Takiya Dawlat and its applications

Lamentation rituals and expression of grief for the martyred figures of Karbala has been one of the long-standing ceremonies of Iranian community particularly when Shiism was officially pronounced. More exclusively it was rated highly and widely in the Qajar era for acquiring people's legitimacy. In this period every class and category showed interest to hold mourning sessions and they were trying to earn the worldly and the life hereafter rewards and leave a good name behind through constructing and dedicating religious theater. At the time of Naser al-Din Shah 's reign the sessions held for lamentation boomed and grew vigorously. In the year 1290 A.H, on the basis of Qajar's king decree a religious theater was constructed for the very purpose by the engineers and architects. But this period lasted little and the ceremonies suffered their downfall with the demise of Naser al-Din Shah. And it was Reza Shah who even outlawed holding such ceremonies. In the year 1325 (solar calendar) the order of destruction of the “governmental religious theater” was issued. The present article would deal with the lexical meaning of governmental religious theater, its construction, technical characteristics, the method the mourning ceremonies were held in and the next applications and utilities it had.