tazia

plural tazias · alternative ta'ziya · alternative taziya · alternative tazeea

1. countableA representation of the tombs of Hasan and Husayn (the grandsons of Muhammad), carried in the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean Shiite processions of Muharram.

   Gilt and paper presentations of their tombs are borne with shouting and wailing, music, torches, and yells, through the principal thoroughfares of the City; which fakements are called tazias.

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘On the City Wall’, In Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, page 437

   1 more example

   ‘What is the use of all these reforms, and Conciliation Committees for Mohurram, and shall we cut the tazia short or shall we carry it another route, and Councils of Notables and official parties where the English sneer at our skins?’

   1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 107

   Synonyms: taboot

2. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of ta'ziyeh (“a dramatic art form of Iran performed by Shiites and reenacting the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali at the Battle of Karbala, usually performed in the month of Muharram”)