Research Institute of Culture, Art and Communication Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Journal of Culture-Communication Studies 2008-8760 25 65 2024 04 20 The power of the holy time An anthropological study about the actions of Iraqis in the days related to Ashura The power of the holy time An anthropological study about the actions of Iraqis in the days related to Ashura 123 160 197411 10.22083/jccs.2024.380437.3701 FA Abdolhamid Bayat Researcher of Imam Hossein (AS) Officer Training and Guard Training University. 0000-0002-7539-1582 Mohammad Taghi Karami Ghahi Associate Professor of Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran; mt.karami@yahoo.com 0000-0003-4102-9056 Journal Article 2023 01 09 The actions of Iraqi people during Arbaeen are different from their current actions throughout the year and from the normal actions of people all over the world. Hospitality, kindness, respect, provision of water and food, free house and car by Iraqis for pilgrims, and things like that, make an unusual experience for every participant in this event. What is the characteristic of Arbaeen that makes such an event happen? Geertz's method of interpretive anthropology is considered to reach the desired answer. Data collection has been done over many years and more than twenty trips to Iraq and 14 times on walking from Najaf to Karbala on the occasions of Arbaeen, Arafah and half of Sha'ban between 1387 and 1401 but the achievement of the final interpretation and the birth of key concepts to pass from description to interpretation occurred with a trip to Karbala on the day of Ashura in the year 1401. As a result of the research, the importance of the issue of "time" and "the ability of time to give meaning to the world" have been introduced as the main factors in the occurrence of such actions. "Temporal confusion", "temporal excitation" and "Intertemporal movement" are concepts capable of describing those specific actions. These concepts show why and how Iraqis show those unique actions only on those special days. In these days, Iraqis' linear understanding of the movement of time has turned into a circular understanding of it, and it intersects the past, present, and future, and after the end of these days, the understanding of time returns to the same linear understanding and the secret of the fundamental difference between the actions of Iraqis in the days related to the Ashura incident and other days lies in this difference in the understanding of time.<br /><br />Data collection has been done over more than twenty trips to Iraq and 14 times on walking from Najaf to Karbala on the occasions of Arbaeen, Arafah and half of Sha'ban between 1387 and 1401 but the achievement of the final interpretation and the birth of key concepts to pass from description to interpretation occurred with a trip to Karbala on the day of Ashura in the year 1401. As a result of the research, the importance of the issue of "time" and "the ability of time to give meaning to the world" have been introduced as the main factors in the occurrence of such actions. "Temporal confusion", "temporal excitation" and "Intertemporal movement" are concepts capable of describing those specific actions. These concepts show why and how Iraqis show those unique actions only on those special days. The actions of Iraqi people during Arbaeen are different from their current actions throughout the year and from the normal actions of people all over the world. Hospitality, kindness, respect, provision of water and food, free house and car by Iraqis for pilgrims, and things like that, make an unusual experience for every participant in this event. What is the characteristic of Arbaeen that makes such an event happen? Geertz's method of interpretive anthropology is considered to reach the desired answer. Data collection has been done over many years and more than twenty trips to Iraq and 14 times on walking from Najaf to Karbala on the occasions of Arbaeen, Arafah and half of Sha'ban between 1387 and 1401 but the achievement of the final interpretation and the birth of key concepts to pass from description to interpretation occurred with a trip to Karbala on the day of Ashura in the year 1401. As a result of the research, the importance of the issue of "time" and "the ability of time to give meaning to the world" have been introduced as the main factors in the occurrence of such actions. "Temporal confusion", "temporal excitation" and "Intertemporal movement" are concepts capable of describing those specific actions. These concepts show why and how Iraqis show those unique actions only on those special days. In these days, Iraqis' linear understanding of the movement of time has turned into a circular understanding of it, and it intersects the past, present, and future, and after the end of these days, the understanding of time returns to the same linear understanding and the secret of the fundamental difference between the actions of Iraqis in the days related to the Ashura incident and other days lies in this difference in the understanding of time.<br /><br />Data collection has been done over more than twenty trips to Iraq and 14 times on walking from Najaf to Karbala on the occasions of Arbaeen, Arafah and half of Sha'ban between 1387 and 1401 but the achievement of the final interpretation and the birth of key concepts to pass from description to interpretation occurred with a trip to Karbala on the day of Ashura in the year 1401. As a result of the research, the importance of the issue of "time" and "the ability of time to give meaning to the world" have been introduced as the main factors in the occurrence of such actions. "Temporal confusion", "temporal excitation" and "Intertemporal movement" are concepts capable of describing those specific actions. These concepts show why and how Iraqis show those unique actions only on those special days. https://www.jccs.ir/article_197411_a2a307a0a9d43916add628832e9eba69.pdf