Islam and Music

In 37 bijdragen schetsen de auteurs een caleidoscopisch
beeld van de stand van zaken op gebied van beeldvorming,
geschiedenis, rituelen en feesten, moraal, politiek, islam als
levensstijl, kunst en cultuur.
De bijdragen zijn van Joseph Alagha, Edien Bartels, Carmen
Becker, Maurits Berger, Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort,
Gert Borg, Marjo Buitelaar, Henk Driessen, Dick Douwes,
Annemarie van Geel, Martijn de Koning, Khadija
Kadrouch-Outmany, Christian Lange, Nina ter Laan, Roel Meijer, Karin van Nieuwkerk, Thijl Sunier, Rachida Talal-Azimi, Claudia Venhorst en Joas Wagemakers. 
Deel 2 in de gelijknamige serie Islam in verandering behandelt een breed scala aan onderwerpen en maakt ingewikkelde
thema’s begrijpelijk voor wie zich in de publieke discussie
wil mengen.

Peut-on user d'instruments de musique? Participer à un concert? Chanter librement ce que l'on ressent? Ou faut-il se limiter à ce que l’on doit scander et qui semble conforme à la morale islamique? D’emblée, le fait musical des musulmans d’Europe s’envisage dans le paradoxe. Akhenaton, Cat Stevens alias Yusuf Islam, James Deano, Kery James, Diam’s, Sami Yusuf, Médine, The Poetic Pilgrimage, Maher Zaïn, Soprano et tant d’autres sont des artistes musulmans européens qui, depuis une vingtaine d’années, mobilisent dans leurs productions une certaine affirmation d’appartenance à l’islam. Quelques-uns font même de la musique un outil du religieux, voire développent un champ musical au travers de la dimension islamique.
Dans le chef des artistes, de vraies négociations s’opèrent, des tiraillements de choix se manifestent, des questions fusent. C’est toute l’ambition de cet ouvrage que de faire découvrir l’ambivalence des discours religieux de ces acteurs, au travers de pratiques musicales en expansion. L’observation et l’analyse des pratiques sociales quotidiennes des musulmans sont ici privilégiées afin de mettre en lumière les lentes mutations culturelles et cultuelles qui s’articulent dans l’intimité des musulmans européens. Une distinction s’opère progressivement entre l’identité musulmane objectivement héritée d’un univers culturel où elle était greffée et cette même identité subjectivement appropriée en tant qu’«être musulman européen». Plus subtilement encore, au coeur de cette identité musulmane s’opère une véritable réinvention entre une référence identitaire à une culture ou à une civilisation et une référence identitaire au fait religieux. Le champ artistique est donc un terrain idéal pour saisir la réalité de l’islam européen dans sa pleine diversité. Auteur : Farid El Asri.

The Introduction to this book is available here: https://www.academia.edu/34095644/Introduction_to_Materiality_and_the_Study_of_Religion_The_Body_of_St_Cuthbert.pdf

Material culture has emerged in recent decades as a significant theoretical concern for the study of religion. This book contributes to and evaluates this material turn, presenting thirteen chapters of new empirical research and theoretical reflection from some of the leading international scholars of material religion. Following a model for material analysis proposed in the first chapter by David Morgan, the contributors trace the life cycle of religious materiality through three phases: the production of religious objects, their classification as religious (or non-religious), and their circulation and use in material culture.

The chapters in this volume consider how objects become and cease to be sacred, how materiality can be used to contest access to public space and resources, and how religion is embodied and performed by individuals in their everyday lives. Contributors discuss the significance of the materiality of religion across different religious traditions and diverse geographical regions, paying close attention to gender, age, ethnicity, memory and politics. The volume closes with an afterword by Manuel Vásquez.

How do Muslims who grew up after September 11 balance their love for hip-hop with their devotion to Islam? How do they live the piety and modesty called for by their faith while celebrating an art form defined, in part, by overt sexuality, violence, and profanity?

In Representing Islam, Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir explores the tension between Islam and the global popularity of hip-hop, including attempts by the hip-hop ummah, or community, to draw from the struggles of African Americans in order to articulate the human rights abuses Muslims face. Nasir explores state management of hip-hop culture and how Muslim hip-hoppers are attempting to "Islamize" the genre's performance and jargon to bring the music more in line with religious requirements, which are perhaps even more fraught for female artists who struggle with who has the right to speak for Muslim women. Nasir also investigates the vibrant underground hip-hop culture that exists online. For fans living in conservative countries, social media offers an opportunity to explore and discuss hip-hop when more traditional avenues have been closed.

Representing Islam considers the complex and multifaceted rise of hip-hop on a global stage and, in doing so, asks broader questions about how Islam is represented in this global community.

An important body of scholarship has explored the salience of Sufism (‘mystical Islam’) in Senegal. Approaches have emphasized its social and political dimensions, while little attention has been devoted to the symbolic yet important role of Sufi-affiliated pop musicians, especially mbàllax singers, in the grassroots negotiation of faith and religious tolerance in the country. Using the documentary, Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love (US, 2008), and observation, the study examines what it calls ‘cultural friction’, here a metaphor for the transient conflicts emerging as classically oriented Sufi Muslims condemn and protest against the encroachment of “obscene” practices on religious spaces and symbols. The study approaches the film as a music documentary following N’dour during and after the making of his Grammy-winning yet controversial album released in Senegal as Sant Yalla (‘God Be Praised’, 2003) and internationally as Egypt (2004). It analyzes cultural friction as part of a Senegalese artistic modernization, but also as a contemporary phenomenon speaking to the historical role of the Wolof ‘griot’ (bard) in the peaceful appropriation of Islam. Finally, the study portrays N’dour as a pop singer whose liberal Sufi perspective on music promotes his legitimacy to perform in the Islamic religious space as well.

The Islamic world has long had an ambiguous attitude toward music and musical instruments. Though, as will be seen below, there is absolutely no Qur'anic prohibition against music, most severe Islamic theologians nevertheless enforce a nearly complete prohibition of musical performance. They then allow "exceptions" based on special conditions occasioned by various hadith or traditions of the Prophet. More modern interpreters of Islamic law have extended these views to modern situations such as the use of electronic instruments and activities
involving music as a secondary concomitant, such as the music accompanying films or television programs. More liberal theologians not only allow musical performance, they encourage it in many situations.

Because the religious suitability of music is an ambiguous matter, the performance and consumption of music itself has often been in the forefront of conflict between
traditional religionists and secular modernists who are trying to establish broader parameters for living for citizens in a religious world. Music becomes symbolic of the divide between liberal and conservative, and is thus a true "battleground issue."
In the most stringent periods of time, when conservative religious authorities have been in the ascendancy, music has been prohibited absolutely. For example, in Iran after the Revolution of 1978-79, homes where secular popular music was
being played or performed were raided by members of the Revolutionary Guard. In Afghanistan under the Taliban in the late 1990's similar prohibitions were in effect.

It goes without saying that despite these restrictions on music, elaborate "classical" and popular music traditions have arisen throughout the Islamic world. They have been a part of Islamic traditional civilization for centuries, and are likewise a concurrent fact of life in the Islamic world alongside the religious prohibitions. While, as stated, the most conservative Muslims enforce the general prohibition against music, there is no Islamic society in the world that lacks a musical tradition,
or where musical performance can not be heard. These simultaneous strains of cultural practice are fascinating, since they show the tension between generalized Islamic law and local cultural practice.

Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the Persianate world-particularly the area of the world influenced by Shi'a cultural traditions. This is the world dominated by historically Persian cultural traditions spreading from Baghdad to China and extending in part to present day Iran, Afghanistan, the Tajik areas of Uzbekistan and Tajikististan, and also to the Shi'a areas of Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Of all these traditions Persian classical music and particularly the epic
musical-dramatic form, ta'ziyeh, constitute the greatest challenge to conservative Islamic opinions about the suitability of musical performance in general society.

Persian historical musical practices (along with the musical traditions of Islamic Southeast Asia) constitute the most liberal musical performance conventions in the Muslim world. Nevertheless, to frame the following discussion, it is necessary
to look at commentary on music deriving more generally from the Islamic world. The Persianate world is particularly interesting as a way to frame the conservative/liberal conflict in the Islamic world because of the rich and ancient musical
traditions that exist among Persian speaking peoples. Music is, in fact, such an essential part of greater Persianate civilization, that outright prohibition is nearly unthinkable. Therefore the conflict revolves around the boundary between acceptability and non-acceptability. The question of acceptability becomes
particularly acute when considering ta'ziyeh practice.

I develop an approach to the “poetics” of music and
movement, vis-`a-vis language, in the context of
popular Sufism in South Asia. Bringing Michael
Herzfeld’s notion of “social poetics” into creative
dialogue with Katherine Ewing’s notion of the
experiencing subject as a “bundle of agencies,” I
attempt to cope with the problem of “meaning” in a
highly heterogeneous event, the ‘urs in Lahore,
Pakistan, commemorating the death of the Sufi saint
Shah Husain. My pragmatic approach to navigating
through an excess of meanings is to focus on what I
call “common terms of understanding.” The analysis
illuminates how Islam is popularly grounded in
South Asia, more generally, and is suggestive of how
music and movement might be construed as forms of
religiopolitical “embodiment.”

For centuries, the notion of the sinfulness of music (singing, playing musical instruments, listening) served for its opponents as the basis for justifying the prohibition of art of music in Islam. According to tradition, the first argument in theological disputes on this topic was the word of the Qur’an: certain verses / ayahs / and even separate phrases from different surahs. In course of time, a circle of texts, used by Islamic thinkers to prove the permissibility or, the opposite, the inadmissibility of musical creativity for man, was formed.
The suggested work is dedicated to discussion of the Qur’anic texts, most often used in the controversy about the permissibility of music, and to their interpretations in different, primarily Sunni sources (beginning with tafsirs, commentaries to the Qur’an and theological treatises of the Middle Ages and ending with modern journalism). The study of the interpretations of the Qur'anic texts in this perspective makes it possible to raise the question whether the subject of the discussion is actually music; besides, it helps to identify the specificity of understanding music in Islam, and to trace the dynamics of changes in the attitude of Muslims towards the art of music in different historical contexts.

Özet
Osmanlı insanı için 19. yüzyıl, evveliyatında yaşanan zor süreçlerin artık sona erdiği, rahatça nefes alınan bir dönem değildir. Gerek siyasî gerek içtimaî alanda yaşanan zorluklarla beraber devletin ihtişamlı günlerinin arkaik heyecanları da duyulur; bakılan zaviyeye göre yorumlanabilecek olan toplumun çözülüşü veya toparlanışının aynı anda yaşandığı bir dönemdir. Yine bu zaman diliminde Türk toplumunun ileriye dönük problemlerinin tamamıyla çözüldüğü de söylenemez. Kesin olarak söyleyebileceğimiz bir yargı ise son derece hızlı gerçekleşen değişimin varlığıdır. Karşılaştığı çeşitli badireleri aşmaya çalışırken bir tarafta sarığından vazgeçmeyen "uyumcu" , diğer tarafta istanbulin giyen "değişimci" farklı çevrelerin eski ve yeni pratikleriyle oluşturduğu kültürel birikim, bugünün zihin dünyasının oluşmasında da önemli rol oynar. Ortaylı'nın "İmparatorluğun En Uzun Yüzyılı" olarak adlandırdığı bu dönemde, sanatta ve edebiyatta yeni dinamikler ve bunun sonucunda yeni, geniş bir repertuar da bırakılmaktadır. 19. yüzyılda Dinî Türk Musikisi'nin, kendi kültürel kurumlarında en üretken devrini yaşadığı malumdur. Ancak burada ele alınan konu tekke veya cami gibi dinî kurumlarla organik bir bağı bulunmayan, dışarıdan bir müzisyen için dinî musikinin ne ifade ettiğidir. Başka bir ifadeyle dinî musikinin bu kurumlar dışında da varlık göstermesi düşünülebilir mi? En uzun yüzyılın çalkantıları arasında musiki sanatının özgür ruhlu ve duyarlı dehası Tanburî Cemil Bey'in hayat hikâyesindeki kimi detaylar, var olduğu dünyanın tinsel ilkelerini ve bu dönem insanının kültürel kodlarını çözümlemek adına önemli izler içerir. Cemil Bey örneklemiyle, 19. yüzyılda dinî musikinin yaşadığı gelişmelere farklı bir bakış, Tanzimat aydınındaki dinî eğilimler ve bunun musikiye yansıması bu tebliğin ana temasını oluşturacaktır.

Abstract
For the Ottoman people, the 19th century is not a period in which the difficult processes that have taken place in the past have ended, and they are not easily breathed. Along with the difficulties in political and social life, the archaic excitement of the glorious days of the state is heard; It is a period in which the dissolution or recovery of the society, which can be interpreted according to the observed standpoint, is experienced at the same time. Again, it can not be said that the future problems of the Turkish society have been solved completely at that time. A judgment we can say for sure is the very existence of rapid change. While trying to transcend the various types of problems, "status quo supporter" who does not give up wearing fez on the one hand and "innovator" who wears redingot on the other; the cultural accumulation of old and new practices of different circles plays an important role in the formation of the present world of mind. In this period, which Ortaylı calls "The Longest Century Of The Empire," new dynamics in art and literature and, as a result, a new, wider repertoire are left. Religious Turkish music is in the most productive period in its own cultural institutions in 19th century. However, the issue addressed here is what religious music means for an outside musician who does not have an organic connection with religious institutions such as tekke or mosque. In other words, is it possible to think that religious music also existed outside these institutions? Among the turmoil of the longest century, genius of the Turkish music: "Tanburi Cemil Bey" who the free-spirited and courteous, some details of his life story contains important traces in order to analyze cultural codes of the people of that period and the fundamental principles of the world he belongs. In Tanburi Cemil Bey's example, a different look of the developments experienced by religious music in the 19. century, the religious tendencies in Tanzimat intellectuals and the music dimension of this understanding are the main theme of this paper.

This study presents a catalog of the music manuscripts that are preserved in the İstanbul Üniversitesi Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi (İstanbul University Rare and Manuscript Collections Library). This library is especially important for its numerous music manuscripts, especially lyrics collections, which include private lyrics codices of famous composers, such as Hafiz Post, Itri, Ebubekir Agha, Sultan Mahmud II. While important books on music theory had remained in the Topkapi Palace Library, the most song-text collections were delivered to the newly established Yildiz Palace. The Yildiz Palace manuscript collection was later transferred to the İstanbul Üniversitesi Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi, after the establishment of the Turkish Republic.
This catalog includes manuscripts at the İstanbul Üniversitesi Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi. The catalog incorporates those manuscripts which are catalogued under Ibnulemin Collection, which is also preserved in the same library. Istanbul University Library contains 19,864 manuscripts: 9943 manuscripts in Turkish language, 6967 in Arabic, 1618 in Persian, and 81 in various languages, and the 1255 manuscripts in the Ibnulemin collection. While researching for the Catalog of the Music Manuscripts in the Istanbul University, I went through library index cards following any terms related to music. After that I also investigated all miscellaneous compilations as well as all poetry collections in order to identify texts related to music in those. When I realized that a manuscript that was catalogued as a versified hadith collection is in fact a lyrics codex, I investigated all manuscripts that preserve verse texts. In the end, for the Catalog of Music Manuscripts in Istanbul University Library I ended up scanning through almost 8500 manuscripts in order to identify those texts related to music.
The Catalog of Music Manuscripts in Istanbul University Library presents the descriptions of music manuscripts under seven headings: 1. Works on music and dance; 2. Theory and method related works; 3. Lyrics codices: a. “Fasil” compilations, b. Popular Song compilations, c. Mawlawi ayin-i sherif’s lyrics compilation, d. Hymn compilations; e. Miraciyye compilations 4. Composition notebooks; 5. Biographical dictionaries of musicians; 6. Various topics; 7. Works found in miscellaneous compositions. Under these titles 383 works are described. Four of those include discussions on religion, music and dancing, 11 on music theory, 70 various lyrics codices, 4 composition notebooks, 6 biographical dictionaries and 286 manuscripts that contain chapters or sections that are related to music. The oldest dated work among those is a theoretical work on musical modes Zeynü’l-Elhân fî İlmü’t-Te’lîf ve’l-Evzân which is dated 1484.
The Catalog of Music Manuscripts in Istanbul University Library reflects only a small portion of music manuscripts produced and/or preserved in Turkish manuscript libraries. My hope is that it will benefit researchers whose research relate to the field of Ottoman music.

Musica ed estasi L'ascolto mistico nella tradizione sufi Roma, 2013, Squilibri (a cura e traduzione di Giovanni De Zorzi) Formato 15x21, pp. 303, 20 immagini a colori + 1 CD € 28 Nella tradizione sufi il termine samâ' (ascolto, audizione) indica il raccoglimento interiore che, applicato a musica e poesia, sfocia in un "concerto spirituale" durante il quale possono affiorare stati d'estasi che si esprimono nella danza o anche in scomposti movimenti fisici. Nato nella Baghdad del IX secolo e presto diffusosi, in forme diverse, in tutto il mondo islamico, questo cerimoniale ha dato vita a una vasta produzione trattatistica che l'autore affronta in una prospettiva multidisciplinare, coniugando allo studio analitico dei testi del sufismo l'esperienza diretta del samâ', maturata in una pluridecennale ricerca sul campo.

The subject of the dhikr remains one of the unexplored areas of the Tatar religious culture today. The 'Tatar dhikr' has received adequate attention from researchers neither as part of the normative liturgical ritual, nor in the context of the Sufi culture that existed in the past. To some degree, it can be explained by the influence of the atheistic campaign of the Soviet decades, which caused a decline in the existence of, as well as competence in, ritual practices. At the present time, together with the return of many religious rituals to the life of the Tatar-Muslims, the dhikr has been re-introuced into the practice of normative service. Much less is known about the Sufi dhikr in the Tatar milieu, where the Yasawiya and the Naqshbandiya traditions were the most widespread. The handwritten and printed sources in Arabic script of the past are still waiting for special studies. Against this background, the materials recorded by Tatar ethnomusicologists in the last decades of the 20th century seem to be especially important: there are texts that reflect the importance of the Sufi dhikr for Muslims and show its structural features. Towards the end of the 20 th century, such texts entered the repertoire of Tatar folk monajats and were recited in the style of the monajats. To a certain extent, the study of such samples provides an idea of the forms of the dhikr in the Tatar culture of the past; particularly it shows their connection with the Yasawiya tradition, and as a whole, proves the persistence of Sufi traditions in the folk culture. This paper is based on the survey of little-studied religious and historical sources, recordings, and interviews made during field trips in the 1990-2000s on the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia).

The primary goal of this article is to describe spiritual and religious considerations of music in Islamic spiritual care for enhancing spiritual care to Muslims. In medieval times in the Muslim world, music played an important role in healthcare practices. For example music was used not only to enhance spirituality of patients but also to improve their health. Many Muslim scholars and musicians used musical theory and techniques as a way of connecting patients with the Divine, inspiring hope and finding meaning in their crisis, suffering and illness. Therefore music can be used in spiritual care for Muslims as a tool to connect patients with spiritual sources of strength.

In the article, the book of the Ottoman Sufi Muhammad Yazidji-Oghlu Celebi (15th century) "Muhammadiyya" in the context of the culture of Russian Tatar Muslims of the 19th - early 20th century is discussed. Initially an "alien" phenomenon, it became an integral part of the Tatar culture in that period. For the first time published in Kazan in 1845, the book, thanks to subsequent reprints and use in educational institutions, got an exclusive distribution in the Tatar-Muslim environment. The chant of “Muhammadiyya”, along with the recitation of other books of religious content, made up a unique layer of the Tatar musical-poetic culture and retained its popularity until the end of the 20th century.

Cet article interroge les clips musicaux comme support du ressenti religieux islamique et la manière dont ce dernier est exprimé et circule sur le Web. Il vise à montrer comment ces productions sont un moyen de porter et de diffuser le croire, par la notion de “rappel islamique”. Basée sur une analyse anthropologique d’un corpus de vidéos de musique religieuse ou urbaine ainsi que sur les commentaires qui les accompagnent, cette contribution aborde les mises en scènes musulmanes. Les présentations de soi comme musulman, appréhendées par leurs interactions virtuelles, rendent compte des diverses manières d’exprimer un ressenti religieux, sans jamais “perdre la face” vis-à-vis des autres membres de la communauté ainsi que des modes de savoir être et savoir se dire musulman sur la toile. Auteure : Marie-Laure Boursin.

This article examines the global human rights activism of young Muslims through their participation in hip-hop culture. The increased awareness of their Muslim identity in the post-September 11 era inadvertently influences and permeates the consumption of popular youth culture. The article contends that there is an attempt by the hip-hop ummah to draw from the struggles of the African American experience to articulate the human rights concerns facing respective communities. The right to appropriate hip-hop as a means to express their predicaments also brings its young practitioners into conflict with moral entrepreneurs who act as gatekeepers to the religion. However, the human rights activism of young Muslims is bridging the seemingly irreconcilable gap between hip-hop and piety, serving not only as an important framework of social identity but also providing the space to forge generational and transnational solidarities.

Wéré music is a genre practiced exclusively by the Muslim population of the Yoruba tribe, who reside primarily in South West Nigeria, Benin and Togo. The group claim Arabic ancestry, which is contested by Western scholars – a representational issue addressed within this paper.

The genre developed from the practice of ajisaris, who rouse the faithful during Ramadan to ensure they can take their final meal before the next day’s fast begins. While ajisaris work in a purely functional sonic realm, beating a drum with a stick and shouting, wéré exists to be functionally, socially and aesthetically fulfilling for the Muslim community.

However, its use as a rite of initiation for young men, and the emergence of competitions to crown the most skillful group, have led to the genre being condemned by local, increasingly Islamist, religious leaders in the past decade.

Wéré music demonstrates a confluence of Islamic and indigenous musical influences. This has resulted in an association between Islamic and local religious and cultural practices more generally, including appreciation by the Christian Yoruba of the role Muslims have played in preserving and reinvigorating local cultural practices. A spirit of positive interfaith interactions can thus be found in Yorubaland.

This paper illustrates the musical development of wéré over its fifty year history, including its recent incursions into the commercial pop music world in the form of fújì music. Local discourse about the current status and contemporary challenges to wéré will be considered, with due consideration given to what is at stake for these local commentators.

While numerous studies on Islamic political movements are concerned with their engagement in party coalitions and the state, surprisingly few scholars have investigated the cultural life of Islamist groups. This article explores how the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) is currently undergoing dramatic cultural changes and has developed an unprecedented flexibility in the field of modern popular culture. It elucidates how PAS has shifted from a group that long held the image of conservative zealots who try to ban any form of art and entertainment towards being a pioneer of pop-cultural creativity, as popular music, celebrity persons, and even motorbikes have been passionately integrated into its ‘Islamic struggle’. PAS’ cul- tural transformation has not only been influenced by political competition and wider social tendencies, but also by the emergence of a new generation of cultural reformists within the party. Their call for change is driven by tactical considerations and reconsiders theological positions that stipulate that modern music is strictly forbidden in Islam. Electric guitars have thereby been re-conceptualised from ‘instruments of the devil’ to tools for missionary work (dakwah). The underlying process of normative change, however, continues to be highly controversial in the community of Malaysia’s Islamist opposition.
Full paper: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13639811.2014.930993#abstrac

The discussion about barzanji is not only in the theological debate, but also in the cultural debate. The paradigm of sunnah and bid’ah that has contained. the study of Islamic theology has been developed in to cultural studies that puts them in areciprocal relationship. This study aimed to analyze barzanji in the
critical culture debate which emerged a new perspective on the dichotomy of
sunnah and bid’ah even becomed more dynamic in analyzing culture.

Music is the core of mystical experience in Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, at least for those who have spent major chunks of their time in South Asia in Sufi dergahs, as have I. Here is an effort to make sense of how the dominant Sufi tradition in Hindustan, the Chishtiyya, approached the practice of music in their quest to find, and to feel, the presence of the One Unseen and yet Ever Sought.

The use of music in religious traditions is a complicated subject. Some say it doesn’t have any place in religion while others see it as an essential part of their spiritual life. How one defines music, and indeed religion, can differ greatly but both of these have played an enormous role in our world both historically and today. The relationship between these two subjects is the focus of this study. I aim to analyze how music and sound is used within the Mouridiyya, a Sufi order based mainly in Western Africa, as a religious practice and in what way different forms of music is a way for Mourids in Sweden to connect with their native culture and religion in a society that is in many ways very different. The study is based on interviews and field observations and will explore themes like music as transcendence, the contents of the music, attitudes toward “secular” or more popular, contemporary forms of music as well as gender roles and segregation. I have visited one Mourid group in Stockholm and the study will be based entirely on them. To say something more general about Mouridism or Sufism are generalizations I am not prepared to make, but some of the findings do open up for these kinds of discussions and hopefully this will be but one small step into a fairly uncharted academic field of “religious music”.

TATAR THEOLOGIANS ON PERMISSIBILITY OF MUSIC IN ISLAM
The question of permissibility of music (singing, playing on musical instruments) and listening to music in Islam is a subject of incessant discussions, which can be seen in significant number of sources in different languages.
In this article, the contribution of the Tatar theologians into this polemics is shown. These are little known materials of the beginning of the 20th century. It was a period when a great part of the Tatar Muslim clergy started discussions on many problems of national culture and of Islamic culture in general. The subject of music was among the most sharp ones: it was discussed in periodicals by ordinary Muslims, touched in different works of known writers and scholars, and was specially studied by the outstanding theologians of the time: Riza Fakhreddin (special chapter in the commentary on hadith “Jawamig al-kalim sharhe”, 1916), Hasan-Gata Ghabashi (the manuscript of the article on the attitude of Islam towards singing and music, approximately 1908), Hadi Kildebaki (the monograph “Music and Islam”, 1909).
Written independently from each other and because of different reasons, these works have much in common. The most important for all authors is to show the futility of indiscriminate prohibitions of music and listening in Islam. In their evidence, the authors base themselves on the analysis of the Koran, various tafsirs, multiple hadith sources, showing brilliant theological erudition. They mention the dependence of interpretation of music on different social “contexts” and its positive influence on a human.
In the article, the positions of all three authors are analyzed.

Scholary works on Sufism have been almost entirely concerned with the classical textual tradition and have given scant attention to the contemporary practice of Sufism. Such Studies as have been done in Egypt inadequately reflect actual popular beliefs and practices by exhibiting tendencies either to interpret contemporary sufism in light of classical Sufism,to dismiss popular Sufism as a degradation of “true” Sufism,or to conclude, in light of the presentation of Sufism propagated by the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, that there is nothing that distinguishes contemporary Sufism from any other branch of Islam.Contemporary Sufism must be studied as a complete system, not merely a degradation of another system. It developed from classical Sufism but is not identical with it, and offers a world view and rituals that distinguish it from other Islamic currents. The centrality of devotion to the Prophet and his family is one aspect of Egyptian Sufi religious life that distinguishes it fr...

Written in German for Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (eds.: R. W. Stoll & F. Lamberty), IV/2010.

Nie zuvor wurde in der zeitgenössischen Musik die Auseinandersetzung mit fremden Traditi-onen so umfassend gefördert wie heute. Die Konfrontation des Diversen verlangt jedoch von ihren Dialogpartnern ein neues, selbstkritisches Verständnis innerkultureller Prozesse. Am Beispiel der Türkei, wo westliche Musik sinnbildlich für die Kultur des Abendlandes steht, werden Möglichkeiten und Gefahren einer globalen Neuen Musik analysiert.

Oleh Kartika Cahyaningrum C0314018 JURUSAN SASTRA INGGRIS FAKULTAS SASTRA DAN SENI RUPA UNIVERSITAS SEBELAS MARET 2014 mencakup semua yang diwahyukan Allah SWT kepada Rasulullah Muhammad SAW berupa syari'ah dan akidah. Terlepas dari itu kedua hal itu, Islam juga merupakan agama yang realistis, termasuk perhatiannya terhadap kebutuhan manusia. Di samping kebutuhan jasmani dan rohani, Islam juga mengatur mengenai kebutuhan intuisi atau rasa, yaitu seni. Lantas, bagaimana Islam memandang seni? PEMBAHASAN Pengertian Seni Dalam Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, seni didefinisikan sebagai kesanggupan akal untuk menciptakan sesuatu yg bernilai tinggi. Menurut Sulaiman Nordin, seni sering dipahami sebagai segala usaha penciptaan bentukbentuk atau karya yang memberi kesenangan estetika. Intinya, seni merupakan segala sesuatu yang berkaitan dengan keindahan, baik yang dapat dilihat, didengar, maupun dirasakan. Seni merupakan fitrah yang Allah ciptakan pada diri manusia. Dilihat dari kaidahnya, Islam tidak melarang sesuatu yang baik dan indah. Seperti firman Allah SWT dalam Surah Al-Maidah ayat 4, yang artinya: "Mereka bertanya kepadamu tentang apa yang dihalalkan Allah, katakanlah dihalalkan kepadamu segala yang baik-baik...

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We trace the history of Indonesian Islamic metal bands, including Purgatory, Tengkorak and Kodusa, and the One Finger Movement that revolved around these bands (centred mainly on Jakarta). We look at the differences in symbols, heroes, rituals and values between One Finger Movement bands and the Bandung (Indonesia) secular Death Metal scene. We also study Bandung Death Metal band Saffar, which was known for its Islamic lyrics on its debut album but which has been for a few years in something of a limbo owing to the departure of vocalist and lyricist Parjo. We also look at Saffar's positioning of itself as a ‘secular’ band with Islamic and Anti-Zionist lyrical themes rather than as an Islamic band per se. This dichotomy can be best explained by the phrase ‘a band of Muslims rather than a Muslim band’. The secular Bandung scene context is a significant explanatory factor here.

During the 1980s, Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss, founder of the Al-Kindi ensemble of Aleppo, invented a qānūn in just intonation with which he attempted to solve a major discrepancy between the theory and practice of maqām-scales. Weiss objected to the introduction of Western standards, observing that they distort the significance of interval ratios and prevent a comparative understanding of the modal system as a transnational phenomenon. In the twentieth century, the implementation of equal-semitone temperament emerged simultaneously with a notable invasion of sociological criteria into musical inquiry. The polarity observed between westernisation and tradition can be seen most visibly in the present search for identity amongst Middle-and Near-Eastern musicians, but this schismogenic process can also be observed in the history of the Western avant-garde, where microtonal explorations have been halted in favour of extra-musical conceptuality. While cross-cultural musicians are faced with a new climate of distrust, it seems most likely that the principles that draw us apart may originate in the very patterns of thought in which our notion of culture operates. Weiss's tuning system may serve as a helpful tool to foster a new and universal epistemology of tone, bridging and transcending the apparent contradictions between the two spheres.

Both music and love are conspicuously absent from the public soundscapes of Hargeysa, Somaliland. But behind closed doors, people listen to love songs. In doing so, these lonely love sufferers and love hopefuls make sense of various challenges. Using accounts from a cross section of Somalilanders, I show that these solitary listening practices open into uniquely intimate and transformative opportunities for dareen-wadaag (feeling sharing). These opportunities critically depend both on listeners' attention and intention, and on the culturally elaborated affective affordances of love songs' "voice"-a voice that is conceived as "love incarnate" and that models intimacy. In short, listeners do not just listen to love songs; they listen to love. Their listening practices call for anthropological models that more fully account for the relationship between culturally situated ears and voices, as well as for the complex interrelation of sound, affect, and subjectivity. [listening, aurality, love and intimacy, voice, iconicity, sound and affect, music, Somaliland]

This book is a sociological study of Muslim youth culture based on original ethnographic fieldwork in two global cities in the Asia Pacific: Singapore and Sydney. Muslims in Singapore and Sydney face similar challenges, such as their minority status and low socio-economic position relative to the larger society. The challenges these young urban Muslims face in their everyday lives are complicated by their context within the broader processes of globalization that bring together the September 11th generation living in the Information Age. Comparing young Muslims living in secular, multicultural cities across three domains of popular culture - hip-hop music, tattooing, and cultural consumption - this study illuminates the range of attitudes and strategies they adopt to reconcile popular youth culture with piety.

An important body of scholarship has explored the salience of Sufism (‘mystical Islam’) in Senegal. Approaches have emphasized its social and political dimensions, while little attention has been devoted to the symbolic yet important role of Sufi-affiliated pop musicians, especially mbàllax singers, in the grassroots negotiation of faith and religious tolerance in the country. Using the documentary, Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love (US, 2008), and observation, the study examines what it calls ‘cultural friction’, here a metaphor for the transient conflicts emerging as classically oriented Sufi Muslims condemn and protest against the encroachment of “obscene” practices on religious spaces and symbols. The study approaches the film as a music documentary following N’dour during and after the making of his Grammy-winning yet controversial album released in Senegal as Sant Yalla (‘God Be Praised’, 2003) and internationally as Egypt (2004). It analyzes cultural friction as part of a Senegalese artistic modernization, but also as a contemporary phenomenon speaking to the historical role of the Wolof ‘griot’ (bard) in the peaceful appropriation of Islam. Finally, the study portrays N’dour as a pop singer whose liberal Sufi perspective on music promotes his legitimacy to perform in the Islamic religious space as well.