Introduction to Music and Islam

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Tuesday (1a)

Class

Greetings and introductions to ourselves

assalamu alaykum السلام عليكم  - Peace be upon you

wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته  - And upon you peace and God's mercy and blessings

Let's share: who are you and what brought you here?

Some examples...

Introduction to Islam and Music & Islam

(and the role of Arabs and the Arabic language)

Islam: الاسلام  

Literally: Islam means submission, from the root s-l-m, and thereby linked also to the word "salām", peace.

Around 25% of the world -- more than 2 billion people -- affiliates as Muslim.

Islam is a monotheistic religion, in which the One God directs humanity through prophets and textual revelation. Its traditions extend older monotheistic traditions, recognizing the same figures, usually as prophets: Adam, Noah (Nuh), Abraham (Ibrahim), Isaac (Ishaq), Ishmael (Ismaʿīl), Jacob (Yaʿqub), Joseph (Yusef), Moses (Musa) and Aaron (Harun), David (Daoud), Mary (Maryam, sometimes said to be a prophet), Jesus (ʿĪsa), and finally Muhammad (seal of the prophets, Khatam al-Nabiyin - see Q 33:40)


Difference between rasul (messenger, who brings a book, including Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad) and nabi (broader category).

Islam centers on an intertwined duality of oral tradition and written text. It began with a command from God via Gabriel to Muhammad: "Iqraʾ!", read/recite, resulting in the Qur'an. Muhammad was unlettered, and revelation was transmitted orally at first. But later his companions wrote the text down, and it was definitively compiled by the third Caliph ʿUthman.

Central textual sources guiding and involved in religious practice:

  • Qur'an: Revelation
  • Hadith: traditions (describing Sunna: speech and practice of the Prophet)
  • Tafsir: interpretation
  • Fatawi: legal interpretations
  • Shari`a (law): broad concept drawing on Qur'an, Hadith, qiyas (analogy), ijmaʿ (consensus) and sometimes application of reason (ijtihad)

Three central concepts:

  • Tawḥīd (unity)
  • Nubuwwa/Risāla (apostleship/revelation), extending prior traditions of prophecy in Judaism and Christianity as recorded in the Bible
  • Akhīra (afterlife of reward and punishment)

5 pillars of practice (islam)

  • testimony of faith: creed (shahada)
  • prayer (salat)
  • fasting (sawm)
  • alms (zakat)
  • pilgrimage (hajj and umra)

6 articles of faith/belief (iman)

  • God (Allah)
  • Angels - malāʾika
  • Prophets - anbiyāʾ
  • Books (Revelation) - kutub
  • Day of Judgement - yawm al-qiyāma
  • Fate - qadr

3 levels (Sufi formulation)

  • islam - submission (outward - behavior)
  • iman - faith (inward - belief and intention)
  • ihsan - perfection (mystical - to live your life in a state of perfect remembrance, dhikr, knowing that God is watching you at all times)


Maps and Timelines. It's especially important to recognize that "Arab" and "Muslim" are completely different - in meaning, extent, and history.

Islamic

Islamic/Muslim...vs

Islamicate/Muslim (culturally Muslim - as Egyptian Copt Salāmā Mūsā (1887-1958) once said, “I am a Christian by religion and a Muslim by fatherland.”

The concept "Islamicate" as differentiated from "Islamic" was intended (by the celebrated historian Marshall Hodgson) to separate from Orientalist thinking that blended the two.

But the distinction has also been critiqued.

Music:موسيقى

Terminology

When discussing "music" and Islam there are two terminological problems:

  1. Translation: The word "music" is English and is uncommon in Muslim-majority societies (there are always cognates, often etymologically linked, but these are not necessarily the same!)
  2. Etic vs emic (and outsider vs insider) contrasts for the word music (and cognates). The "etic" is a scientific perspective and can be broader.

Is "music" equivalent to "musiqa" or "ghināʾ"? No! Sensitivities and conceptual boundaries. "Humanly-organized sound" (John Blacking) might be more suitable.

But usually such sound is a substrate for language - texts, whether poetry or not. Thus the term "language performance" (LP), a general term I coined both to be more inclusive and to avoid controversy over "music".

Questions:
  • Why is music (considered broadly, etically) controversial in Muslim societies or among Muslims?
    • debate over music as entertainment
    • debate over music in ritual
    • debate over who can perform music.
  • Why is music and discourse about music important?
    • Key to understanding Muslim experience (emic - the experience of being Muslim; phenomenology)
    • Key to understanding Islamic history (etic - broad social patterns over large stretches of time and space)
    • Discursive controversy as an index of broader social and cultural differences

Sounds of Islam

A subspecies of "music", considered as an etic term meaning simply "organized sound". Why is sound important in Islam?

  • Language - especially Arabic language - is central
  • Oral and written word are transmitted together: constraining, reproducing...
  • Islam's focus on "the word" (kalima) mostly the sounded word: "language performance" as key concept (textual - sonic - social). All ritual centers on "al-kalima".
    • Abstract word is rendered sensible (in sound, in text) - e.g. Qur'an: in tilawa and mushaf, or in calligraphy
    • Sound as invisible social binder, carrying information beyond text, below discursive radar

Sounds of the Islamicate

  • Empires concentrated wealth and sponsored music
  • They catalyzed fusions, especially at their centers
  • And they allowed free-flow of people, instruments, and music
  • Basic facts about the "Islamicate" (Islamic civilizations) and its music
    • Ramification (adaptation to the local): sound and text
    • Poetry and the voice, plus Maqam (tonality) and Iqa` (rhythmic cycle) as core principles of music, elaborated through heterophony, in the core Islamicate (Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia)

Spiritual - Aesthetic expressions of the Shahāda

Calligraphy

Vocal sound (language performance): inshād (nashīd)


Shahada as the Call to Prayer (al-Adhan): الأذان

Adhan - mu'adhdhin - ma'dhana (minara or "minaret")

Global variety

Try performing by imitating the 2005 Helbawy recording, following the text here.

Sufi hadra

dhikr + madīḥ = shahāda

The general relation of Music and Islam

Music (موسيقى = "musiqa") or Singing (غناء = "ghināʾ) or Sound (صوت = sawt). Problems of translation, interpretation.  Etic vs Emic approaches.

Music and Islam:

  • What are the relations between Music and Islam?
  • What are the practices and functions of music, singing, or sound in Islam? How can we understand them, and what do they tell us?
  • What are the beliefs and attitudes towards music? What are the discourses about music?
  • How has Islam conditioned music, and vice versa?

Music (Sounds) of the Islamic World

Some key dualities for this course

  • Etic vs Emic
  • Source vs Reference
  • Critical review (report) = summary + critique

Course Mechanics

Review of the wiki for the whole course (http://bit.ly/mislam24)

Refer to the syllabus.

Due today (not graded!)

Use this form to submit all assignments. Please be sure to indicate the due date on the form. Except for today, all assignments are due before class.

Thursday (1b)

Due today (note that assignments are due by class time!)

Report on the following (1-2 pages total) [remember page counts are 1.5 spaced, 1" margins, Times New Roman font - but you'll submit this as text using the assignment submission form]

Read:

  • Schimmel 1992 pp. 1-28, from Schimmel, Annemarie. 1992. Islam : An Introduction. Albany: State University of New York Press. One paragraph will suffice to summarize (and critique if you can).
  • Frishkopf 2008, “Music”, in The Islamic World, edited by Andrew Rippin. New York: Routledge, 2008, pp. 510-526. Again, write a paragraph.

Watch: Empire of Faith, part 1. Take note of (a) sounds of Islam represented in the film (diegetic sound); (b) the film's non-diegetic soundtrack. Critique: who is behind this film and why? Who is behind the ideas? How is Islam reified? Search: Find at least one online video introducing Islam by and for Muslims. What is the difference between this video and Empire of Faith? (include the link in your report)

Add to your report: one question or issue (about anything you have read, seen, or heard in the course so far) - to be discussed in class.

Class

  • Introductions
  • Review from last time - filling in some gaps. More examples.
  • The course outline & especially Generative AI.
  • The sounds of Islam - an overview
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