While there is growing interest in the role of senses in the history of Islam (Lange 2022), very little attention has been given to sensory approaches to Shiʿi Islam in South Asia (Wolf 2017; Bard 2015; Hyder 2006), an already “peripheral” area of Islamic Studies (Fuchs 2019). This paper explores the engagement of the senses in Shiʿi Muharram rituals in the Indian subcontinent. I argue that the interconnection of the sensorium with South Asian Shiʿi devotional practices functioned in three important ways: 1) it vernacularized Shiism to the South Asia setting, making it more accessible and familiar; 2) established a transregional connection between the Arab Islamic world and South Asian Islam; and 3) allowed for inclusion and cross-cultural encounters in a religiously diverse landscape. This paper examines the Urdu Shiʿi lament genre, the majlis (mourning gathering) and marsiya (elegy), developed alongside the Safavids and flourishing under Nawabi patronage. The Urdu marsiya and majlis take the martyrdom of Husain at Karbala (680 CE, Iraq) and place it squarely within the South Asian setting, often through highlighting the Indian-ness of Husain or writing local cultural traditions into narratives. Through the experience of the Shiʿi sensorium, the poetry of the marsiya, laden with local inflections and recited amidst the majlis space—itself filled with lighted incense and displays of Shiʿi material relics garlanded with fresh roses—removed a foreign, Arab context whilst still forging strong links to a sacred (shared, Islamic) past. I argue that the role of the senses in the use of ‘Indian’ music, poetry, and objects engaged local sensibilities and emotions that shaped important connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Arab Islamic world and helped to firmly establish Shiʿi Islam within the realm of ‘South Asian’ religions.
While there is growing interest in the role of senses in the history of Islam (Lange 2022), very little attention has been given to sensory approaches to Shiʿi Islam in South Asia (Wolf 2017; Bard 2015; Hyder 2006), an already “peripheral” area of Islamic Studies (Fuchs 2019). This paper explores the engagement of the senses in Shiʿi rituals in the Indian subcontinent. Examining the Urdu Shiʿi lament genre, I argue that the interconnection of the sensorium with South Asian Shiʿi devotional practices functioned in three important ways to shape Shiʿism in South Asia. I argue that the role of the senses in the use of ‘Indian’ music, poetry, and objects engaged local sensibilities and emotions that shaped important connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Arab Islamic world and helped to firmly establish Shiʿi Islam within the realm of ‘South Asian’ religions.