© S. M. Hadi Gerami and Ali Imran Syed, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004691377_011 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY- NC- ND 4.0 license. Chapter 9 Turbat al-Husayn Development of a Tabarruk Ritual in Early Shiʿi Community S. M. Hadi Gerami and Ali Imran Syed Considering the significance of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn in Karbala and its role in developing collective Shiʿi identity1 during the first Islamic cen- tury (Anno Hegirae, hereafter AH), any relevant associations would come to be seen as symbolic, becoming part of the sacred memory of the Imami (Twelver) Shiʿi community. Pilgrimage visits and material objects, such as the soil taken from Husayn’s grave, would play a pivotal role in this regard.2 In the context of reviving his memory and recounting his status, the grave soil of Husayn has occupied a prominent position. The Shiʿi imams presented it as an object through which the community could strengthen its physical and spiritual dimensions. The related reports can illustrate how the soil was fundamentally presented as a source of blessing and that these blessings were mainly to be pursued by, though not limited to, therapeutic oral use, and how much of the subsequent discourse revolved around the conditions, names, and advantages of its use and other uses. These statements are made despite the absolute prohibition by Shiʿi jurists of orally consuming any other soil (Al-Khuʾi 1991, 88), as well as the chastisement of those who consume soil from the graves of any other imam. The venerative history of the soil can be seen in the formation of certain rituals, such as placing the soil in a newborn’s palate, tasting it for recuperation, and using it to break the fasting month of Ramadan on the feast of Eid al-Fitr. 1 What is meant by collective identity in this chapter is a sense of belonging to a social group that is formed and shaped through the collective memories of that group. A collective mem- ory is comprised of cultural and communicative memories of the past that are widely shared amongst community members and binds them together. See, Brunner (2005, 318–360). 2 Babak Rahimi and Peyman Eshaghi (2019, 7) in their collection of essays provide a thematic account of Muslim ziyāra (pilgrimage). They consider the performance of ziyāra less about how Islamic it is and more about what different ways pilgrims perceive, undertake, express, and internalize the performance. In this light, tabarruk rituals are subordinate to the perfor- mance of ziyāra and are to be seen as merely one of many other significant practices that occur during pilgrimage. S. M. Hadi Gerami and Ali Imran Syed - 9789004691377 Downloaded from Brill.com 06/23/2024 04:17:17PM via Open Access. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/