الأبعاد الفكرية و العقائدية لزيارة الأربعين

Abstract EN

The research on the Arbaeen pilgrimage as a phenomenon is not a product of the present, neither a product of transient moments isolated of the social conditions and circumstances it produced, rather a result of arithmetic accumulated through an objective reality that has deepened in Arab-Islamic history and was rooted in the popular memory as well as it overlapped with time-space factors, so it created a collective consciousness that extended to the depth of the present life to appear in rituals, ceremonies and decrees that expressed and still express the depth of the tragedy in the memory of Muslims.

From the perspective of sociology, religious thought was and still is the way people think in their social life, especially in the Arab-Islamic society that was founded with a religious vision and remained so, with few partial differences in practice that do not underrate the importance of the vision and its effectiveness in society.

The phenomenon of the Arbaeen pilgrimage of Imam Hussein "pbuh" on the 20th of Islamic month of Safar each year, has assumed prominence as a religious ritual representing a symbol associated with the divine message of the last prophet Mohammed "pbuh", and as an inherited ritual that subjected to the attention of the contemporary specialists of religious and human sciences, as this phenomenon is steadily increasing as a result of its emergence from the local scope into the global one, especially after the fall of the totalitarian regime in Iraq in 2003 and the collapse of its institutions and tools of governance, so the Arbaeen pilgrimage has emerged remarkably, and has grown and participated by increasing number of beleivers on yearly basis, not to mention how different cultures are overlapping during the practicing of its ceremonies as this phenomenon has been characterized by a religious, social, political, economic and cultural nature, so it is natural that the circle of interest to study this phenomenon and knowing its motives and the reasons that led to its expansion, to be grown in such a large format, while studying it in such way will provide some of the knowledge neccesary for those motives and reasons.

The main objective of the research is to study this phenomenon and to read it from the inside according to an analytical approach to figure out the factors and reasons that led to its aggravation and expansion after the fall of the Baath regime in 2003, and to investigate the social relations and the result they produce during the participation in the Arbaeen walk from large distances, as the social and cultural traditions are exchanging among the different communities practicing this walk, as well as the ability to use the political and religious form of the phenomenon by the institutions, movements and parties that support this phenomenon to constitute the largest phenomenon of collective behavior in Iraq throughout the ages.

Anthropologists believe that folklore is an imitation to the traditions and of popular customs rooted in folk imagination and cannot be easily changed even if generations, social and economic systems were changed, because their characteristics are transmitting sensually or unconsciously from generation to another, and if there is any change or development according to the results, needs and influences, then they do not lose their specificities and meanings or even their popular flavor, because they are firmly rooted in the popular imagination, especially if they were rituals and ceremonies linked to religious, patriotic and social feelings.