What is the origin of the ritual of Ashura? (part 5)

On page 11, the author focused mostly on dramatizing the battle of Karbala . He stressed again the role played by the Safavid to promote the Muharram rituals.

The appearance of the shabih (this is the play) in Iran might have been inspired by the Christian Corpus Christi Processions, the theater of the Stations of the Cross, or by the European Corpus Christi plays of the post-Renaissance period which reenacted various events in the passion of Christ culminating in his crucifixion and resurrection.

Why make such statement when you don't even have a shred of evidence? Persian theater goes back a thousand years before the birth of Christ. Perhaps the Safavid Iran played an important role to popularize that form of ritual/expression, but what I object is the manner on how the author generalized something with very little evidence.

It seems that he either contradicted himself or was unclear on the practice because in the same paragraph he also said

It may also be that in its initial carnival type format the Shabih incorporated some features of ancient Iranian practices like the use of banners and horses in funeral processions.

He then cited some contributions from Allama al-Majlisi in consolidating the Shabih.

In the 18 century (after the downfall of the Safavid) right up to the 19th century, a new form of ritual called the taziya was observed. The author said

The straightforward form of the shabih gave way to a more theatrical form, the taziya play, which was enacted on stage. As Miller suggested, the appearance of a theatrical form coincided with literary developments, most notably the use of a new dramatic literary genre instead of the old narrating literature.

He also said

While the main theme was still the battle of Karbala, much stress was laid on individual heroes around whom separate plays were written. To create a greater effect, authors of the taziya plays added new characters and transformed existing ones.

There is a mention of some limitation enforced by a mujtahid. The footnote points to a translation of Qummi's fatwa (found in Mayel Baktash, "Taziyeh and its Philosophy," in Peter Chelkowski, Taziyeh, pp. 107-108. Parts of this fatwa and that of Ha'iri's are cited by 'Abd al-Rida Kashif al-Ghita', al-Anwar al-husayniyya, pt. 2, pp. 77-79).

I don't have a clue what this is referring to but maybe someone knows. If so, please leave a note here.

Please continue reading part 6.