A Comparative Study of "41-Menbari" Religious Ceremony in Shahreza, Iran

 
1.Introduction
Ashura and Moharam mourning rituals held in different parts of Iran are of high important among Shia rites. Each of these rituals varies depending on the days of the month of Muharram. During the first decade of Muharram, the ninth day, Tasoa, in turn, has certain rituals. One of the rituals of Tasoua is the "41-Menbari" which is held in different cities of Iran. Shahreza, located about 70 kilometers southeast of Isfahan, is one of the cities where this ritual is still held on Tasua Day. No such source has been mentioned in Shahreza so far. In this study, we first attempt to study ethnography and locative properties of this ritual in Shahreza city and then compare its symbols and characteristics with other regions of Iran. Field research performed by interviewing locals and participant observation of the ritual and library resources were used to find out how the event is held elsewhere in Iran.
Tasua rituals are held in many areas to commemorate the martyrdom of Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas, performed in the form of Taziyeh, Rozah, etc. One of the other rituals that is performed more specifically in some cities of Iran is known as "candlelight", "forty-one pulpits", "forty pulpits" and "seven pulpits". In this ritual, the participants go to holy places and light candles.
The fortieth pulpit ritual has no history in religious texts and no trace of it can be found before the period of Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar. The oldest report of this ritual is written by Etemad-ol-Saltaneh in his memoirs from the ninth of Muharram 1300 (Etemad-ol-Saltaneh, 2006: 203-204). Mostofi, one of the statesmen of the late Qajar and early Pahlavi periods, also gave a critical account of the forty-first pulpit ritual, considering it to have no religious or hadith basis and due to the Iranians' respect for pre-Islamic light. (Baghi, quoted by Mostofi, 1324, vol. 1, pp. 406-408).
 
2. Methodology
To the best knowledge of the authors, 41 menbar in Shahreza is not studied so far. Here, for the first time, we are trying to collect field data about holding this ritual in Shahreza city through interviews with local knowledgeable people. Then, using the library resources, we can identify the presence of this ritual in other parts of Iran and make a comparative comparison of how this ritual is held in Shahreza and different parts of Iran.
In comparative comparison, the aim is to examine and categorize the similarities and differences of this ritual both in terms of form and content in different places.
 
3. Discussion
Shahreza Shahreza city center and the center of Shahreza city central part is located 410 km (aerial) south of Tehran and 74 km southeast of Isfahan on the way from Isfahan to Abadeh and Shiraz at 32 degrees and 30 minutes latitude and 51 degrees and 52 minutes longitude. . Shahreza used to be called "Qomsheh". In 1926, the name of this city was changed from Qomsheh to Shahreza. (Afshar Sistani, 2003, p. 437)
The city one of the religious cities of Iran with its Shiite Islamic culture. As the holding of rituals and rituals of Muharram in various forms with a long history remains today. There are reports in a number of travelogues about how Muharram mourning rituals are held in Qomsheh. The Hungarian orientalist Vamberi participated in one of the mourning rituals of Qomsheh in 1279 AH (1862 AD) and described how the processions of breastfeeding. (Vambery, 1993, p. 106)
One of the mourning rituals of Muharram in Shahreza is forty-one pulpits. A ritual that is performed from noon on Tasoa day to sunset by lighting candles in forty-one holy places. "Pulpit" is a term that refers to holy places such as shrines, shrines, mosques, husseiniyahs or places that have long been the place of "shrine". The participants of the forty-one pulpit ritual go to forty-one pulpits according to a predetermined path.
 Participants in the ritual have been preparing candles and moving chocolates since the days before Tasua. On the day of the ritual, most people carry bags and backpacks that contain candles and problems. In each of the pulpits, the owner of the pulpit or the person in charge of it has specified or installed a place for lighting candles. Next to the place to light the candle, there is a container for pouring the problem solvers. At each pulpit, participants light one of their candles and drop some problem-solving packages at the designated location. Along the way from one pulpit to another pulpit, people welcome participants with tea, syrup and votive offerings. Many women and children in this path receive problem-solving packages as a blessing from the participants. Along the path of the pulpits, it must be done on foot and sometimes barefoot.
According to the quotations, in the past, the first pulpit of Imamzadeh "Shah Seyyed Ali Akbar" was located in a village of the same name, but today it has been removed from the pulpits due to the distance. However, sometimes some people still go there by vehicle and perform the ritual. The second pulpit is a step called Khajeh Khezr and after that the third pulpit is the tomb of Seyedeh Khatoon. Khajeh Khezr footpath is located in the east of Shahreza city and in Arshabad desert. This place is a fenced garden where a building can be seen. Inside this building, there is an altar made of azure clay tiles and below it, there is a human right footprint on a stone. This footprint is attributed to the ever-living Prophet Hazrat Khajeh Khidr. The tomb has a large courtyard around which several rooms have been built and the tomb itself has a shrine and a simple shrine. Inside the shrine and in the eastern part of it, there is another place where there are two graves where two members of Al-Muzaffar are buried. (Jamali, 1995, pp. 141-142)
Although there is no report on the holding of the forty-first pulpit ritual in Shahreza, but various sources have mentioned about this ritual or similar rituals in other cities of Iran. In this report, we have tried to consider the three main elements of marching from pulpit to pulpit, donating sweets and lighting candles as the main criteria of similarity. The reported cases are different from what is being done in Shahreza, but the similarities are so great that one can basically consider them all the same. For example, Sir Percy Sykes, who held various positions in Iran from 1312 to 1336 AH, reported in his memoirs of the candle lighting ritual in a hexagonal column in the main square of Yazd. He says that the Muslims of Yazd and Kashan remember this ritual from their Zoroastrian ancestors (Sykes, 1397: 501), but does not directly refer to the ritual of forty pulpits. In Kerman, forty pulpits were taken in houses with old trees. For example, in the house of the plane trees next to the Malek Mosque, local youths were appointed to light candles, and people brought dates, figs, and sweets there with candles. (Agha Abbasi, 1391: 437). There are also reports of not exactly the same, but similar rituals. For example, in some areas of Gilan, there is a similar ritual called forty bowls or forty plates in which it is not necessary to light a candle. In this ritual, which is held on the night of Ashura, the voter goes to forty pillars or forty mosques and picks up some rice from forty congregations or forty bowls. This pilaf is eaten only by its collector (Payende, 1976, pp. 191-192). In Tehran, this ritual has been mentioned in reports and memoirs with forty-one pulpits or forty pulpits. In his memoirs, Etemad al-Satna mentions the ritual somewhere in the forty pulpits and somewhere in the forty-one pulpits.
In Birjand, the ritual of seven pulpits is held in the evening of Tasua and Ashura (Rezaei, 2002, p. 477). In Kashan, forty pulpits is called "candle lighting" and performed by men and women. Hours before sunset on the day of Tasoa, the vows and those who are interested in participating in this ritual hold 72 candles in memory of the 72 martyrs of Ashura and perform ablution, purification in shrines, mosques, etc.
In Lorestan, black-clad and masked girls with bare feet go around the mourning rituals and husseiniyahs of the city as a group from the first morning of Ashura and light a candle with different intentions, especially in fortune-telling in every meeting and mourning rituals (Yavari, 2009, p. 94).
In some parts of Ardabil, 40 candles are lit in 40 mosques, and when some of the pan water is lit, they bring the mosque with them for blessing and healing, and in some areas, this ritual is performed with 41 or 42 candles (Shoaa et al., 2013, p. 77).
This ritual is performed in Zanjan on the third day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and after the women's fasting ritual. In this shrine, a large assembly with 50 lit candles is placed in the middle of the room and another assembly containing some wheat is placed next to it. The women who take part in the ritual turn off each lit candle and take it with them for blessing, as well as put a few grains of wheat in their mouths for healing (Shoaa et al., 2013, p. 77).
In the ritual of forty pulpits in northern Iran, those who have had prayers in their homes during the year, on the night of Ashura, take out a pulpit with two or three steps and sometimes a table or a stool on which the Rozah is recited, and draw black or green cloths on it and next to the house. they let. Then they place a pan or tray or similar container in which they have made a clay flower a few centimeters in diameter to place the candle. A container containing some rice is also placed next to the tray (Darya Gasht, 1996, pp. 113-114) (Parto, Keshvardoost, 1993, pp. 149-150).
 
4. Conclusion
The analysis of this comparative study results in the following:
1. There is a difference in the time of performance (whether in terms of which day of Muharram the ritual is performed or in what hours of the day and night it is done) in different regions of Iran. For example, in Gilan and Mazandaran, Ashura night rituals are performed, and in Birjand, the development of Tasua and Ashura.
2. The gender of the performers is different between men and women in different places. In Shahreza, the main performers are men and in Birjand, women.
3. The number of pulpits varies. In Boroujerd, the ritual is performed with forty pulpits and in Birjand with seven pulpits.
4. Donations are varied and include chocolate, dates and even rice.
5. The ritual has the aspect of making a vow in all cases, and this vow is accompanied by mourning. This mourning is related to the Ashura event and the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS) everywhere in Iran, which is the most important mourning for the Shiites.
6. Two elements of sweets (in the form of chocolate, dates, etc.) and fire (candles, lanterns, etc.) are observed in all cases. It is even possible to consider donating sweets to the fire as the theme of the ritual.