Page 286 - Neglected Arabia 1906-1910 (Vol-1)
P. 286
]SiEGIiHGTED
April - Jane, 1908.
THE PASSION* PLAV AT liAHKEIX.
UR. S. J. THOMS.
This is the tenth of Muliarrcm, the Mohammedan sacred month,
llie ilay on which I lusscin, tlie grandson ot the prophet 孓[ohammecl,
was killed on the plains of their now sacred city, Kerhcla, in
A. D. 6So.
In commemoration ot this event a drama was written of which
Sir Lewis Pelly says, “If the success of the drama is to be measured
l)y tlie effect it proiluccs upon the people tor wliom it is composed or
upon the audiences before whom it is represented, no play lias ever
surpassed the tragedy known in tlie Moslem world as tliat ot
and Hussein. Matthew Arnold, in his E>>ays on Criticism, elegantly
sketches the story and effect of this Persian Passion Play, while
Macaulay’s Essay on Lord Clive has encircled tho Mystery with
a halo of immortality.”
I wish I might give you a review of tins great play which by
tho Shiali sect of Islam (at least 15.000.cxx) people) is revered almost
above the Koran.
