) Op. cit., I, p.594.3) Evliya Efendi, N arrative of T rav els in Europe, A sia, and A frica, in the Sev enteenth Cen-

tury, translated from the Turkish by the Ritter Joseph von Hammer, London 1834, I, XXV, p.1 7 6 .

4) The German title is: Hiiusliches Leben und S itten der T iirken, translated by a friend ofWhite, Alfred Reumont.5) Op. cit., p. 352-3536) Op. cit., p. 216-2177) rdbadhc2 -yi sifarat-i Istnb01, by KhA n Malik-i SAs Ant, Teheran 1345, p. 108.


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MUHARRAM-CEREMONIES15Malik-i Ssani does not give us the exact date of the first public Mu-harram-celebration in the Valide Hani, but we can gu ess from his mem oirs,that qama-zadan ma y have started in the seventies. Maybe h e himself didnot know the date exactly, because he writes rather vaguely: dar d auraha-yiba`d. Unfortunetely I have not been able to ascertain the date of the firstM uharram -procession in the Valide-Hani.

Here is the place to say som ething about my sources. In so far as m ostof my sources are European travel-books, the aspect of my pap er becomesobvious. The writers were watching the Shilte processions from the out-side. They had o nly access to a part of the Muharram -ceremonies, namelythe flagellations. The rauza-khwani was of less interest to the foreigners,because they could not understand the language. Sometimes their informa-tion about the m eaning of the M uharram-ceremony and its historical back-ground is poor. But all of them were cu rious to learn m ore about it and totell their reader as much a s they knew . Three of the authors are O riental-ists (Horn, Duda, G ordlevsky), and of co urse they looked at the cerem onyfrom a rather scientific point of view with the knowledge of the religiousand historical background. But they were outsiders too.

My paper is based on 15 more or less detailed eyewitness accounts ofthe Muha rram-cerem onies celebrated by the Iranian com mu nity in Istan-bul.' These are my main sources. They date from 1881 to 1926. In some

8) The accounts (as well as I know) in chronological order: 1. Albert Renouard, Chezles Tur cs en 1881, Paris, 1881, (les Persans), p. 250-252. 2. Kesn in Bey (alias Eugene -JacquesChesnel), The Ev il of the East; or, Trut hs about T urkey , Chapter VIII: The P ersians at Constan-tinople. Valide Ha n - The bloody Festival of Hassan and H ussein, p. 144-151, London 1888;I used this English edition. 1887 came out the Fren ch original edition: Le M al d 'Orien t . Ches-nel visited the procession 1886. 3. Gottfried Albert (in Pera), Das M oharrem -Fest der Perser(25. August 1890), in: Das Ausland W ochenschrif t f ii r Erd - und VO lkerku nde , 23. Jahrgang,hrsg. von Karl von den Steinen, Stuttgart, 1890, p.786-788. Gottfried Albert w as the presidentof the Deutscher Exkursions-Klub in Konstantinopel. In Heft 1 (1888) of M ittei lungen des Deut-schen Exkursions-Klubs came out an article Das Muharrem fest der Perser in Stambul. 4. J.Du-kas-Theodassas, Im Z eichen des Halbmonds. Schilderungen aus der t i irkischen Reichshaupt s tadt,5. Das M uharremfes t der Perser , p. 45-55, Kln am Rhein, Verlag und Druck von J.P.Bachem,o.J. There is no date of publication of this book. From inner argum entation I surmise that he,must have seen the M uharram -feast in the Valide Ham in the year 1891 ( ?). 5. Mey ers Reise-bacher , Ti irke i und Untere D onauldnder , v ier te A uf lage , p. 285-286, Leipzig mid Wien 1892.Meyers Reisebacher, Tarkei Rumiinien Serbien, Bulgarien, fiinfte Auflage, p.296-297, Leipzig undW ien 1898. In both editions we find the same text. 6. Mrs. Georgina (and M r. F.) Max-Miiller,Istanbul`dan mekt uplar. Hasan ve H iiseyin, p. 137-145. Transl. Afife Bugra, Terciiman 1001 'Fe- -mel eser 131, Istanbul 1978.1 used this Turkish edition. Metin And in his article "The Muha r-ram Observances in Anatolian Turkey", in PeterJ. Chelkowski, ed., Ta 'ziyeh. R itual and Dr amain Iran, New York 1979, p. 238-254, used the English book Let t ers f rom C onstant inople , but hegives the wrong d ate (p. 253: 1877 sic!). Dr. Orhan F . Kiipriilii in his forewo rd to the Turkishtranslation, p. 7-8, has the right dates. The couple Georg ina and F. M ax-Muller visited theirson William Max-Muller, who was working in the British embassy in Constantinople, in theyeiv 1893, and they published their Let t ers f rom C onstant inople in London 1897. As KOprillii


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116ErikaGLASSENcases I had to find out the year in which the writer watched the ceremony,because the bo oks or articles w ere published years after the author's visitto Istanbul. If the author at least mentions the mon th, we can guess the year.So w e are told for instance: "It was on a nice evening in August", 9 or therewas "the February dusk; and snow w as falling". 10 Or the last example: TheAustrian Orientalist Herbert Duda gave his lecture about D as PersischePassionsspiel at Leipzig University in M ay 1932. But we know the Muha r-ram-ceremonies in Istanbul were already prohibited at that time. FromDuda's words "In a time not long ago in a bright night of a full moon inJuly," 11 we m ay surm ise that he must have visited the last Muharram pro-cession which w as held in the Valide Hani in 1926.

The oldest of my sources is the book by A lbert Renouard Chez les T urcsdated 1881. He o nly gives us a sma ll account, but he tells us, that this festi-val of the Persians celebrated in their khdn attracted all the foreigners fromPera, whom the howling Dervishes of Skutari could not satisfy 12 . Thatmeans at the beginning of the eighties of the XIXth century Iranian 'aza-dari including qamd-zadan was a lready a show for tourists in the Ottomancapital Istanbul.

points out, 4 of the letters are w ritten by the husband of G eorgina, F. Max-M filler. The letterconcerning the M uharram-celebration is written by him. In Metin A nd's article we find thepassus on p. 239-240. 7. Donna L . Neave, Tw enty-Six Y ears on the Bosphor us, p. 113-118, Firstpublished London 1933. This book is also translated into Turkish (by Osman 6ndes), Eskiistanbul`da Hayat, p. 96-100, Terciiman 1001 Eser, Istanbul 1978. From the Turkish forew ordby Orhan F. KOpriilii, p. 7, we learn, that Donna L. Neave lived in Istanbul from 1881 to 1907.She knew the fam ily Max-Miiller. 8. Henry Carnoy et Jean Nicolaides, Folklore d e C onstant i -nop le, C ollection Inter nationale de la Tr adition, Vol. XII-XIII, p.193-201, Paris 1894. 9. Her-mann Barth, Konstant inope l , p. 174-175, Leipzig und Berlin, Verlag von E .A. Seemann 1901.10. Prof. Dr. Paul Horn, Geschichte der persischen Litteratur, p. 209-211, Leipzig 1901. Horngives his account of the performance in the Valide Ham seen in May 1899.11. Bernhard Stern,Die moder ne Tiirkei . Erinnerungen, K ulturbilder und R eisemomente, p. 149-153, Berlin 1908. 12 .Henri Myles, La Fin de Stambo ul. Essai sur le M onde Tur c, IX. Hussein H assan!, p.92-94. Troi-sime edition, Paris 1921. 13. H. G. Dwight, Constantinople. Settings and Traits, p. 310-317,New York and London 1926. Dwight gives an account of the year 1907 or 1908(?). 14. V.A.Gordlevski, "Dni Mokharrem a ye Konstantinopole", (The days of Mu harram in Constantino-ple), in Sbornik M useya Antrop ologii i E tnograf ii , VII, p. 167-172, Moskwa 1928; Conferencegiven on the 25th of May 1927. 15. Herbert Duda, Das Per sische Passionsspiel , (OffentlicheProbevorlesung an der U niversitAt L eipzig (28 Mai 1932), in Zeitschrift f i ir M issionskundeund R cligionswissenschaft, Berlin, 49 (1939), p. 97-114, especially p.97-98. He m ust have seenthe procession in 1926.9) Dukas-Theodassos, p. 46. There is no date of publication, but we can guess that thewriter must have seen the ceremonies in 1890 / 1308 h., (in this year the 10th of M uharram w ason the 17th of A ugust) , or in 1891/1310 h. (7th of Augu st) .10 ) Dwight, p. 312. The book came out in 1926, but judging by his line of argument I as-sume he is describing the ceremony he saw in the year 1907 / 1325 h. (10th of Muharram =23th of February) or 1908 / 1326 h. (10th of Muharram = 13th of February).11) Duda, p. 97. There are only two possibilities, either the 31rst of July 1925 (10th ofMuharam 1344) or the 21rst of July 1926 (10th of M uharram 1345).12) Renouard, p. 251.


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MUHARRAM-CEREMONIES17W hen we hea r from the former Iranian diplomat in Istanbul, Ma lik-iSasani, that Mirza Husayn K han (and Hajji MU M Sa la') were able to getperm ission for the Iranian com mu nity to celebrate the Muharramiazada-ri publicly in Istanbul, we w onder how the Ottoman authorities reacted tothese demo nstrations of the Shilte faith in their Capital. But we kno w thatMirza Husayn Khan w as on very good terms w ith the architects of the Ot-toman Tanzimat-reforms such as Midhat Paa, Ali Paa and Fuad Paa, w hohad influenced him deeply. As Prim e M inister in Iran later on he tried tocopy som e of the adm inistrative reforms they ha d carried out in the Otto-man Em pire. 13 May be these influential liberal Ottoman statesmen or atleast one of them were the protectors of the Shilte Iranian colony in Is-tanbul. Gord levski in his article about the D ays of M uharram in Constanti-nople, me ntions without giving his source, that it was the Ottoma n grandvezier Ali Paa, a former Bektashi, who had protected the marsiya-khwaniof the Shiltes in Istanbul."

The consciousness of the old enmity between Turks and Persians re-sulting from their different kinds of faith, the Ottom an Turk s being Sunnisand the Persians having adop ted Twe lver Shi'ism under the Safavis as statereligion in 1501, must have been still latent among the people of the twocountries in the nineteenth century . But officially the situation had changeda long time ag o. As early as 1639 in the treaty of Qa sr-i Shirin the bordersbetween Iran and the Ottoman Empire had been established. The Otto-mans had to deaLm uch more now w ith problems on their Western borders.And concern ing the Islam ic religion there had developed new m ovemen tssuch as W ahhabism and at the end of the century Pan-Islam ism. And lastbut not least in the Tanzim at-decrees the Ottoman S ultans had promisedto guarantee their subjects freedom o f religion. The European States werewa tching the behaviour of the Sultan carefu lly. As F. Ma x-Miiller noted in1893:" The Turks have no interest at all in this Muharram show. On thecontrary they are against it, but the Padishah (sc. Abdiilhamid) is not onthe side of those who want to prohibit the Shilte ceremonies, because heis afraid of being called intolerant. 1 5

There m ust have been a great desire of the Persian Shilte colony in Is-tanbul to celebrate the M uharram days publicly, because these performan-ces had become very po pular everywhere in the Shilte comm unities since

13) Khan M alik-i Sasani, op. cit . , p. 108. Thierry Zarcone, "La comm unaute Iranienned'Istanbul a la fin du XIX e et au debut du XX e sicle, in La Shi`a ne ll 'Imper o O ttom ano, Fon-dazione L. Caetani, Accadem ia Nazionale dei Lincei, Roma, 1993, pp. 57-83.14) O p. c i t ., (note 8), p. 169.15) M ax-Muller, 138, (from Turkish). G. A lbert writes (1890), p. 786: "Dieses Fest istden Tiirken, welche in ihren G laubenslehren m it den Persern nicht iibereinstimmen, em n wah-rer Greue l, und ihre Toleranz, die der Abhaltung dieses Festes m itten in Stambul -der "Fiilledes Islam"- keine S chwierigkeiten entgegensetzt, verdient aufrichtige Bewunderun g."


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118ErikaGLASSENthe beginning of the XIXth century. Amo ng the reasons for the flourishingof the commem oration of the tragedy of Karbala may have been the attackof the Wahhabis on Karbala in 1802, when they killed many people andplundered the sanctuary of Husayn. This attack on Karbala had a great im -pact on the Shi`a and the developement of the ta`ziya. For instance Shiitepoets felt stimulated to write qasidas and marsiyas. Some of them saw inthis event the repetition of the drama of H usayn an d his family in Ka rba-la. 16 G. Thaiss supports another point of view. I quote: "Under the Qajarsin the nineteenth century the ritual dramatizations of Karbala and the sym -bol of Husayn w ere em phasized in opposition to the increasing encroach-ment of Western powers and the loss of national and spiritual integrity." 17

In any case in Iran itself the Muharram -performance s found greatpub-lic interest in the nineteenth cen tury. Special am phi-theatres were bu ilt forthe performances, and the foreign diplomats and travellers were keen to beinvited to the Shilte tatiya. As Jean Calm ard has pointed out in his articleabout "M uharram ceremonies and diplomacy", the attitude of the Iranianauthorities towards foreigners being invited to Muharram celebrations wasmostly friendly but changed sometimes during the XIXth century. 18

So the desire of the Iranian com mun ity in Istanbul to celebrate the Mu-harram days pu blicly as a festival demonstrating the selfconfidence of theShilte com mu nity is understandable. Rauza-khwani, the narrative readingof Shilte mourning p oem s, was secretely and publicly celebrated in Istan-bul before the flagellation-processions. But it is obvious that rauza-khwa-ni could not attract the European foreigners, who understood neitherPersian nor Aze ri Turkish, the languages of the mo urning poem s. So thiscould only attract some Turks from Istanbul, who be longed to the Bekta-shi Order w ith its Shilte inclinations or other sufis. Gordlevski who is theonly one of my sources who describes rauza-khwani in the mescid of theValide H am in Istanbul tells us that the Iranians invited to this part of (aza-dart the akheinds,mullas and hocas, who cam e from different countries (Ad-harbaidjan, Kurdistan and Baghdad). 19

16) Ibrahim al-Haidari, Zur Soziologie des schiitischen Chiliasmus. EM Beitrag zur Erfor-schung des irakischen Passionsspiels, Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, Band 31, Freiburg 1975,P. 22. 17) Georg Thaiss, "Unity and Discord: The symbol of Husayn in Iran", in Ch.J. Adams,ed., Iranian Civ ilization and Culture, McG ill University, Montreal 1972, P . 11618) For the developement of the ta`ziya see: Peter J. Chelkowski, "Ta'ziyeh: IndigenousAvant-Garde Theatre of Iran", in Ta'ziyeh. Ritual and Drama in Iran, ed. by Peter J. Chel kow-ski, New York 1979, p. 4-14 (?). In the same volum e: Jean Calmard, "Le Pa tronage des T a-'ziyeh : elements pour une e tude globale", pp. 121-130. Also by Jean Calmard: "M uharramceremonies and diplomacy (a preliminary study)", in E. Bosworth and C. Hillenbrand, eds.,Qajar Iran: Political, Soc ial and C ultural Ch ange, 18 00-1 925, Edinburgh, 1983, p. 213-228. Forfurther bibliography about our subject, see the article: "azAdarr by Jean Calmard in: Encyclo-paedia Iranica, ed. Yarshater, V ol. III, 1989, p. 174-177.19) Gordlevski, op. cit., p. 170f. Dwight, op. cit., P . 311, does also me ntion it.


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MUHARRAM-CEREMONIES19For the celebration of the Muharram -processions the Iranian colonyin Istanbul was not obliged to build an amp hi-theatre as this had to be donein Teheran . They could use one of the biggest khan s in the heart of the Ot-toman Capital in wh ich a large num ber of Persian merchants were living.The Va lide Hani, with its wide courtyard , which is surroun ded by a doublerow of galleries lighted by arcades an d a little mosque in the m iddle of thecourtyard co uld serve quite well for the processions.

The flagellation-procession became a common social event for allmem bers of the Iranian comm unity in Istanbul. The Iranian ambassador asofficial representative of the Qajar Empire invited the members of theforeign embassies and their guests. The Valide Ham wa s in those days notonly decorated w ith religious calligraphic posters and sym bols but also withthe picture of the Q ajar Padishah and the flags w ith lion and sun. 2 A kindof box w ith chairs and carpets w as always bu ilt in one of the corners of thecourt of the Valide Ham, especially for the Iranian ambassador and hisguests.In m any of the accounts at the end of the XIXth century it is men-tioned that the Iranian am bassador used to pardon som e prisoners at theend of the flagellation-procession. 21

But the mem bers of the embassy w ere not the only hosts. The Iranianmerchants invited their customers. Those who used to live in the ValideHam could prepare their small living-rooms or their shops on one of thegalleries for their guests. All of the Persians showed hospitality. They serveddelicious tea and som etimes cake, cigarettes or a w ater-pipe. 2 2

So the Valide Ham became famous not only as an an cient commercialbuilding of the Islamic world, connected with the name of KOsemM ahpeyker S ultan, who donated it in the time of M urad IV (1623-1640) 2 3 ,but the European guidebooks, as for instance the German Meyers Rei-sebiicher in the 4th edition of 1892 and the 5 th of 1898 gave now also a de-tailed description of the Muharram-ceremonies held by the Iranians in thekhan and recomm ended that only the reader "who has strong nerves" shouldvisit the ceremon ies. 2 4 The famQ us Germ an guidebook Baedeker in its first

20 ) Kesnin Bey, op. cit., 147.21 ) Kesnin Bey, p . 150; Meye rs, p. 286; Albert, p. 787.22 ) Kesnin B ey, p. 147; Albert, p. 786 ; Dukas-Thcodassos, p. 46f. ; Stern, p. 151.23 ) For the history of the Valide Ham see the article in Istanbul Ansiklopedisi, ed. ReatEkrem Kocu, "Biiyiik Validc Ham", p. 3307-3313. See also Thierry Zarcone, "La Situation duChi isme a Istanbul au XIX e et au debut du XX e sicle", (in this volume, pp. 97-111.)24) Meyers ReisebUcher, op . cit . , (note 8), (1892) p.285, (1898), p.296. Donna L. Neavehad been forbidden by her parents to attend the barbarous ceremony; op . c it , p. 113. W hen shewas dragged into the crowd to the Valide Ham, she wittnessed more than she could stand, p.118. Max-Mu ller was told that "only he who has strong nerves can visit the cerem ony", fromthe Turkish edition, p. 139. Dukas-Theodassos w as asked by his Iranian friend, who invitedhim: "Sind deine Nerven stark?", op. cit., p. 46.


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120ErikaGLASSENtwo editions, 1905 and 1914, gave the exact Christian date of the M uhar-ram-night of the forthcoming year, in which the flagellation would be per-formed. 25

Even Eu ropean ladies were adm itted. Kesnin Bey w rites in 1886 some-how ironically: "Pretty Eu ropeans, who for two nights could not sleep forthinking of the blood they should see flow, w alk timidly up w ith their hus-bands; and brazen-faced ambassadresses and L evantine ladies, who, so farfrom feeling shocked, stand on chairs, and with operaglasses, glut them-selves with the dr eadful sight." 26 The eyew itnesses estimate the number ofthe spectators at 20.000. 2'

I w ant to stress again that the flagellation-procession is only a p art ofthe traditional Shilte Muharram-ceremony, which consists of three auton-omou s branches:

1. Rauza-khwani , recitation of m ourning p oetry. It became a traditionto recite especially the R auzat al-shuhada of Husayn \\Wiz K shifi, but alsoelegies (marsiya) or any poetry w hich was concerned w ith the deeds and thesuffering of the Shilte martyrs. Rauza-khwani was perform ed in the Iraniancolony of Istanbul in Mu harram , and also in some of the Sufi orders, in par-ticular by the Bektashis ;

2. The flagellation-procession, which we are dealing with in this ar-ticle 28 ;3. The ta`ziya, the term is used to designate the ritual, pagean t, and es-pecially the drama performed in com mem oration of the martyrdom of Hu-sayn b . 'Ali. There are pu blished texts of and studies abou t this interestingkind of Islamic dram a. But as far as I know , it was n ot performed in Istan-

bul.

The accounts of the eyew itnesses differ from each other. Some of themgive only-their imp ression of the bloody spectacle and seem to have visitedthe show out of a desire for sensation, while others are really interested inthe customs of the Iranian co lony or in the religious dimen sion of the Shiltefeast.

25 ) Baedeker's K onstantinopel und K leinasien. Handbuch fiir R eisende,l . Auflage, Leip-zig 1905, P . 101: 10. Moharram (1906; 7. Marz) ; 2.Auflage, Leipzig 1914, p. 176: 10. Mohar-ram (1914; 29. November).

26 ) Kesnin Bey, p. 147. See also Dorina L. Neave, p. 96-100.27 ) Kesnin Bey, p. 147; Dukas-Theodassos, p. 47.28 ) Duda, op . cit . , p. 101: "In der stambuler Trauerfeier sahen wir die beiden Urelemte

des Passionsspieles: Den Vortrag der Leidensgeschichte und die Prozession."


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MUHARRAM-CEREMONIES21If we try to determine the order and the ritual elements of the Mu har-ram-processions performed by the Iranians in Istanbul using these ac-counts, we h ave to take into con sideration, that the pow ers of recollectiondiffer, and overwhelmed by the atmospheric impression and their sensa-tions, some of the spectators may afterwards not have rem embered the rightorder and the m aterial elements of the show. The most functional descrip-tion is given by M eyers R eisebiicher. It is meant as inform ation for the in-terested German tourist. This can serve as a frame-work of the mainelements of the Muharram -procession as to be seen in the years of the tran-sition from the XIXth to the XXth century . I w ill follow the line of Meye r'ssmall printed description and a dd interesting remarks from the other wri-ters. At first the visitors we re imp ressed by the building and the decora tionof the Valide Ham . On the wa lls were hanging black cloths, carpets, mir-rors, candles, calligraphic inscriptions and a lso pictures of the Shah of Iran.Round the large courtyard was m arked out a broad path for the procession.Between the spectators and the procession were posted Turkish militia withfixed bayonets as a kind of protection. This seems to have been the onlypresence of the O ttoman-Turkish official power. 29 The courtyard was lit bybig flaming torches. A long procession of mourners marched in, singingmourning songs. Kesnin Bey especially notes the music, the strident soundof cym bals, and the musicians, going before repea t, in plaintive rhythm , insix notes m i, re, do, si, la, so! a tend er mou rnful phrase, wh ich is playedby seven or e ight clarionets in unison. Each note, w hich has the value of 2/4.mea sure adagio, is accentuated by a cym bal stroke. It is imp ossible to im-agine the m elancholy charm of this touching m elody... Then the `u/ama ora dervish addresses the throng, and rehearses the whole sad story of theyoung men 's martyrdom at Kerbela.""

Introduced by music and interrupted by recitations a large processionmarc hed in with the different groups of the flagellators. Concerning the ele-men ts and the sequen ce of the pro cession the rep orts differ a lot. But this,as I have indicated may be due on the on e hand to the visitors' different ca-

29 ) Albert (1890), p. 786; Horn (1899), p. 210; Barth (1901) p. 174; Stern (1908) p.152. 30 ) Kesn in Bey, p. 147f; Duka s-Theodassos, p. 49, also men tions the music; Max-M ill-ler me ntions the recitation of the story (An d, 240, Turkish transl., p. 1381), Horn, p. 209: E inMusikkorps von Trom mlern und Pfeifern; Stern, p. 151, was invited by his carpet-dealer, whotranslated for him the martyr-story, while it was recited ; Henri Myles, 1921 (1913): "Un porte-cimbales, deux tambours et deux clarinettes font entendre une m elodie triste et scand& quiaccompagne un chant tragique: une longue et interminable litanie coup& d'exclam ations dou-loureuses: "Hussein Hassan! H ussein Hassan! Said Hali! Said Hali!". The Orientalist Duda, p.97, is noticing (1925/26?) the different languages which were used in the recitations: "Der Greisauf der K anzel begann in psalmodierendem Tonfall mit der arabischen Erbauungsanspracheund trug dann persisch die Leidensgeschichte des Enkels des Propheten Muh amm ed, Husayn,vor. Diese mit Elementen der elegischen Dichtung geschmiickte Passionserzhlung wurdedann noch in tiirkischer Sprache, im azerbejdschanischen und osmanischen Dialekt, wieder-holt..."


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122ErikaGLASSENpacity of observation and m emo ry and on the other hand to the changingequipment and order of the procession. In Iran herself and in the Shilteholy places in Iraq the Muharram -processions were performed as a big showin a special order. 31 The m ain elements of the Muharram -processions in Is-tanbul to be seen in the years betw een 1882 and 1926, are the follow ing: atfirst the three groups of the flagellators: the breast-beaters in w hite dresseswith open breasts, the chain-beaters in black dresses w ith bare backs andthe sword-beaters in white shirts waving their swords over the clean-shavenheads were passing before the crowd w ithout torturing themselves in anyserious way. Men were carrying an enormous staff wrapped round withbeautiful shawls and a banner w ith embroidered inscriptions and a stand-ard with a m etallic hand on the top. This hand w as symbolic for the handsof 'Abbas, who had tried to bring water for the thirsty family of the prophetand who se hands had been cut off by the Umayyad enem ies.

A g roup of pupils of the Iranian school in Istanbul was m arching, car-rying bowls w ith water. This w as interpreted as a symbolic presentation ofwater for the family of Husayn, who were left thirsty in the desert. Thenthere were some horses in the pageant: A horse with a sort of palanquinwith curtains, behind w hich a wom an and children w ere to be seen, repre-senting the tent in which Husayn's family was murdered and horsemendressed in black, flinging from time to time handfuls of straw into the air.A horse w ith a white saddlecloth (Husayn's horse, dhu 1-janah - the winged),bloodstained white pigeons w ith their wings perch ed on the saddle to whichtwo gold arrow s were boun d. The doves, sometimes only one dove is men-tioned, were interpreted as the soul(s) of Husayn (and Hasan), bearingnews of the murder to the family and friends. A little boy (Husayn's son)wa s riding on a horse with bloody clothes and forehead. The audience wa scrying and sobbing. In between times Shiite `ulama or dervishes were againreciting parts of the sad story of the martyrdom of Karb ala. After the firstprocession the flagellants march ed in again, this time torturing them selvesin a horrible way. The breastbeaters "beating their naked breast and cryingin a hollow voice: Hasan! Hu sayn!". Then the clank of chains is heard, andanother band o f men passes. Their dress is black, with w hite letters uponit, which makes them look like demons. Their back is bared to the waist,and w ith long iron chains, which they grasp in both hands, they whip them-selves furiously, each stroke, as it falls on their naked ba cks, being ma rkedby the crash of cymbals. We noticed that these flagellants have a certainskill in break ing the force o f their self-inflicted blow befo re it falls; but forall that, their backs are often covered with blood and horribly wounded.

31) For Iran see H ildegard Milner, S tudien zum Persischen Passionsspiel, Freiburg 1%6,p. 106-122 and Eckhard Neubauer, "M uharram-Brauche im heutigen Persien", in Der Islam,49, 1972, p. 263-269. For Iraq see Ibrahim al-H aidari, Zur Soziologie des schiitischen Chinas-m us. Ein Beitrag z ur Erforschung des irakischen Passionsspiels, I.U. 31, Fieiburg 1975, p. 41 -5 1 .

glassen_muharram ceremonies in istanbul at the end of the xixth and the beginning of the xxthe...

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