From Karbala to Rawalpindi: An ethnographic reading of Torsten Helin's "The Karbala Story and Early Shiite Identity" and an analysis of representations of the Husseini memory

Abstract

This research aims to explore the representations of Karbala and Ashura rituals in both social and historical contexts through an integrated approach combining ethnographic observation and historical analysis. The first chapter analyzes a field description of Ashura commemorations in Rawalpindi, Pakistan (1993), as narrated by Swedish researcher Torsten Hylén, revealing the symbolic, bodily, and emotional dimensions of Shi‘i ritual performance. The second chapter examines the historical and intellectual framework of the Karbala tragedy and the formation of early Shi‘ism, highlighting how this event shaped Shi‘i collective memory and the concepts of Imamate, Wilayah, and identity.         The study concludes that Husayni rituals function not merely as religious acts but as a symbolic system that reproduces collective consciousness over time. Karbala thus emerges as a universal paradigm of sacrifice and resistance, reinterpreted across generations according to cultural and political contexts.