This book describes what Shiism means to those who actually practice it and serves as both an excellent introduction to the subject and an original work of scholarship.

This book describes what Shiism means to those who actually practice it and serves as both an excellent introduction to the subject and an original work of scholarship.

Horse of Karbala is a study of Muharram rituals and interfaith relations in three locations in India: Ladakh, Darjeeling, and Hyderabad. These rituals commemorate an event of vital importance to Shia Muslims: the seventh-century death of the Imam Husain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battlefield of Karbala in Iraq. Pinault examines three different forms of ritual commemoration of Husain's death - poetry-recital and self-flagellation in Hyderabad; stick-fighting in Darjeeling; and the 'Horse of Karbala' procession, in which a stallion representing the mount ridden in battle by...

This book explores the richness of Pakistans religious landscape, giving attention to a number of topics: Shia flagellation processions, Urdu-language pulp fiction, streetside rituals involving animals (pariah-kites and fortune-telling parrots), and the use of sorcery to contend with the jinns that are believed to infest cities such as Lahore. Uniting these topics is an investigation of how Islamist politicians seek to eradicate sectarian diversity and repress localized forms of Muslim folk practices in the name of a standardized, uniform, and globalized version of Islam. The book looks at...

This book explores the richness of Pakistans religious landscape, giving attention to a number of topics: Shia flagellation processions, Urdu-language pulp fiction, streetside rituals involving animals (pariah-kites and fortune-telling parrots), and the use of sorcery to contend with the jinns that are believed to infest cities such as Lahore. Uniting these topics is an investigation of how Islamist politicians seek to eradicate sectarian diversity and repress localized forms of Muslim folk practices in the name of a standardized, uniform, and globalized version of Islam. The book looks at...

Francis Valerian Hammond: the most gifted young Egyptologist of his generation-or a crackpot so unstable that he merits his current residence in the locked ward of a psychiatric facility? Scrawled writings from his cell hint at a lost treasure known as King Solomon's Wand-an artifact that Hammond claims somehow links the Egyptian prince Khaemwaset, son of pharaoh Ramses the Great, with otherworldly visitors called the Seraphs. Despised and isolated, Hammond finds his claims laughed off by all his onetime academic colleagues-all except his old friend Ricky Atlas, a grad-school dropout and...

"Horse of Karbala" is a study of Muharram rituals and interfaith relations in three locations in India: Ladakh, Darjeeling, and Hyderabad."