Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The concept of the emāmzāda in Iranian Muslim Practice and Devotion

While reading ‘Ali Dashti’s Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohamad, I came across this footnote:

 

An emāmzāda is a son, daughter, or descendant of an Emām and thus a scion of ‘Ali and Fātema. Tombs of emāmzādas are found in many Iranian villages and towns and are visited by devotees who address appeals for help or intercession to the emāmzāda, either orally or in writing on a piece of paper or cloth called a dakhil. Many of these shrines are domed, and some are very old. Some may have been tombs of local saints or Sufi votaries. In most cases, no information about the careers, let alone the genealogies, of the revered persons have come down; nevertheless they are all popularly supposed to be descendants of Emāms. (‘Ali Dashti, Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohamad [tarns. F.R.C. Bagley; Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1994], 212 n. 26)

 

The mention of intercession by the living to the dead in a strand of Islam is interesting, as Islam lacks what the New Testament explicitly teaches: an intercessor who is not just a past, but also a present-propitiation (cf. 1 John 2:1-2; Heb 2:17; cf. Rev 5:5-6).

 

The following article in the Encyclopaedia Iranica is of interest:

 

EMĀMZĀDA i. Function and devotional practice