Thread by @Yael_Rice

Visited many places in Lucknow recently on a brief, but packed, study tour. Among these, one of the more interesting was the Chota ("small") Imambara, built in 1838 by Muhammad ‘Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh. This is a thread about that site. 1/18

The 19C architecture was fascinating, but it was devotees’ ritual use of the site that most intrigued me. Constructed of brick & stucco, metal, paper, and dirt, the complex’s models of West Asian funerary monuments are, for Shi‘as, at once replicas and the things themselves. 2/18

It’s important to understand that imambaras are used by Shi‘a Muslims for mourning ceremonies during the month of Muhurram to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Husayn (d. 680 AD), son of Imam ‘Ali & grandson of the Prophet. 3/18

Imambaras are also used to store replicas (known as ta‘ziyas) of Husayn’s & his family’s mausoleums in Karbala, Iraq. These models figure centrally in Muhurram processions, where they perform the important function of linking Shi‘a Muslims to events distant in space & time. 4/18

Although more diminutive than the earlier Bara (“BIG”) Imambara down the street, the Chota Imambara definitely packs a punch. It houses dozens & dozens of mirrors, lamps, and chandeliers, the glass & crystal for which was sourced from Europe. 5/18

The abundance of light and reflective surfaces makes (and would have made) for a stunning display of illumination and state-of the-art technologies. Light of course enjoys a central place in Shi‘a (among other Muslim) devotional practices. 6/18

The Nawab and his mother, furthermore, are buried _inside_ the Chota Imambara, making the building an extraordinarily imbricated commemorative space. This pic shows the Nawab’s encased crown located adjacent to his textile-adorned cenotaph. 7/18

And then there are the ta‘ziyas themselves, here shown in sizes big and small, accompanied by alams, or battle standards, which are paraded during Ashura (10th of Muhurram), the death anniversary of Imam Husayn. Ta‘ziyas, as the 3rd photo reveals, are objects of devotion. 8/18

Perhaps my favorite part of the Chota complex was a temporary exhibition on the life & martyrdom of Fatima, daughter of the Prophet and wife of ‘Ali. Shi‘a Muslims consider Fatima to be a martyr because she died after an attack on her & ‘Ali’s home by ‘Umar & his supporters. 9/18

Housed in a tent in the courtyard, the exh. echoed the architecture of ephemerality that lies at the heart of Shi‘a devotional practices. It opened with a replica of the blood-stained door of Fatima’s home. The exh. also included a replica of the house itself (see 2nd pic). 10/18

...and a model (!) of the houses of the Prophet’s family arranged around a central courtyard. 11/18

After viewing these miniature models, the exhibition then transitioned into the spaces themselves. Here, our exhibition guide informed us, we are standing inside Fatima’s house. The second pic shows Fatima's room. 12/18

We then entered a room whose floor was covered with dirt, on which someone had formed tiny cenotaphs made of mud. Labels on hastily cut paper ID’d these as the graves of ‘Abbas, Fatima, ‘Ali, & other Shi‘a Imams. Another label reads “Jannat al-Baqiʿ,” a cemetery in Medina. 13/18

Here the exhibition took a curious turn for the guide declared that “THESE are the graves of the Prophet’s family.” “You can see the real ones in Medina, but these are the graves,” he explained. The replicas, it seemed, were not just replicas. 14/18

And then a woman in the crowd fell to her knees, grazed the “replica” mud cenotaphs with her hand, and then held her fingers to her lips. She instructed her daughter to do the same. The earnestness of this devotional act left me completely stunned. 15/18

To conclude: 1) what is ‘real’ is not a universally agreed upon, settled matter; 2) architecture & material culture can be both symbolically and literally transporting; & 3) go to Lucknow! It is an amazing city, yet remains sorely under-visited by non-Shi‘a tourists. 16/18

And finally, for more on Shi‘a architecture in Lucknow and vicinity, see the work of Catherine Asher, Hussein Keshani, Banmali Tandan, Chanchal Dadlani, and Holly Shaffer. 17/18

Shaffer’s article “An Architecture of Ephemerality” is the most on topic & is freely downloadable here: journal18.org/issue4/an-arch… 18/18