Music and Samāʿ

Tuesday (4a)

Muslim discourses about the legitimacy of music, singing, and sound, in ritual (samāʿ) or in general (ghināʾ, mūsīqā): historical debates, scholarly (among jurists, fuqahāʾ and Islamic scholars, ʿulamāʾ), mystical, and literary.

Due today

Two page report on the following readings: submit on http://bit.ly/mislam24a

1. Read Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qur'an, chapter 3: The Sama` Polemic. OR read "The samāʿ Controversy: Sufi vs. Legalist", by Arthur Gribetz, Studia Islamica, No. 74 (1991), pp. 43-62. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1595896 (or use this link off campus).
2. Read Shiloah, Music in the World of Islam, chapter 4 (pp. 31-44), as well as chapter 5, pp. 49-51 (section: "the ethical, cosmological and therapeutic approach"), and pp. 63-65 (sections: "the pejorative view of malahi" and "the cosmological approach"). Shiloah readings are here
3. Browse the following primary source: The chapter on "audition" (Sama`) in the monumental Ihya' `Ulum al-Din by al-Ghazali (d. 1111); the translation is online in the following articles (note: you definitely do not have to read the whole thing...just try to get the flavor and gist - what topics does he take up? what is the basis for his arguments? is he defensive? prescriptive? who is he addressing? who are the opponents?) . The chapter is: Emotional Religion in Islām as Affected by Music and Singing, translated by Duncan MacDonald, published in three installments: part I, part II, part III ...or download the whole from here.
4. Conduct your own research into primary Islamic sources concerning the debate over music and samāʿ. Try to locate a few passages from Qur'an, Hadith, or other traditional sources mentioned in the above readings, or find translations of books from the Muslim world on the topic - but only consider historical works more than 100 years old (next time we'll look at more contemporary instances). You may also peruse poetry, e.g. (translations of) Rumi. How is the topic treated in each case? Use my list of websites for some online sources, or locate your own. In your report mention what you found, and how it has been (or might be) interpreted. Please come to class prepared to present and discuss what you've found. NOTE: please do not skip class if you don't feel you've done enough research!!! This is a variable length assignment which may help launch you towards a research project, and will give you a better feel for the historical record on this topic. Even if you just introduce one hadith, it's enough...but please come to class!

Note: the wikipedia article on the topic contains many useful links and summaries that will give you a start. As I've stated in class, please do not cite wikipedia in your research papers; as a crowd-sourced tertiary source it's just not appropriate... BUT it's a very very useful resource for finding good sources! Ditto for encyclopedia articles. Note that I've compiled many useful resources on the main course site here.

Class

• Qur'an: Contemporary Connections. Informative, but also in need of critique. Indian director. Speaks of "infidels". Connection to contemporary culture, comparing Qur'an to the Internet (non-linear hypertext, the Matrix!). Exceedingly dramatic in imagery and score. Strong presence of women. Interesting academic speakers, but note that many (all?) are Muslim and mostly converts. Subtext: post-9/11 correction (apologetics?) about what Islam is, with particular focus on the word "jihad", directed to American Christians primarily. USA focus, with flag motif. The accompanying website (http://www.quranconnections.com) is no longer maintained; we can retrieve it from the Waybackmachine, though use of obsolete Flash technology means it no longer works well.
• Reading Reports: you should do two things: (a) show me that you've actually done the reading - what is it about, what is its scope, what are the main points? Then (b) critique. Position it within a broader context. Why is it written (or filmed...) the way it is? Who is writing, for whom, when, and why? How is it biased by these specific contextual factors? Where are they located in relation to broader systemic ones? Can you address any such biases?
  • We'll discuss topics in class - anything in the wide range of Islamic LP or Islamicate music is fair game.
  • The full proposal format I use for graduate students is here. You may find its instructions useful.
  • But for Thursday just submit just one page, about 3 - 4 paragraphs, for Thursday:
    • Topic: one phrase as title
    • Aim and significance. What issue or topic do you wish to investigate, and why do you think it's important?
    • Area (brief): provide some background on the people or sounds you intend to investigate - where, who, why, when....? Optionally: include a few secondary sources, links to online media, etc.
• Islamic LP, continued....
  • Islamic LP genres
  • Creative work with adhan scapes. Adhan canon of distance, Adhan convergence
• The traditional debate about music and musical ritual in Islam. Introduce and discuss the traditional sources you have found! (For Thursday we'll look at the contemporary debate.) Review a few primary sources together.
• Islamicate Music and its multiple relations to Islam as religion.
  • Islam as catalyst (social connections, economic concentration) gathering and fusing local musical traditions
  • Islamic LP as training, conditioning, selecting
  • Local music likewise infusing Islamic LP (the sonic substrate upon which syntactic, semantic, pragmatic aspects rest)

Thursday (4b)

Due today

1. Short research proposal (1 page) on a relevant topic of your choice within the frame of the course, i.e. either (a) Islamic Language Performance, or (b) Islamicate music. Please include the following (a) a title indicating the topic and scope; (b) a paragraph documenting the aim and significance of your research project - what are the primary questions you seek to answer?; (c) a paragraph of background information, in which you should refer to a few secondary sources. Note that the research should be based primarily on scholarly secondary sources (but not encyclopedias!), combined with online primary sources, such as websites or youtube videos. You can submit this document via upload.
2. Searching the web, locate one contemporary online source (website, video, or text) that is either pro-music or at least admits music under certain conditions, and another that is more firmly anti-music, within the broad realm of Muslim discourse (in English, or another language you know). There is a broad range (including some new books on the topic, in English, for instance Singing and Music in Islamic Perspective, available for $8 as an Amazon kindle title). Perhaps you may find sermons, blog posts, or Facebook pages. You may like to look at the writings of contemporary scholars like Yusuf al-Qaradawi. If your source contains comments (blogs, youtube videos), examine those also - how do people respond to whatever is written or recorded? Also check my Resources page for this course.) For each of these two online sources, submit a link, plus a paragraph outlining the key points of its argument, explaining how this argument is similar to--or different from--those of the classical Islamic sources you read for last Tuesday, and summarizing any comments that accompanied it (on youtube, blog, etc.). Is there anything new in the argumentation, or do these sources fall back on the same old points? How do they handle new online media? Is there anything specific to Qur'anic recitation, adhan, or inshad? You can submit this document via upload as it will likely contains URL weblinks.

NB: If you didn't present your examples of classical sources (e.g. Qur'an, Hadith, and other early texts) supporting or rejecting samaʿ and music last Tuesday (assignment #4 above), please come to class today prepared to present them.

Class

• Islamic LP genres (concluded, including literature on tajwid and mawlid)
• The traditional debate about music and musical ritual in Islam. Contemporary sources (including booklets and cassettes). Do they tend to refer to the past, or introduce new considerations?
• Islamicate Music and its multiple relations to Islam as religion.
  • Islam as catalyst (social connections, economic concentration) gathering and fusing local musical traditions
  • Islamic LP as training, conditioning, selecting
  • Local music likewise infusing Islamic LP (the sonic substrate upon which syntactic, semantic, pragmatic aspects rest)