In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia

by C. J. Wills

Enter thirty assailants. At last Ali Akbar, after rolling up and down the stage, is killed, to the immense relief of everybody.

His head is stuck on a long spear, the band strikes up, the mourners shout Houssein! Hassan! for ten minutes, and the drama for the day ceases.

There are other irregular interludes, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, etc. Some of the scenes are very comic; as that between Yezeed the tyrant and his physician.

On the day when the martyrdom of Houssein himself is portrayed, the place is thronged. The cruel Shemr, generally very vigorously represented, is at times roughly handled by the mob. The crowd are often regaled with sherbets by the personage at whose cost the tazzia is given, also pipes, and even coffee; and the amount expended in pipes, coffee, tea, etc., to the numerous guests is very considerable indeed.

Almost every house has its rosehkhaneh, or reading of prayers and Scripture. These are generally given either to men or women; and in the latter case, female readers and singers are employed. When given to men, the moollahs officiate; and the reading takes place from a pulpit hung with black, the roofs being crowded with rows of veiled women.

The tazzias are not approved of by the higher classes of the priesthood, but custom has made the people cling to them, and each small village has its local tazzia. Wherever a tazzia or rosehkhaneh is held, small black flags are exhibited at the door, and any one walks in. By the performance of the tazzia the commemoration of the death of Houssein and Hassan is annually brought home to the Shiah Mahommedan, and the more fanatical yearly hold a sort of Guy Fawkes day, when a comic tazzia, in ridicule of Omar, is held, and the (from their point of view) usurper is finally conducted to the infernal regions by the devil in person.

During the greater part of Mohurrim bands of boys visit the houses of their quarter singing a long chant commemorative of the death of the martyrs, and collecting a few pence at its conclusion.

The month of Ramazan is the fasting month of the Persians, and the great majority of the people rigorously observe it, tasting no food nor water, nor even smoking, from sunrise to sunset. Of course when the month falls in the summer the penance is much more serious.

The more ascetic go “peishwaz,” that is, observe the fast a few days before it is really in force.