Saraf Nawar's blog

Medium: watercolor

In this week’s readings, the Persian passion play of the Taziyeh, which mourns the martyrdom of Imam Hussain in Karbala at the hands of the Ummayad caliph, particularly captivated me. What I found most fascinating about the Taziyeh, particularly in the reading by Peter Chelkowski, “Taziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran,” is the degree to which the audience is engaged to the performance, which to them, of course, is not merely a performance, but really an emotional experience that transcends all meanings of time and space (Chelkowski). What is significant for those observing the Taziyeh is not the performance itself, but the universality of the suffering of Hussain that is portrayed by the “actors.” This is quite significant, since worldly defeat is a very important theme in the Shi’a tradition, seen as a necessary experience before entering the next world, as we learned in lecture.

I also found the reading by Sir Lewis Pelly, “The Miracle Play of Hasan and Hussein,” to be quite interesting, especially in its portrayal of Hussein’s heroism and the various titles and attributes that are assigned to him by those around him, especially his family. Zainab, his sister, for example, calls him “brave cavalier” (6), “perfect high priest of faith,” (92) as well as “moon-faced, glorious sun” (90), which I thought was significant as such “heavenly” symbols are widely associated with Allah himself.

As such in my creative response, I wanted to portray both reverence for Hussein as well as the sorrow surrounding his fall, particularly using the metaphor of Imam Hussain as the “glorious sun,” signifying his greatness and majesty for life on Earth. In my painting, I have thus portrayed the idea of Imam Hussain as the “sun.” In particular, in my watercolor painting, the sun has “Hussain” written in Arabic on it, and the fact that the sun is setting (rather than rising), symbolizes his worldly defeat. However, the world and everything around it mourns for Imam Hussain and his tragic end, so that we see blood flowing in the river from the direction of the sun, and the originally blue waters turning purple, also grieving the loss of the worldly guide at the hands of “evil.” However, on the top left of the painting, we see the crescent moon, with stars around it, thus signifying both the light of Allah and that of Prophet Muhammad. This signifies the continued prevalence of Islam and its values despite the loss of a great leader.

References

 “The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husein” by Sir Lewis Pelly

 Chelkowski, P. Taziyeh: Ritual Drama in Iran, 1-31.