Voices of Islam (200 page)

That the Persians were particularly gifted at composing, performing, and listening to music with a spiritual intention is attested to by numerous historical testimonies. In the contemporary period, despite certain signs of degeneration and ruptures that are probably irreparable, there are still musicians to whom it is given to enter into a sublime mystical state (
hal
) and who are able to communicate their state to their listeners. In this state, the artist ‘‘plays with an extraordinary facility of performance. His sonority changes. The musical phrase surrenders its secret to him.’’
37
According to another contemporary observer, even if the hardening of opinion that the offi Shiite circles manifested toward the Sufi orders at the end of the Safavid period has more or less discouraged the use of music in mystical gatherings, the content of this music has nonetheless preserved its spiritual efficacy: ‘‘There always exists among traditional musicians a certain sense of the sacred.’’
38
Thus, for the master Davami, the 99-year-old depository of a vast and diffi repertoire, it is indispensable to first have a knowledge of the Hereafter before being able to practice music, this knowledge itself implying a purification of the external senses and the internal faculties which makes a person become like a mirror.

Judging by my personal experience, listening to a concert of Iranian classical music demands of the listener the same meditative disposition and leads him along the same paths and toward the same experiences as an evening of Andalusian music. Even if the resonances of the voices and instru- ments are different, those of Iran possessing more mildness and femininity, the melodic and rhythmic structures show so many affi that one feels oneself transported into the same realm. It is a realm of 12 fundamental modes (
avaz
), which subdivide into modal figures (
gusheh
) arranged accord- ing to an order (
radif
) established by the greatest masters, and is in part immutable. It is a world where quality does not consist of innovation and of

Music and Spirituality in Islam
81

displays of virtuosity, but rather of exposition with fi ty, while embel- lishing with appropriate ornamentation and improvisation the various sequences or fi of the chosen mode. The concert thus takes on the aspect of a gathering of friends, where a theme is solemnly introduced and developed and then debated during an exchange of questions and responses before being meditated upon in a collective spirit and finally culminating in the exaltation of a discovery that fills all the listeners with joy.

Turkish Music

The same remarks, or very similar ones, could be applied to the classical music of Turkey. Turkish music was not only an heir to the Arab, Byzantine, and Persian melodic modes but was also the bearer of sounds and rhythms that came from the steppes of Asia and that for centuries was strongly permeated with mystical concerns. In Turkey in fact, perhaps more than in any other Islamic region, the great Sufi religious orders—the Mevlevis, the Bektashis, and the Khalwatis—made use of music in their ceremonies. The Mevlevis in particular trained a large number of singers and instrumen- talists, who, while remaining affi iated with the order, became musicians attached to the court of the Ottoman Sultans. Such was the
dede
(dervish) Ismail, one of the great masters of classical music, who was much in favor during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III (r. 1789–1807
CE
), and from whom some 150 compositions have been handed down to us.

Performing and listening to
a peshrev
or ‘‘prelude,’’ one of the most characteristic forms of Turkish classical music, constitutes an exercise of con- centration for the musician and is an invitation to contemplative reflection for the listener. Composed of four parts (
hane,
‘‘house’’), each one followed by a refrain (
teslim
), which forms the key to the melodic construction, the
peshrev
is played in one or more modes (
makam
). During its unfolding, which is always slow and restrained, accelerating slightly only at the finale, each musician restricts himself to embellishing the fundamental melody at the appropriate places, adding here and there the conventional grace-notes— the
tashil bezek
or ‘‘petrifi decoration’’—a term that also designates the arabesques of architectural decoration. At the desired moment the musician interrupts the combined movement to perform an improvised solo (
taksim
). During the sessions of
sama‘
of the Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes, the
taksim
solo is always given to the player of the
nay,
the reed flute, which symbolizes the voice of the soul in love with the Absolute: ‘‘It is necessary to have heard a
nay
played in a large resonant hall; it is necessary to have seen at the same time the dance of the dervishes, in all its solemnity: to realize the profound inner emotion which is released.’’
39
However, the use of the
nay
in Turkish music is not restricted to the dervishes. Whether it accompanies vocal ensem- bles or is integrated into complete instrumental ensembles, which include the

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Voices of Art, Beauty, and Science

zither (
qanun
), the lute, the
tambur
(a lute with a very long neck allowing the division of the octave by 24 frets), the violin (
kemenceh
) of two or three strings, and percussive instruments, it punctuates most classical concerts with its nostalgic voice.

Hindustani Music

In the realm of the art of music, a remarkable synthesis has taken place between Hindus and Muslims in northern India, beginning with the growth of Islam on the Indian subcontinent in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
CE
. The fi architects of this synthesis were, as we have seen in relation to the singers of
Qawwalis,
the masters and the members of the Chishtiyya Sufi order who, by the radiance of their faith, brought about conversions to Islam by the hundreds of thousands. Mu‘in al-Din Chishti, the founder of this order, believed that ‘‘song is the sustenance and the support of the soul,’’
40
and under his influence the Chishtiyya Sufis contributed a number of Islamic elements into Indian classical music, while themselves borrowing extensively from the very rich melodic and rhythmic repertoire of India.

In order for such a synthesis to be possible, it was necessary that the theoretical and practical foundations of the two musical universes thus brought into contact—the Arabo-Persian and the Indian—be at least compatible, if not identical. To the theory of ‘‘influence’’ (
ta’thir
), that is to say, the
ethos
of the ancient Greeks that was Arabized and applied to the Arabo-Persian musical modes, corresponds that of the Hindu
bhava,
the nature of the emotion connected to the
raga
(the musical mode of India), which engenders
rasa,
the flavor or state of the soul (Arabic
dhawq
or
hal
) that is particular to each mode. As for the classification of the types of the
raga
and its relationship to the macrocosm and microcosm, this aspect of Indian music theory surpassed in subtlety even that of the Muslim musicologists. All of the conditions were therefore present for the fruitful cross-pollination of musical genres, which often occurred in the princely courts. These courts included that of Sultan ‘Ala al-Din Khilji of Delhi, where the Sufi poet, musician, and composer of Turkish origin, Amir Khusraw (d. 1325
CE
) inaugurated the style of highly modulated ’’imaginative’’ song (
khayal
) and popularized the Persian love poem (
ghazal
). They also included the court of the great Moguls, especially of the emperor Akbar (d. 1605
CE
), where Hindu and Muslim musicians brought to perfection such noble styles as the
dhrupad,
which is constructed on rhythmic poems of four verses; the
dhamar,
more rhythmic than the
dhrupad,
and the
tappa,
with its delicate ornamentation.
41

Even today, the performers of Hindustani music are recruited from among both Hindu and Muslim families, the latter being able to take pride in having contributed through generations of musicians to one of the most beautiful musical traditions humanity has ever known. According to Hindu doctrine,

Music and Spirituality in Islam
83

‘‘He who is expert in the science of modal intervals and scales and who knows the rhythms travels easily on the path of Deliverance.’’
42
When this percep- tion is combined with the belief, stated by Rumi, that ‘‘at the time of
sama‘,
the Sufi hear another sound, from God’s throne,’’ there can be no doubt that the combination of musical traditions in India was an effective means of reaching inner perfection for members of the two religious communities. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr has stated, comparing the Indian and Muslim musical traditions, ‘‘Music is not only the fi art brought by [the Hindu god] Siva into the world, and the art through which the
asrar-i alast,
the [Qur’anic] mystery of the primordial Covenant between man and God in that pre-eternal dawn of the day of cosmic manifestation is revealed; but it is also the key to the understanding of the harmony that pervades the cosmos. It is the handmaid of wisdom itself.’’
43

Popular Music

In all of the regions penetrated by Islam, numerous forms of popular music were allowed to exist or to expand, in addition to the strictly religious music and the great classical currents that we have just outlined. To make an inven- tory of all types of popular music would not be possible in these pages, but we would like nevertheless to cite by means of illustration some cases in which popular music is used for the mystical quest. Sometimes, it is music with a classical structure that is popularized by adopting the vernacular language and local instruments. Thus, the
griha
of North Africa, sung in various Arabic dialects—Moroccan, Algerian, or Tunisian—continues the tradition of pre-Islamic odes (
qasida
) that in more classical musical genres were based on the airs of the
nawba,
while the Moroccan, Tunisian, and Libyan
malhun
is a dialectized form of Andalusian music. Both the
griha
and the
malhun
were used to perform innumerable pieces of poetry or rhymed prose composed in dialectical Arabic by Sufi masters.

Throughout the expanse of the Islamic world, non-Arab ethnic groups integrated Islamic formulas into their repertoires. This is the case with the Berbers of the Atlas Mountains, who sing the
ahellel
(Arabic
tahlil
), which is none other than the Islamic profession of faith,
la ilaha illa Allah.
The Moorish women of the Western Sahara dance the
guedra,
an ancient rite of communication with the fecundating forces, while a chorus of men introduces the names of the Prophet Muhammad and the One God into its rhythmic breathing.

A final example taken from the folklore of Morocco illustrates the very frequent situations in which the music of a village, connected to the cult of a local saint, regularly animates religious ceremonies and feasts. The village of Jahjuka, located in the region of Jabala, not far from the northeastern Moroccan town of Ksar el-Kebir, possesses a troupe of clarinetists and

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Voices of Art, Beauty, and Science

drummers whose origin goes back to the time when 12 centuries ago the village was founded by the Saint Sidi Ahmad Sharqi and his companion, a musician named Muhammad al-‘Attar. Each Friday, the musicians march through the village to the tomb of the saint, where the faithful come to ask for healing of diseases of the body and soul. The high-pitched sound of the
ghita
clarinet and the intense rhythm of the drums puts the listener into a state of trance, which opens the way for the blessed infl ence (
baraka
) of the saint, and facilitates its therapeutic action.

EPILOGUE

From each of these areas of classical music as well as from popular music flow strong and enduring testimonies, showing that various styles of music in the Islamic world, like those that serve more explicitly as vehicles for the words of the Qur’an or the hymns of mystics, are an echo of the Beyond, an open path to the liberation of the soul and its return to the lost Homeland, toward the infi Silence that is the origin of all sounds. As a providential instrument for the symbolic unification of multiplicity, the traditional music of Islam aids the human being in realizing, through a path of beauty, that ‘‘In truth we belong to God, and to Him we will return’’ (Qur’an 2:156).

NOTES

This chapter will also appear as, ‘‘Music and Spirituality in Islam,’’ in Jean-Louis Michon,
Introduction to Traditional Islam: Illustrated
(Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom, forthcoming in 2008). Slight editorial changes and abridgements have been made to the original text for consistency of style and purposes of clarifi tion. The general editor of this set thanks the editors of World Wisdom Books for permission to reproduce this work.

1. Arina al-ashya’ kama hiya:
   this hadith was cited by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in his ‘‘Great Commentary’’ on the Qur’an (
   Mafatih al-Ghayb
   ), with respect to verse 17:85: ‘‘They will question you concerning the Spirit.’’ See al-Razi,
   al-Tafsir al-Kabir,
   2nd ed. (Tehran, n.d.), vols. 21–22, 37.
   

2. The complete work of the Brethren of Purity includes 51 (or 52) ‘‘Epistles’’ (
   rasa’il
   ), of which the one treating music is the fi See ‘‘L’e´pˆıtre sur la musique des Ikhwaˆn al-safaˆ,’’ translation annotated by A. Shiloah,
   Revue des Etudes islamiques,
   1964, 125–162; 1966, 159–193. The passages cited hereafter are found on pages 155–158 (1964).
   

3. A. Shiloah (1966), 185. In the same way, Frithjof Schuon writes, ‘‘While listening to beautiful music, the guilty will feel innocent. But the contemplative, on the contrary, while listening to the same music, will forget himself while fathoming the essences.’’ Schuon,
   Sur les traces de la religion pe´renne
   (Paris, 1982), 66–67.
   

   Music and Spirituality in Islam
   85
   

4. H. G. Farmer,
   A History of Arabian Music to the XIIIth Century
   (1929; repr., London, U.K., 1973), 36.
   

5. ‘Ali ibn ‘Uthman al-Jullabi al-Hujwiri,
   The Kashf al-Mahjub: the Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufiism,
   trans. Reynold A. Nicholson (1911; repr., London, U.K.: Luzac, 1976), 402.
   

6. As was the case with the philosopher Farabi (d. 950
   CE
   ); see A. Shiloah,
   

   La Perfection des connaissances musicales
   (Paris, 1972), 65–68.
   

7. A translation of this work was made by James Robson,
   Tracts on Listening to Music
   (London, U.K.: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund, 1938). It is followed by the translation of the treatise entitled
   Bawariq al-ilma’
   by the Sufi Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 1126
   CE
   ), brother of the celebrated Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111
   CE
   ). In contrast to Ibn Abi al-Dunya, Ahmad Ghazali supports the legality of music and exalts the virtues of the spiritual concert. In his Introduction to these two treatises (1–13), Robson summarizes the arguments employed by the defenders of these antithetical positions.
   

8. Cited by M. Mole´ in ‘‘La Danse extatique en Islam,’’
   Les Danses sacre´es
   (Paris: Le Seuil, 1963), 164. This study contains abundant documentation, drawn from original and often little-known sources, on the arguments for and against the use of music and dance in the mystical path.
   

9. For a better understanding of the Greco-Islamic affinities and their influence on the theory of music in Islam, one should consult H. G. Farmer,
   The Sources of Arabian Music
   (Glasgow, 1940), which includes the writings of Arabic authors. See also P. Kraus,
   Jabir ibn Hayyan, contribution a` 1’histoire des ide´es scientifi ues dans l’ Islam,
   vol. II,
   Jabir et la science grecque
   (Cairo, 1942); Y. Marquet,
   Imamat, re´surrection et hie´rarchie selon les Ikhwan as-Safa
   in
   Revue des E
   ´
   tudes Islamiques,
   1962, 49–142; E. Werner and J. Sonne,
   The Philosophy and Theory of Music in Judeo-Arabic Literature,
   in
   Hebrew Union College Annual,
   vols. 16 and 17, wherein