Ḥeğleh, Pavilions of Light for Commemorating the Dead in Shiite Iran

In this short contribution the author investigates a hitherto unnoticed aspectof Iranian material religion, namely memorial structures for the dead,especially young male martyrs. These illuminated pavilion-shaped structuresare called ḥeğleh, a term which refers to the ḥeğleh-ye ‘arūsī, the beautifullydecorated bridal chamber, and evokes the commemoration of the youngmartyr Qāsem ibn al-Ḥasan, who could not consummate his marriage duringthe battle of Karbala. The devotional practice of setting up a ḥeğleh for aspecific period of time (three, seven or even forty days) either on the street infront of the home of the deceased or in front of the shop where he hadworked apparently evolved throughout the ۲۰th centuryor even earlier. Thismemorial structure, which is made by a specialised carpenter, shows formalresemblances to a pavilion as well as to a crown and is often embellished withmirror work and even with a portrait of the deceased. In addition to roundstructures, one finds rectangular ones with six columns. In the context of Shiʻipiety, such richly decorated ḥeğlehs become a materialisation of thecommemoration of the dead.

کلیدواژه ها:

Materielle Religion ، Schiiten ، Gedenken an die Toten ، Licht