Syncretic Islamic communities & their music

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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

Ramadan: March 10 - April 9

Ramadan Mubarak! The Qur'an was revealed in 610, in this month, the 9th of the Islamic calendar. By Tradition this revelation began on an odd-numbered night in the last 10 days, conventionally the 27th is celebrated as this night - known as "Laylat al-Qadr", the "Night of Power", as described in the Qur'an, Surat al-Qadr (97). The word Qur'an means "recitation", and the first revealed chapter was Surat al-Alaq (96), which begins by saying "Read!" or "Recite!". This night is considered most sacred, a time when channels between heaven and earth are most open, every year.

Forms of language performance most prevalent in Ramadan (besides the usual ones):

  • Tilawa
  • Ibtihalat
  • Duʿaʾ
  • Misahharati

The latter is a functional genre common in Egypt: vocal and drum sounds used to wake people for their Ramadan pre-dawn meal, called suhur in Egypt. The performer is called misahharati in Egypt. The misahharati traditionally wanders the neighborhood just before dawn, using voice and small portable drum (baza) waking the people to take their pre-dawn meal (suhur), since fasting will begin with the first glow of the night sky. Ramadan: the pre-dawn misahharati (recorded 20 July 2015 in Cairo).

Ramadan is generally a joyful time, both in celebration of the Qur'an and also because work and school duties ease, and families gather around evening meals. Besides being a religious duty or "pillar" (rukn) fasting is thought to encourage reflection and prayer, compassion for the poor and hungry, and better health. The practicing Muslim fasts from dawn to sunset, abstaining from food, drink, smoking, and sexual relations during that time.

Just after sunset (marked by a cannon in Cairo) and the start of the adhan, the tradition is to break one's fast with a date and water, then pray maghrib. Sunset is marked by a cannon shot in Cairo, as well as the adhan, broadcast on all media. Many stations rebroadcast an old adhan performed by Shaykh Mohamed Rifaʿat, which has become very famous and evocative of Ramadan and the end of the day's fasting.

There follows a meal called 'ifṭār' (related to breakfast = fiṭār). Devout Muslims then move to the mosque for ʿishāʾ prayer, followed by a lengthy supererogatory prayer called tarāwiḥ which, with religious revival, has become increasingly popular in many places It closes with the witr, including what can be a lengthy duʿāʾ. On the secular side, Ramadan is a period of especially elaborate, large evening meals, and much television entertainment. Musical entertainment is mostly unrelated to religion, and a number of local traditions may be secular - for instance, particular local delicacies, the fanous lanterns that supposedly originated in Fatimid Egypt, or Ramadan Riddles (Fawazir Ramadan), an Egyptian TV show that was popular for many years.

However the night of the 27th is characterized by greater solemnity, a gravity which can become acute regret characterized by weeping during the witr prayer, especially the duʿāʾ, as it is felt that supplications will be more effective at this time.

In traditional neighborhoods of Cairo and rural Egypt, shortly before dawn, the misahharati awakens the community to take their pre-dawn meal, suḥūr. In other places I've heard several early calls to prayer that accomplish the same thing. There follows the tilawa-ibtihalat-adhan-prayer sequence for fajr prayer.

The Eid al-Fitr follows the last day of Ramadan, and should therefore begin April 9 in the evening.

Gnawa

Introduction to Gnawa

and its globalization

Gnawa is one of several North African Afro-Islamic social/ritual/religious forms that combine:

  • West African music and spirituality, brought to North Africa via slavery
  • Islam and Sufi concepts (saints, shaykhs, trance, social movement)

Others include:

  • Hamadsha (Algeria) - see Crapanzano
  • Stambeli (Tunisia) - see Jankowsky
  • Issawiyya

The name Gnawa

  • Some relate it to Guinea, connecting to Black Africa
  • Others to Tamazirt (Berber) "igri ignawan" [the field of the cloudy sky]
  • Historian Nehemia Levtzion notes Ibāḍīs of Black origin called Ijnāw, perhaps from Ignaun (sing. Agnaw), ‘Blacks.’ (Levtzion, “The Sahara and the Sudan,” 643.)
  • Still others relate it to the northern Nigerian city state of Kano

Instruments:

  • Guimbri (sintir, hajhouj): bass lute, similar to many West African lutes
  • Qaraqeb (sing. Qarqeb): cymbals, similar to many West African metallic instruments
  • tbel or ganga: large drums, similar to West African drums

Music:

  • Rhythms: polyrhythm (triple), stretched/swung (x.xx vs xxx) (x.x xx. vs. xxxx)
  • Scales: pentatonic
  • Timbres: metallic, low pluck
  • Spectra: very low (bass lute=sintir and bass drums), very high (qaraqeb)
  • Acceleration

Spiritual aspects:

  • Mluk ("mulūk") - "kings", spirits
  • Special colors, incense
  • Spirits can cause illness
  • Colors define groups of muluk (green, white, red, black)
  • Connection: musical themes, rhythms, scents, colors - to spirits.
  • Some spirits are equivalent to Sufi saints (Abd al-Qadir)

Religious and social attitudes:

  • Connected to Islam; spirits perceived as jinn; participants are mainly Muslim, but also
  • Perceived as separate, even as heretical, in contrast to "proper" Islam, especially since Islamic revival movements of the 20th c
  • Perceived as rural, deviant, lowclass, in contrast to "proper" music, for which the Andalusian heritage (Ala) provides the highest most elite example (along with Western music!)
  • Since the 1960s revived as a proud local tradition - folklore, for nationalist and touristic purposes - and repurposed

Ritual aspects:

  • Healing, by propitiating (not exorcising) the spirits (mluk)
  • Dance/movement
  • Trance
  • Self-mortification
  • Multisensory: color, incense
  • Sacrifice

Social aspects:

  • Collectivity, tariq
  • Professionalism
  • Perceived lineage: connecting to Bilal, the Prophet's first muezzin, a Christian convert and former slave from Ethiopia (the Keita family, founders of the medieval empire of Mali, also made this lineal connection)
  • Healing
  • Race
  • Gender: muqaddima (female), maʿallam (male), but more recently a handful of female maʿallams have emerged, such as Hind Ennaira[1]
  • Double consciousness? (WEB Debois) - perhaps not, at least not as among descendants of slaves in North America, due to greater homogeneity in religion and less clear demarcations based on race, as well as racial diversity among Gnawas themselves

Examples: Gnawa music - ritual, staged, fused

Ritual performance (lila or derdeba): Ahmed and Mustafa Baqbou

Staged (nationalist folklore, traditional tourism seeking authenticity)

World music Gnawa fusions: jazz, funk, hiphop, rock, festival tourism - something new/global

Gnawa Origins: West African music and spirituality meets Islam

  • Islamic connection
  • Slavery

Maps of medieval West African kingdoms, most of which Islamized

Traditional Music of West Africa: features

Traditional Spirituality of West Africa: features

  • Distant Creator God
  • Ancestors
  • Spirits (animism)
  • Examples:

Historical background

Islamic history

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 music:

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

1. Makan:

2. El Mastaba

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

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

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