Horse of Karbala Muslim Devotional Life in India

by Pinault, David

• ISBN13: 9780312216375
• ISBN10: 0312216378
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Horse of Karbala is a study of Muharram rituals and interfaith relations in three locations in India: Ladakh, Darjeeling, and Hyderabad. These rituals commemorate an event of vital importance to Shia Muslims: the seventh-century death of the Imam Husain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battlefield of Karbala in Iraq. Pinault examines three different forms of ritual commemoration of Husain's death--poetry-recital and self-flagellation in Hyderabad; stick-fighting in Darjeeling; and the "Horse of Karbala" procession, in which a stallion representing the mount ridden in battle by Husain is made the center of a public parade in Ladakh and other Indian localities. The book looks at how publicly staged rituals serve to mediate communal relations: in Hyderabad and Darjeeling, between Muslim and Hindu populations; in Ladakh, between Muslims and Buddhists. Attention is also given to controversies within Muslim communities over issues related to Muharram such as the belief in intercession by the Karbala Martyrs on behalf of individual believers.

Author Biography

David Pinault is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University. He is the author of The Shiites: Ritual and Popular Piety in a Muslim Community (SMP, 1992).

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	ix
Illustrations	xiii
Initiation: Hyderabad, 1989	1	(10)
An Introduction to the Shia Tradition in Islam	11	(18)
Blood, Rationality, and Ritual in the Shia Tradition	29	(28)
``Would That You Could Bury Me, Too, Beside My Brother!'': Women's Roles in Shia Devotional Literature	57	(30)
Shia Ritual in a Sunni Setting: Muharram Observances in the Hill Station of Darjeeling, West Bengal	87	(22)
Horse of Karbala: Ladakh, Shia Ritual, and Devotional Literature Relating to Zuljenah	109	(24)
Muslim-Buddhist Relations in a Ritual Context: An Analysis of the Muharram Procession in Leh Township, Ladakh	133	(24)
Shia Lamentation Rituals and Reinterpretations of the Doctrine of Intercession: Two Cases from Modern India	157	(24)
The Day of the Lion: A Ladakhi Shia Ritual Determined by the Zodiacal Calendar	181	(28)
Shia Encounters in the United States: Notes on Teaching the Shia Tradition in American Classrooms	209	(16)
Notes	225	(18)
Bibliography	243	(10)
Index	253