Partners of Zaynab : a gendered perspective of Shia Muslim faith

264 Pages·2014·1.62 MB·English

by  Diane D'Souza

Partners of Zaynab
Studies in Comparative Religion
Frederick M. Denny, Series Editor
Partners of Zaynab
A Gendered Perspective of
Shia Muslim Faith

Diane D’Souza
The University of South Carolina Press
© 2014 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
D’Souza, Diane, 1960–
Partners of Zaynab : a gendered perspective of Shia Muslim faith / Diane D’Souza.
pages cm. — (Studies in comparative religion)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61117-377-2 (hardbound : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-61117-378-9 (ebook)
1. Shi’ah—Customs and practices. 2. Shi’ah—Doctrines. 3. Women in Islam.
4. Women—Religious aspects—Islam. I. Title.
BP194.2.D755 2013
297.8'2082—dc23
2014007289
To the Shia community in Hyderabad, and especially its women,
for sharing their lives and faith with me
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contents
List of Illustrations viii
Series Editor’s Preface ix
Preface xi
Notes on Transliteration and Translation xix
Introduction 1
1 · Foundations of Shia Faith 16
2 · A Sacred Community Space 55
3 · Remembrance Gatherings 80
4 · The Female Face of Religious Leadership 112
5 · The Alam—A Symbol of Presence 143
6 · Rituals of Intercession and Blessing 169
Conclusion 207
Appendix: Sacred Dates in the Shia Muslim Calendar 215
Glossary 217
References 221
Index 233
illustrations
Main entrance to Yadgar Husayni 62
Interior courtyard of Yadgar Husayni 64
The three central alams at Yadgar Husayni 68
Male self-flagellation before a female audience in a Hyderabad
public mourning procession during Muharram 2003 77
A religious orator (zakira) overtaken by grief in the pulpit 128
A display of alams at a Hyderabad ashurkhana 147
series editor’s preface
Diane D’Souza’s study is a major contribution to scholarship on Shi’ite Islam in
general, as well as a revealing study of ways in which both Shi’ite men and mod-
ern western scholars have traditionally failed to consider Shi’ite women as sig-
nificant players in Shi’ite communal and cultural life anywhere in the culturally,
ethnically and socially diverse Muslim world. The author lived for many years
in Hyderabad, India, and became deeply immersed in Shi’ite women’s ways of
belief and community leadership in that important region of Shi’ite presence and
influence in India. The study thoughtfully and respectfully addresses not only
the stresses that Shi’ites--both male and female--often experience within Sunni
Muslim majorities in the Muslim world but also the difficulties that Shi’ite women
often have encountered within their own sectarian boundaries.
In addition to the project’s high level of formal scholarly integrity and field-
based originality of data is the fact that it is a good read and should find a wide
generally educated as well as academic readers market including comparative re-
ligion, Islamic studies, gender and women’s studies, cultural/social/ethnic studies,
and ritual studies. The book will also significantly contribute to sorely needed
data-gathering and understanding of Shi’ite Islam in general as well as Muslim
women in particular in the contemporary Indian subcontinent. The project is full
of new and substantial religious and cultural data made interesting and intelli-
gible by sophisticated and assertively argued critical/theoretical analysis and in-
terpretation.
This series has in recent years published important new studies on religion in
South Asian contexts: Fred Clothey, Ritualizing on the Boundaries: Continuity and
Innovation in the Tamil Diaspora (2006); Kelly Pemberton, Women Mystics and Sufi
Shrines in India (2010); and Guy L. Beck, Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu
Tradition (2012). Diane D’Souza’s Partners of Zaynab: A Gendered Perspective of
Shia Muslim Faith is a strong addition to this list.
Frederick M. Denny