Rohollah Faghihi discusses the mutation of an Iranian cultural tradition in AL Monitor:
During Muharram [the name of a particular month in the Iranian calendar], there are ceremonies in each neighborhood, funded by the local communities. These ceremonies include eulogists who sing about the Battle of Karbala [October 10, 680 AD]. The songs are vivid descriptions of the suffering and martyrdom of Imam Hussein and his companions that bring audiences to tears.
In recent years, however, critics have been claiming that the cost of the tearjerkers has become just too expensive. The eulogists, an integral part of the ceremonies, now demand a price that equals that of pop stars. There are still eulogists who take no money, believing it is not right, but others, particularly well-known ones, have no qualms about demanding a high fee. Prices go as high as $2,500 for a single ceremony — only slightly lower than $3,000 that well-known pop stars demand, according to a 2017 report by Poolnews.
Shia Online reported in 2013 that a number of the singers have started working with agents, and the mourning ceremony organizers have to contact the eulogists through them.
More than the eulogists’ wages have increased: Some of the well-known singers have also become influential figures allied to hard-line politicians and factions.
During the presidency of hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), eulogists were permitted to use the performances to speak against Reformists, indirectly comparing them with Imam Hussein’s enemies in remarks between songs.
Ironically, Ahmadinejad’s encouragement of eulogists taking on a political role so he could use them to crush his political enemies worked against him when the hard-line singers turned on him and his inner circle in the last two years of his presidency, when his power struggle with conservatives reached its climax.
It’s a fascinating look into the political churn of Iran, sparked as it is by religious fervor. I suppose these profit-making, politically-linked eulogists can be seen as feeding off of that fervor. I thought this was interesting, too:
The presiding clerics were once more central to Muhaaram mourning ceremonies. Their roles always offered a medium to pass messages, even during the dynasties of Qajar (1785-1925) and Pahlavi (1925-1979) periods, when clerics would wait for the opportunity to voice their opposition to the rulers’ decisions as a large number of people would gather to hear their speeches.
But now, the religious singers have taken over clerics’ role in the ceremonies. The clerics who speak out now during their speeches in ceremonies are able to reach a large number of people, but they no longer have the influence and effects of their older peers.
“The Muharram and Safar ceremonies are no longer in the hands of the clergy and the seminaries, and superstition and false words have replaced religious teachings,” explained Bahram Dalir, a senior instructor at the Qom seminary, in an interview with ISNA news agency on Sept. 28, 2017. “In the past, the religious singers would prepare the atmosphere for the speaker, and that was because the ceremonies were focused on knowledge and the speaker, not the religious singers. But today, it is reversed.”
It’s an odd parallel to the anti-intellectualism present in the United States. In the U.S., we’re seeing what I hope is the endgame of that current in the cultural flow, an utterly incompetent Administration, desperately shielded by its Congressional allies, floundering like a salmon in a grizzly’s jaws. The only reason the economy doesn’t reflect the political chaos is that the politicians have been mostly incapable of passing legislation that might influence it, although the Executive actions of tariffs certainly threatens that performance.
And a lot of people will argue that the economy is not in as good of shape as we’d like to think.
And some would argue that equating intellectualism and the religiously fervid as being improper as well, but I am not in the group.
