Title: The Shiites : ritual and popular piety in a Muslim community /
Authors: Pinault, David.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press,
Year: 1992
Subjects: Shīʻah India Hyderabad.; Shīʻah.; Hyderabad (India) Religious life and customs.; Hyderabad (India) Religious life.
Abstract: Shiite Islam is one of the world's major religions, with millions of adherents throughout the Middle East and South Asia. In the West, however, Shiite Islam has too often been misrepresented as a political movement. David Pinault's The Shiites describes what Shiism means to those who actually practice it and serves as both an excellent introduction to the subject and an original work of scholarship. The author starts by outlining the defining events of early Shiite.
Contents: pt. I. An Introduction to the Shiite Tradition in Islam. 1. Shiism: An Overview. 2. Essentials of Islam Common to the Shiite and Sunni Traditions. 3. Shiite Tawil: The Esoteric Dimension of Quranic Scripture. 4. Variations on the Esoteric Tradition in Poetry and Theosophy: Examples from Attar, Hafez, and Suhrawardi of Aleppo. 5. The Patterns that Inform History: Shiite Worldviews and the Understanding of Past and Future. 6. Shiism in India: Historical Background and Cultural Influences. 7. Representations of Muharram in British Fiction and Memoirs from the Raj -- pt. II. Ritual and Popular Devotion in a Shiite Community: Muharram Liturgies of Hyderabad. 8. Shiite Shrines of the Old City. 9. Shiite Men's Guilds of Hyderabad: An Overview. 10. Lamentation Rituals: Shiite Justifications for Matam (Acts of Mourning and Self-mortification). 11. Lamentation Rituals: Liturgical Forms of Matam. 12. The Majlis Liturgy: Sermon Topics and Shiite Self-definition. 13. The Role of Liturgy in Reinforcing Communal Identity. 14. Preparations for the Muharram Season: Rehearsal Sessions and the Training of the Chorus in a Shiite Men's Guild. 15. Liturgy as Drama: The Seventh of Muharram and the Bridegroom of Karbala's Procession. 16. Cooperation and Competition Among the Men's Guilds. 17. Criticisms Directed Against the Men's Guilds. 18. Muharram Liturgies and Hindu-Muslim Relations in Hyderabad -- pt. III. ConclusIon. 19. Hyderabad and the World Community of Shiite Islam.