(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - In his foreword to the book, Muslim Nadalizadeh writes: "It has been held for long that most Shia faqihs opposed to Taziyeh. This view is often a result of lack of enough sources and sometimes a result of feudist remarks of orientalists that made use of the condition of Iran in Qajar period to show a big gap between the public and the clergy.
Citing Polack's statement implying that radical men of religion did not approve stage performances [Taziyeh] and regarded it as irreverent and profane, the author then attempts to convince the readers that such opposing figures among Shia scholars were less than the number of one's fingers.
According to him, only two absolute rejections and five or six conditional oppositions are found in history.
Nadalizadeh mentions the ideas of 'Mohammad bn Soleiman Tonekaboni', 'Sheikh Jafar Najafi Kashef Alqota' and 'Hojatoleslam Shafaqati' against Taziyeh and expresses hope that reading this book would help correct negative views of this art. He believes that like any other religious ritual, Taziyeh aids us to reach ethical perfection and spiritual elevation.
"Taziyeh, like any other religious rituals, seeks promotion of virtues and moral goodness, strengthens public faith and religion and reinforces the tendency to rebel against tyranny," he writes.
Nadalizadeh then makes a survey of the evolution of Taziyeh as a Shia ritual and adage of other dramatic forms such as 'shabih-dressing' (to attire likr the sacred imams) and 'female-dressing' and how the shia scholars' views of the art altered in accordance with the evolution of this performative art.
"With the emergence of Taziyeh and its expansion among shia societies, the above questions became the main concern of the faithful and demanded Shia jurisprudents to run a new wave of studies. These studies among the scholars, faqihs and ayatollahs prepared them with a considerable load of knowledge to face the arrival of western theater in later decades."
The author mentions 'conveying the passion and epic grandeur of Ashura Uprise' and 'Exhibition of the sorrows of the holy clan' to the public audiences as two great missions of Taziyeh and Shabih-khani and adds: "Taziyeh is not a mere portrait of sorrow and calamity and is not limited to making the spectators cry, or else even the writer of this research would have opposed it. More important than staging sorrow is 'provocation' – a characteristic that distinguishes Taziyeh from other tragic rituals."
/smh_