SYMPOSIA: The Graduate Student Journal of the Centre Spring 2009 for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto vol. 1, no. 1 Pedagogies of Piety: Shi’i Children’s Books, Ethics and the Emergence of the Pious Subject Edith Szanto Centre for the Study of Religion University of Toronto
[email protected] It was the last day of summer- the age of three, one should teach school at one of the dozen or so Shi‘i toddlers how to say ‗lā illāha ill allah,‘ Muslim seminaries in Syria. Female (‗there is no God but God,‘) and seven teachers dressed in black abayas were months later, how to say ‗Muhammadun running around hurriedly setting up a rasūl-Allah,‘ (‗Muhammad is God‘s little party which was going to include a Messenger‘). At the age of five, one speech, small gifts and a three-story should teach children the difference vanilla cake. I was chatting with my between left and right, as this is crucial classmate Fatima, a mid-twenties single for table manners, bathroom-hygiene from Baghdad, when the party finally and prayer. Next, children need to be started. After the girls from the first level, shown how to perform the individual who all below the age of nine, had units of daily prayer, and when they discordantly sung a religious hymn or reach six, they should be taught how to two, Um Hussayn the theology teacher pray. Just before reaching the age of and back-up mullaya also led a couple nine, daughters must be instructed on of chants as a prelude to the Islamic law how to ritually wash, so that they may instructor‘s sermon.