More on various Islamic communities & their music

Tuesday (11a)

Note: On Tuesday March 19 Dr Karim Gillani will join us; please briefly review the readings and viewings I distributed for him previously. He has also kindly shared links to his own music, which you may like to listen to prior to his visit:

1) Daur-e-Hayyat: Time of Life: lyrics: Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar https://youtu.be/uTZM4UL5lyg?si=TXV5cnbsvWRufVSc

2) Chal Chal Bulleya: Let’s Go Bulleya: Poet: Bulleh Shah: https://youtu.be/Z4TuignggEE?si=FLqlneAou_QMPhRs

3) Jab Ishq Sikhta hai: When Love teaches you: Lyrics: Allama Iqbal: https://youtu.be/Z_axjWaGxjM?si=MF3-y6k39T3orgNs

4) Aql and Ishq: Intellect and Love: Lyrics: Allama Iqbal: https://youtu.be/3HPTd76QK-8?si=eqd6rE795vdEKdju

5) Ali Fakhre Bani Adam: Ali is the Pride of Mankind: Lyrics: Mir Anees: https://youtu.be/0uJTPzpGaYw?si=5lcLytyftW08cR-U

6) Ali Guyum Ali Joyam: I call Ali, I seek Ali, Lyrics: Dervish Amir Hayati: https://youtu.be/elI8oKljnGA?si=d_KHaVPZKIcuiOG0

Read

Hamel, Chouki El. 2008. “Constructing a Diasporic Identity: Tracing the Origins of the Gnawa Spiritual Group in Morocco,” The Journal of African History 49 (2): 241–60. (On https://www.jstor.org/)

You need not submit anything for today however (just one written submission is due on Thursday).

Class

Dr Karim Gillani's presentation.

Thursday (11b)

Zar in Iran

Due

• Watch Afro Iranian Lives, a documentary produced and directed by Dr. Behnaz Mirzai. Born and raised in Iran, Mirzai moved to Canada in 1997, where she studied slavery and the African Diaspora in Iran.
• Read "Slavery, Possession and History: The Construction of the Self among Slave Descendants in the Sudan", by G. P. Makris. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 66, No. 2 (1996), pp. 159-182. https://doi.org/10.2307/1161315 and on https://www.jstor.org/

Submit: Review the Hamel, Mirzai, and Makris in 3-5 paragraphs, critiquing and contrasting the representations and comparing the histories and musical-ritual-spiritual phenomena.

Class

• Film - critique?
• Saeid Shanbehzadeh: traditional Afro-Iranian music of Bushehr, in southern Iran, where African influence is strongest. Formed the Shanbehzadeh Ensemble in 1990 featuring neyanbān (bagpipe), ney-jofti (flute), dammām (drum), zarbetempo (percussion), traditional flute, senj (cymbal) and boogh (goat horn). Later he emigrated to France and has been working with a wide array of musicians, electronic, jazz, and folk, in various settings (club, concert hall, etc.) as well as releasing numerous recordings. Zar, Pour Afrigha
  • Zar music[1], performed in a concert setting
  • Traditional music of southern Iran (NeyAnban - Bagpipe)
  • folk-electronic music integration: Excerpt from the concert of Saeed Shanbezadeh group, named after the Sheikh Shengar project, in which they revived the music of the Persian Gulf. This concert was performed in Paris in the spring of 2015, and Naqib Shanbezadeh, Shida Bozormehr, and Namito (Ali Khalaj) accompanied Saeed Shanbezadeh.