Islamic music

Islamic Music includes music of the Middle East and Islamic Africa and South-east Asia such as Arab classical music, Persian classical music, Turkish classical music, and North Indian classical music. (Jenkins and Olsen 1976, p.1)

Prohibition

There is nothing in the Koran forbidding music, indeed music was played at the weddings of both Muhammad and his daughter (ibid), but there are later texts explaining issues not covered by the Koran. Some of these hadith (sayings) contain prohibitions of pleasure, implying that it is wrong to play or hear music. There is a book called the Haquida which contains a sentiment that most strict Muslims would agree with: "It is haram (forbidden) in every din to read with taghanni (singers) that is, with a melodious voice, poems that satirize others or describe indecency, alcoholic drink, and incite lust". Imam Muhammed Shirazi (1928 - 2001) developed a pacifist form of Islam which completely forbids any kind of music. It is illegal to broadcast heavy metal music in Malaysia. In contrast, Sufi sects privilege music in their ceremonies, at one time the khalifs or religious leaders entertained noted musicians, and respected philosophers such as Al-Kīndī, Al-Farābi, Avicenna, and Safi al-Din encouraged the practice of music through their study of its theory (ibid, p.2).

Forms

Muslim music takes these five forms:

Mosque music (performed only by voice)
1. non-rhythmic: Ezan (hymns sung by the Muezzerin), Salah (prayers sung five times per day).
2. rhythmic: Ilahis (Sufi hymns based on poems by Sufi Saints)
Sufi music may sometimes be accompanied by instruments. One Sufi order, the Mevlevi, are known for the "Whirling Dervishes"
1. non-rhythmic: Naat, poems praising Muhammed
2. rhythmic: Qawwali songs are sung mainly in Pakistan and India. Sufi religious songs often dwell on a single phrase or sentence. The repetition serves to emphasise a hidden meaning (Mevlevi order only). Nefes are hymns performed in Tekkes (lodges) of the Bektashi order.
Music performed both in mosques and tekkes
1. non-rhythmic: The chanting of the Koran is not considered to be music, though to non-Muslims, it sounds musical.
Outdoor religious drama (Shia Muslims in Iran only)
1. The Ta'zieh ("mourning") is a passion play, part musical drama, part religious drama, rarely performed outside Iran. It depicts the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, who is central to the founding of Shia Islam.
Noble didactic songs called Manzuma are performed in Ethiopia. They are moral rather than religious.

Sufi music

The Sufi order was officially founded in the thirteenth century but elements of mystical Islam occurred from the decades after Mohammed's death. al-Ghazali (1059 - 1111) wrote "Revivification of Religious Sciences". The eighth section is called "Book of the Right Way of Audition and Trance" and is the first treatise on Sufism. The ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes perhaps dates from the seventeenth century. Each lodge has a leader called a sheikh or semazen. In the known examples in the twentieth century this would contain 8 Dervishes and 8 musicians. In 1923 Kemal Ataturk began to suppress Sufi Dervishes in Turkey. By the sixties conditions began to be more relaxed and the dancers returned. Field recordings in Turkey and Iran were made by Deben Bhattacharya in 1955, 1960, 1972 and 1974.

The Sufi Ceremony

The Naat is a poem of praise of Mohammed. It is followed by a recitation from the Koran. Kudums (drums) break the silence and introduce the first Taksim, an improvisation on the ney (flute). The Dervishes follow the sheikh around the hall three times in the so-called Sultan Veled Walk. The first selam (salutation) introduces the dance. It is considered to represent the "birth to truth". The Dervish obtains permission to whirl by kissing the hand of the sheikh. He directs the dancer to his position. As the musicians play the chorus chants. The dancers turn slowly with their arms crossed, moving around the room. In the second selam, the "rapture of human beings witnessing splendour of creation", the speed up. Gradually they spread their arms. The third selam represents the rapture of dissolving into love. The fourth selam is a return to servitude. During this section the sheikh joins the whirling. There is then a thanksgiving hymn, a prayer for the peace of the souls of believers. The Son Taksim, another improvisation on the flute, ends the music. The Dervishes then meditate silently in rooms.

Recommended recordings of Muslim music

Anything by Nusrat Ali Khan (1948 - 1997), Abida Parveen, Sabri Brothers or the Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali Group.

Arabic Secular music

Early years

By the 11th century, Moorish Spain was a centre for the manufacture of instruments. These spread gradually through France, influencing French troubadours and reaching the rest of Europe. The English words lute, rebec, guitar, organ and naker are derived from Arabic Oud, rabab, qitara, urghun and nagqara'. al-Ghazali (1059 - 1111) wrote a treatise on music in Persia, including the words "Ecstasy means the state that comes from listening to music". The oud was popular between the tenth and sixteenth centuries then fell into disuse, but re-emerged in the nineteenth century. The Persians invented the Ghazal (love song).

The sixteenth century

Bartol Gyurgieuvits (1506 - 1566) spent 14 years as a slave in the Turkish empire. After escaping, he published "De Turvarum ritu et caermoniis" in Amsterdam in 1544. It is one of the first European books to describe music in Islamic society. In India the Islamic Mughal emperors ruled both Muslims and Hindus. The greatest of these, Akhbar (1542 - 1605) had a team of at least 50 musicians. 36 of these are known to us by name. Akhbar was not a strict Muslim, and even started a new faith called Din-i-Ilahi a mixture of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Jainism. The origins of the "belly dance" are very obscure as depictions and descriptions are rare. It may have originated in Persia or Turkey, possibly developed with the harems. Essential elements of belly dancing are the zills (finger cymbals). Examples have been found from 200 BC, suggesting a possible pre-Islamic origin.

Female slaves

Slavery was widespread in early Islam. Just as in the Roman empire, they were often brought from Africa. The Koran specifically allows them to earn money. Black slaves from Zanzibar were noted in the eleventh century for the quality of their song and dance. The "Epistle on Singing Girls", written in Baghdad in the ninth century satirises the excessive money that can be made by singers. The author mentioned an Abyssinian girl who fetches 120,000 dinars at an auction - far more than an ordinary slave. A festival in the eighth century mentions fifty singing slave-girls with lutes who acted as backing musicians for a singer called Jamilia. In 1893, "Little Egypt", a belly-dancer from Syria, appeared at the Chicago world's fair and caused a sensation.

Male instrumentalists

Male instrumentalists were condemned in a treatise in the ninth century. They were associated with vices such as chess, love poetry, wine drinking and homosexuality. Many Persian treatises on music were burned by zealots. Following the invasion of Egypt, Napoleon commissioned reports on the state of Ottoman culture. Villoteau's account reveals that there were guilds of male instrumentalists, who played to male audiences and "learned females" who sang and played for women. The instruments included the oud, the zither and the ney (flute). By 1800 several instruments that were first encountered in Turkish military bands had been adopted into European classical orchestras: the piccolo, the cymbal and the kettle-drum. The Santur or hammer-dulcimer was cultivated within Persian classical schools of music that can be traced back to the middle of the nineteenth century. There was no written notation for the santur until the 1970s. Everything was learned face-to-face (to chest-to-chest as the Farsi language has it).

The Twentieth century

The first Conference of Arab Music was held in Cairo in 1932. Umm Kalthum (1904 - 1975) was by far the most popular singer of the Arab world. There are many spellings of her name, including "Oom Kalsoum". More recent popular artists are Cheb Khaled and Natacha Atlas. Radio Tarifa play a mixture of electric guitars and antique instruments. Their music consists of historical styles from Moorish Spain and the Maghreb countries of Northern Africa. Traditionally Arab music has no chords but over the past 40 years they have been used more frequently. Islam has an obligation called Tajwid or Tajweed - to recite every letter correctly. Records broadcast in Islamic countries often have to pass a test of clarity. Compared to the rest of the world, the diction of singers is of very high quality.

Cat Stevens was a folk singer-songwriter until he converted to Islam in 1978. John Zorn is a jazz musician who became a Muslim and has used elements of Arab music in his work. Richard Thompson converted to Islam in the 1980s but this not noticibly affected his songs.

Source

Jenkins, Jean and Olsen, Poul Rovsing (1976). Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam. World of Islam Festival. ISBN 0905035119.