Syncretic Islamic communities & their music

Syncretism from an Islamic perspective: spirit propitiation/healing groups and practices combining Islamic and sub-saharan Africa: Gnawa and Zar

Tuesday (10a)

From Kurdistan to Turkey to Morocco: Ahl al-Haqq, Bektashi/Alevi ... and Gnawa!

Due

Read/skim and review one of the following two (depending on your interests - your choice!), in conjunction with the videos posted for last week:

1. Yaresan (Ahl al-Haqq): Introduction and Chapter 5: Ritual and Observance from “God First and Last". Religious Traditions and Music of the Yaresan of Guran, by Philip G. Kreyenbroek (feel free to browse other sections of the book if you're interested)
2. Bektashi and Alevi: The Role of Expressive Culture in the Demystification of a Secret Sect of Islam: The Case of the Alevis of Turkey, by Irene Markoff. The World of Music, Vol. 28, No. 3, Islam (1986), pp. 42-56 (15 pages)

Watch and review: "Gnawa Music - Body and Soul" (if you have trouble with the link, search for the title in Films on Demand)

What connections can you perceive between these traditions? How are they similar or different? Consider ritual, folkloric, and popular/world musical forms (including intersections with other genres, like jazz). Compare and contrast them in your review.

You may submit both reviews in one page or less.

Class

Intro to Gnawa and its globalization

Instruments:

• Guimbri (sintir, hajhouj): bass lute
• Qaraqeb (sing. Qarqeb): cymbals
• tbel or ganga: large drums

Musical structure:

• Rhythms: triple, stretched
• Scales: pentatonic

Ritual performance (lila):

• Ahmed Bakbou
• Trance of red
• Trance of white
• Red

Staged ritual (folklore, tourism):

• Hassan Hakmoun
• Essaouira festival

World music Gnawa fusions: jazz, funk, hiphop, festival

• Randy Weston [1](jazz)
• Hassan Hakmoun: Gnawa fusion
• Sidi Yasser: Gnawa fusion
• Women in Gnawa: Hind Ennaira
• Belikemuhammad: hiphop MC (Anas Canon?
• Gnawa festival[2]

Origins: West African music, terms, and spirituality

• Pentatonic and triple meter
• Polyrhythmic
• call and response

Terms, music, spirituality

• • Soninke Gambare, another plucked lute with similar technique to guimbri
  • Brekete "cult" of Ghana

• West African history: general timeline; West African timelines (Western Sudan), empires of West Africa (BBC); Davidson on Caravans of Gold
  • Ghana
  • Mali
  • Songhai

• Islamic history
  • Umayyads in Spain
  • Berber and Arab empires of North Africa
    • al-Murabitun (Almoravids)
    • al-Muwahhidun (Almohads)
    • Saadi dynasty
• [http://archnet.org/authorities/2872 Paul Bowles
  • overview
  • Gnawa[3]

Thursday (10b)

Gnawa continued....links to jazz and popular music in the West.

Zar.

Due

Read: Liminal Rites and Female Symbolism in the Egyptian Zar Possession Cult, by Richard Natvig, Numen, Vol. 35, Fasc. 1 (Jul., 1988), pp. 57-68

Listen/watch: traditional Egyptian zar

Then browse the following sites and videos produced by two folkloric centers in Cairo:

Makan:

• Zar performance
• Zar interpretation

El Mastaba

• Rango (xylophone)
  • Rango tradition Rango video
  • More rango: [4][5]
• Zar (Asyad El Zar)
  • Zar in Egypt - overview
  • Zar with Tambur (large bass size, similar to guimbri)

Also note diffusion of Zar to other parts of the world:

• Zar ritual in Ethiopia
• Zar Ritual in Iran
• Common also in Sudan (I'm looking for a good example)

Submit: one page on similarities and differences between Moroccan Gnawa and Egyptian Zar. Consider: the people, the ritual, the music - but also the ways this music has been folklorized, rendered "world music", or mixed with other genres. How, when, and where does the performance retain a spiritual significance, and why is that significance at other times and places eliminated? What are the reasons why the two traditions may be similar? Why are there differences?

Class

• Introduction to Zar
  • Critical reading of the article by Natvig (Sharqiya Governorate in Egypt).
  • Iranian zar
  • Sudanese zar from Sudan
  • Egyptian Zar: very similar to dhikr; even same musicians. Note male musicians; female adepts and patients.
    • Zar at Makan
    • House Zar
    • Sufi hadra at Ali Zayn al-Abidin in Cairo
  • Sudanese Zar in Egypt: The Tanbura[6][7][8]. The British Museum displayed this beautiful Sudanese tanbura, known locally as "kissar".
  • Rango documentary (CSL component by Mariem Oloroso, Music of the Arab World, fall 2014); Rango zar ceremony. More videos from the Rango website
• Zar in the global bellydance scene
• Folklorization (El Mastaba, Makan), world music presence, belly dance element...(use of ayub rhythm). How are these musics promoted for general consumption? Distortions, exaggerations? (Be critical!)
• Discussion: comparison of Gnawa and Zar; spirit/healing groups in Islam...
• Zar-Gnawa fusion in Cairo!