The Rite of Urban Passage: The Spatial Ritualization of Iranian Urban Transformation

The Iranian city experienced a major transformation when the Pahlavi Dynasty initiated a project of modernization in the 1920s. The Rite of Urban Passage investigates this process by focusing on the spatial dynamics of Muharram processions, a ritual that commemorates the tragic massacre of Hussein and his companions in 680 CE. In doing so, this volume offers not only an alternative approach to understanding the process of urban transformation, but also a spatial genealogy of Muharram rituals that provides a platform for developing a fresh spatial approach to ritual studies.

Reza Masoudi is a native southwestern Iranian who lives in London, where he is currently a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London. He has been a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies (ZMO), Berlin. He is an urbanist whose work focuses on the geography of crowds and protests, urban violence, and studies of religious rituals in public spaces in Iran and India.