Book Launch: Karbala in the Ta’ziyeh Episode, Shi’i Devotional Drama in Iran
with Lucy Deacon
In this webinar, Dr. Lucy Deacon presents on her new book ‘Karbala in the Ta’ziyeh Episode, Shi’i Devotional Drama in Iran’ (2024). Verisimilitude is not the endeavour of ta’ziyeh passion plays; this is a devotional offering that stirs lament for the the Shiʿi martyrs by representing events crucial to sacred history. But what does that retelling entail? Through study of four of its main episodes—from their long inter-female dialogues to the protagonists’ encounters with jinn, dervishes, and foreigners—this book explores the taʿziyeh repertoire’s compositional features. Combining a wide range of historical scripts, largely unpublished manuscripts, with witness accounts, it tracks the tradition’s development from Safavid to Qajar Iran asking, who were its contributors? And, how have they left their mark?
About the Speaker:
Dr. Lucy Deacon is a specialist in devotional drama with an advanced knowledge of Persian, and a background in performing arts. Her research to date has largely concerned the Iranian Shiʿi tradition of taʿziyeh-khānī. She has published on topics from the inception of the tradition in the 17th century, to its development during the 19th century C.E., and its ongoing role in present-day popular piety. Her approach has combined fieldwork with the examination of historical scripts, in manuscript form, drawing from those in the collections of European libraries, and working extensively with the Cerulli Collection held by the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Most recently she has turned her attention to the nature of such collections themselves and the journeys of Persian and Arabic manuscripts between their places of initial provenance and Europe. This encompasses the history of manuscript circulation in the Islamicate world, and colonial cultural practices.