Sufi performance

Music in and inspired by Sufi ritual: examples of inshad, popular inshad, and related types from various places around the world...

Egypt

• Notes on Sufism in Egypt
• FIve Sufi Hadras
• Weekly Saturday hadra at the Shrine of Sidi Ali Zayn al-Abidin
• Sufi dhikr with inshad. Recorded during the 1932 Arabic music conference by the celebrated Laythi order (Egyptian), led by Shaykh Basatini. The dhikr consists of chanting the Names of God (here, “Allah”); inshad (singing of religious poetry) is often superimposed, either solo or group. Early recordings such as these are not field recordings, but took place in studio-like conditions, and under limitations of length (due to the length of a phonograph disc).
• Sufi dhikr with inshad. Field recording made in 1998 of a contemporary Egyptian Sufi order, the Hamidiyya Shadhiliyya. The group chants “Allah” while a soloist and chorus performs inshad. Note how emotional power is generated by inshad, and how it is timed to move with dhikr. The Sufi orders tend not to use instruments.
• Sufi inshad in the public hadra. Performed by Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami, from Assiut, in Upper Egypt; live performance recorded in Mahalla, an industrial city in the Egyptian Delta, in the 1980s. Over the last 20 years Sufi munshidin have started to emerge as major singing stars, recorded on commercial tapes and singing professionally in a wide variety of social settings. The most famous of these is Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami. He typically performs with a small takht (here including violin, kawala (another reed flute), and percussion), draws heavily on secular music (especially Umm Kulthum) for melodic material, instrumentation, and style, while performing classical Sufi poetry in a Sufi setting. Performance includes development of maqamat, taqasim, vocal improvisation, lawazim (melodic fills), qafla and many other features of the tarab style. As for Shaykh Muhammad Jabril, the advent of the PA system was important to the development of this genre of performance. Melodic material is improvised, but draws on standard phrases. His performances are generally attended by hundreds or even thousands (especially in the larger saint festivals, called mawlids); some listen, while others form lines in order to perform the dhikr while listening to his performance (you can hear the chantin this recording), and generate a powerful ecstatic mood. Shaykh Yasin performs the Jimiyya of the celebrated Sufi poet (probably the greatest of those writing in Arabic) Umar ibn al-Farid (1181-1235). The recording was Shaykh Yasin's 18th commercial recording.

Turkey and Ottoman world

• Form of Mevlevi Ayin (Turkey). The ayini serifi is effectively the hadra ceremony of the famous "whirling dervishes", founded by Sultan Valad, son of acclaimed poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, in the 13th century. The order has become a veritable symbol of Turkey, though it was for a long time banned there. Through the Ottoman empire the order extended into Arabic speaking areas, including Cairo and Syria, where it continues to thrive. Many styles and genres used in the ayin are also typical of Ottoman classical art music, e.g. the pesrev.
• Mevlevi ayini serifi performed in Damascus, in a touristic (restaurant) context.
• Sultan Selim III, a connoisseur, performer, and composer of music also composed an ayin. Hear his Pesrev.
• Ayin performed in Istanbul; at the famous Galata dervish lodge, Ayin composed by Ottoman Sultan Selim III
• Video segment on the Whirling Dervishes; watch from 42:46 until 57:35.

Southeast Asia (Java)

The gamelan is a southeast Asian ensemble, centered on bronze instruments, exhibiting Arab/Middle Eastern influence also in several stringed instruments (rebab fiddle, celempung zither) and flute (suling); the xylophone (gambang) is thought to have emerged in interaction with East Africa. The drum (kendhang) appears linked to south Asian varieties.

• Gamelan Sekaten, special gamelan performed for the Prophet's birthday
• Sekaten, showing the bedug (large drum)

South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh)

• South Asian qawwali - Sabri Brothers
• Sabri brothers (video)

North Africa (Morocco)

• Gnawa history and ritual, including audio and video
• Moroccan Gnawa audio example

West Africa

• Damba, performed for the Prophet's birthday [1], [2]
• Akwashirawa from Ghana
• Youssou N'Dour, "Tijaniyya"