Religious ceremonies during Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar relying on Tekyeh Dowlat

Abstract

The reign of Nasser al-Din Shah Qaiar was nothing more than his efforts to establish modernity in all parts of the society. However, one of the obstacles for the king to achieve this goal was the clergy and their power and influence among the masses. Nevertheless, to establish religious independence without relying on the clergy as well as to maintain religious legitimacy among the people, Nasser al-Din Shah tried to hold lavish religious ceremonies at his court. In this respect, however, he needed a new structure in religious affairs. The paper focuses on the importance of court religious ceremonies during Nasser al-Din Shah by relying on Tekyeh Dowlat (State Theatre). In other words, the government seat was considered to be a key in the religious independence of Naser al-Din Shah. He took the first step to a make a transition from the existing religious doctrines by constructing a seat of governance not on the Islamic architectural principles rather imitating the Western ones. As a matter of fact, it was for the first time in the Iranian history, political and European representatives were required to attend religious ceremonies. Also special seats for the royal family and court women were reserved in this building while the clergy were left out entirely. In fact, this was the only case in which religious ceremonies were held without any attachment to the clergy class and their roles in such affairs.

Keywords

• tekyeh dowlat
• nasser al-din shah qajar
• ta’ziyeh
• religious ceremonies
• qajar architecture