Monday, January 29, 2007

Shiite Flagellation & Heavy Metal

10th Muharram is the biggest day ever for Shiite religion, more so important than the two holy Eids, more important than prayer, more important than pilgrmige, it is the most important day ever. The day Hussein was killed in Karbala, some 1400 years ago. Here are some widespread practices during this day:

Maseer (March) Shiite pilgrims walk from everywhere towards Karbala, in a symbolic cememoration of Hussein's march towards that accursed city with 74 of his family and women and children(why?) to meet the Umayyad army. While this practice was present in individual patterns, it did not become widely adopted until 1970.

Flagellation At its most extreme, Shi'ism rituals can be as severe and ominous as any Opus Dei around - Flagellation or Latum is the beating of chests in unison to the rhythm of a sung verse by a radood, a person who recites a poem usually about the death of a Shiite religious figure, be it Ali, Fatima, Hussein, Zainab, Abbas and even recently, the destruction of the reverred Askari shrines in Samarra. The beating of chest is a traditional Arab way of showing grief, mostly performed by women.

Tatbeer or (head-splitting) This practice is derived from the way Imam Ali was killed, while he was praying dawn when a person called Bin Muljim killed him by a sword which hit his forehead. As a form of solidarity and remembrance, a mutabir brings a sword to his forehead and gently stabs with the wide sheath of the sword - blood usually spurts in great lengths, eventually covering the whole person in blood, it is one of the most controversial and sickening practices, and has been introduced by a Turkish brigade coming from the Kaukaz.

Tashbeeh or Re-enactment Those are convoys which re-enact the battle of al-Taff with great detail, from the beginning of the battle until the decapitation of Imam Hussein. This was imported from Iran at the end of the 18th century.

All these practices above are considered the most iconic, graphic representations of Shi'ism today. In particular the flagellation, Most religious Shia scholars condemn all these acts, but all their edicts against them have been met with disapproval and rejection, and sometimes even anger. Religion sometimes opposes thinking, and as the majority of Shiites in Iraq are common and poor, they oppose rationalization and follow only emotion, and consider this as an unthinkable practice that may be for some people the most important, and basically the nutshell, of religion, to try and shed the most tears in hope of getting the intercession of the holy figure they are mourning. The scholars had to grudgingly accept this, a scholar once said: 'The truth of Islam has been lost between the Sunni and Shi'ite scholars, Sunnis followed the whims of the ruler, and Shiites followed the whims of the people." There are also other reasons for this complete disobedience, The Ashura ceremonies is a massive group-activity that invokes feelings of strength and identity, it is the only purely Shia activity to be practiced on such a massive scale, and anything against it will fall on deaf ears. This is why Shiite political factions greatly pushed this exercise after post-Saddam war, despite the unfortuante result of so many people being exposed as an easy prey for any would-be malignant force, despite repeated terrorist attacks which killed many people in 2003 and 2004, Shiites politicians have stubbornly pushed people to practice them, as if Shi'ism is all about this - a foolish show of defiance. Also, a whole trade has been created around these practices, it is interesting to notice that most of the people who actually perform those flagellations and tatbeers are from the dregs of society and the lowest of lows, and have nothing to do whatsoever with religion. It's more about identity and the ominous flair of the processions.

Today, religion is all about big show, most of Iraqis (and Arabs) are not traditional Muslims in the sense, most of them think about sex more often than God.

Admittedly, those processions are somewhat exotic in their own way, any serious fan of violent, angry music should give Shia latmiyas a go, once you get past all that initial disgust and bypass all religious identification, try to look at it as you would look at Greek mythologies or read the Odysseus. It's got plenty of cool stuff: a plethora of sad, dark melodies ; hordes of epic battles between Good and Evil, with Evil always victorious - and also, it sends shivers down one's spine when you remember that the only musical instrument being used, the oddly time-signatured precussion is made by thousand hands beating down a thousand chests. Look at this frightening verse from a latmiya about the death of Imam Ali:

and you are Death, on the day of Death, when Death
obeys your every wish and command.
Everyone who would hear of your tales
would tremble in fear, of your presence

Yowza!

The most famous Shia performer is undoubtedly superstar Bassim al-Karbalie, I think he is one of the best performers I've ever heard - his poems greatly use a tool which Western Music could only dream of having: the quarter-note.

Blood, violence, darkness, epic battles, long-hidden secrets. Screw Maiden, man! Of course, it's kinda frightening that some people actually believe this shit, but then again, what more could you possibly want?

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have a very imaginative way of putting things Kid :)

While reading about your description of the chest beating of lattum I could literally see the armies of Orcs in Mordor of Lord of The Rings...

Maybe Iraq is becoming, or has become Mordor. Let's rock & roll baby!

Iraqi Mojo said...

I wonder what percentage of Shia participate in this ritual.

Anonymous said...

examples of shiite hymns:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quh_tJJC3SA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52aMR9gd0-Q&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STMTHlLpMlc&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wJfrZuI4zY

and this one is amusing because it uses a shiite latmiya as a eulogy for saddam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayWVrXOwzvc

Little Penguin said...

"it's kinda frightening that some people actually believe this shit, but then again, what more could you possibly want?"

I suggest you look at this subject with greater objectivity..

As a Shia, I don't hit my chest and gently stab my head just for the sake of conformity.. I don't mourn the martyrdom of Ali, Fatima, Hussain, etc - out of raw emotion, I mourn them out of concrete belief that whilst their tragedies made God's very own throne tremble - they served to pass on the undistorted version of Islam from one generation of believers to another.. had Hussain not revolted against Yazeed, we would have been monkey-worshipping drunkards like Yazeed..

It's a sacrifice that they made, one which religion, logic and emotion bind us to appreciate and remember..

this isn't just bull-shit..

In any case, one shouldn't take a sarcastic tone when assessing the most revered of beliefs for any group of people.. be it Shias, Sunnis, Sufis, Budhists, whatever.. a little bit of respect is the least we could show..

I hope you take what I say seriously, i'm not just writing in anger, eventhough im deeply offended, but I really want you to look at it from a different perspective..

ahmed said...

I wasn't actually referring to the Shiite doctrine in general when i said 'shit', I was refering to the latum in particular.

In any case, I could be accused of being a little too biased - you're right Penguin. I am sorry for offending ya, however, you must understand that it's all in good humor...

Anonymous said...

I respect you very much "Iraqi konfused kid".
You are NOT Sectarian, sadamist, fanatic or bloodthirsty idiot. You sounds "3raqi" for me. Keep the good job
Thank you
This iraqi song is for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Fsd81RNEM

Enjoy!

Iraqi Mojo said...

'As a Shia, I don't hit my chest and gently stab my head'

Neither do I, and I don't know any Shii who does. When I (as a teenager) first saw this on TV I was sickened - I had no idea that I was Shii back then, and I didn't know that Shia do this. I didn't even learn about Ashura until college.

I must admit that I have learned very much about Shiism and Islam just in the last three years. For example, until a few months ago I did not know that Fatima was the Prophet's only child, and that all his descendants go through Fatima and Ali.

Iraqi Mojo said...

I take that back. I knew I was Shii as early as the age of 7, but I didn't know what it means to be Shii. Now that I understand Shiism more, I have formulated my own opinion, and I believe that the Shia were wrong: I believe that any Muslim can be a great leader.

Little Penguin said...

it's not a question of who qualifies to be a good leader.. the shia/sunni debate goes much deeper than that..

with regards to Kid's post, what came across was a rather unfair depiction of a fundamental aspect of many people's belief..

Morty said...

Kid for God's sake have u reached the point to say "Shitte religion" is it now a diffrent religion now? well what can I say I’m speechless, all I can do is to wish u the best…

Anonymous said...

Iraqi Mojo,
Only Shi'as believe Fatima was Muhammad's only child.

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