Abstract

Engaging an ethnohistorical approach, this essay examines how the Qutb Shahi sultans represented themselves locally and regionally through the use of built space, sponsorship of ritual and innovation of material practices that enabled diverse constituents of the realm to participate in and remember the martyrdom of the third Shi'i Imam Husain at the battle of Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE in ways that made Shiʿism an Indian religion. I use a case study engaging material culture and built space in imperial Hyderabad to demonstrate how the Qutb Shahi sultans became Deccani, using Shiʿism as both an expression of their identity and a polyvalent religio-cultural mediation with the Hindu majority communities over which they ruled. The essay examines the Charminar of the fifth sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (r. 1580–1612), the monumental gateway to the new city of Hyderabad, as a polyvalent symbol of their status as Shi'i upholders of dharmic kingship.

Highlights

  • Engaging an ethnohistorical approach, this essay examines how the Qutb Shahi sultans represented themselves locally and regionally through the use of built space, sponsorship of ritual and innovation of material practices that enabled diverse constituents of the realm to participate in and remember the martyrdom of the third Shii Imam Husain at the battle of Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE in ways that made Shiism an Indian religion

  • The time that I spent in attending majālis, mourning assemblies commemorating the events of the battle of Karbala in 680 CE, in theāshūrkhānas and visiting the many sacred Shii sites in Hyderabad’s Old City made me aware that this place is a religious sensorium, a symbolically rich social space (Chau 2008) through which ritual practitioners engage with material objects and the body to produce sense-experiences that trigger historical memory and invoke the presence of the Imams and Ahl-e Bait

  • Built in 1591, the Charminar was erected by the fifth sultan of the Shii Qutb Shahi dynasty, Muhammad Quli (r. 1580–1612), to mark the center of his new capital, Hyderabad

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Summary

Introduction

This essay examines how the Qutb Shahi sultans represented themselves locally and regionally through the use of built space, sponsorship of ritual and innovation of material practices that enabled diverse constituents of the realm to participate in and remember the martyrdom of the third Shii Imam Husain at the battle of Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE in ways that made Shiism an Indian religion. Through close analysis of the Charminar and the layout of the area around this axis of sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah’s new capital, Hyderabad, Eaton and Wagoner, argue that these Shii kings drew their inspiration not from Safavid Iran but from the Śaiva Kakatiya dynasty

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