ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author refrains from dealing once again with the much-discussed question of the origin and development of those dramatic performances, but shall confine myself to pointing out that many authors writing about the passion-play have hinted at the sceptical or even highly critical attitude of certain Shi'ite 'ulama' towards both the content of those plays and the way they are performed. It singles out the problem of their attitude towards the practice of chest-beating and the use of chains and swords for self-torture during the processions. The general problem of the ambivalent attitude of the Shi'te 'ulama' towards certain beliefs and practices in "popular" Shi'ite Islam, among them the flagellations of Muharram, is at least touched upon in an article by a Shi'ite scholar from Iran teaching in Germany, i.e. Abdoldjavad Falaturi: Die Zwolferschia aus der Sicht eines Schiiten.
