Saqaei is to lament the sufferings experienced by the family of Prophet Muhammad, in particular Imam Husayn and his companions, in the form of a collective and coordinated monody without sineh-zani, zanjir-zani, and playing cymbals or drums.
The dhikrs (litanies) are recited in the form of poetry and sorrowful monodies based on Iranian traditional and folk music.
The ritual of saqaei in Nushabad starts from the night after Eid-e Ghadir and continues until the Day of Ashura and is performed in five congregation halls (hussainiya) located in different neighbourhoods of the town.
The participants (saqakhanan) are divided into two groups. Then, each group is divided into two groups again: the leaders and the followers.
The main parts of the elegy are sung by the two leading groups, and the groups of followers, whose numbers is usually more than the former, chant the tarji-band (a repeating verse in a poem) or the second hemistich (after the first is sung by the leaders), in response.
While performing this ritual, music is also played in different Iranian traditional musical modes.
Having four groups of leaders and followers, monodies based on traditional Persian music, the type of poems used, and wide participation by people are some unique features of Nushabad’s saqaei.
The notebook, on which saqaei poems are written, is the only tool needed.
In documents from various historical periods such as the book Fotovat-Name-ye Saqayan and a qalandar-nameh from the time of Shah Suleiman, the Safavid ruler, the close connection between saqaei and the events of Ashura is particularly evident.
Moreover, there is strong evidence showing that naive pupils of saqaei were obliged to walk across the town with chained feet and carry a sack filled with gravel weighing 15 kg from the evening of the ninth day of Muharram until two o’clock in the afternoon of the Day of Ashura.
Meanwhile, they had to recite elegies about the prophets and the martyrs of Karbala. All these hardships were endured in order to achieve the position of a saqaei master.
