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[continued]

‘There is one outstading example of pure dance: that of the whirling dervishes, an art that has been practised for more than seven centuries. The procedure is part of a Muslim ceremony called the dhikr,* the purpose of which is to glorify God and seek spiritual perfection. Not all dervish orders dance; some simply stand on one foot and move the other foot to music. Those who dance, or rather, whirl, are the Mawlawi dervishes, an order that was founded by the Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi** at Konya, in Anatolia, in the 13^th century.***

‘The performance, for which all of the performers don tall, brown, conical hats and black mantles, takes place in a large hall in the tekke, the building in which the dervishes live. The dervishes sit in a circle listening to music. Then, rising slowly, they move to greet the shaykh, or master, and cast off the black coat [sic] to emerge in white shirts and waistcoats. They keep their individual places with respect to one another and begin to revolve rhythmically. They throw back their heads and raise the palms of their right hands, keeping their left hands down, a symbol of giving and taking. The rhythm accelerates, and they whirl faster and faster. In this way they enter a trance in an attempt to lose their personal identities and to attain union with the Almighty. Later they may sit, pray, and begin all over again. The dhikr ceremony always ends with a prayer and a procession.’

****

I have seen this – at the Commonwealth Institute, in London, in 1982, in company (more-or-less) with a Naqshbandi shaykh.#

*{(Remembering?)}

[Yes]

**[See [Redbook9:109-110][19910414:1104w]{[Islamic Art –] The Word (2) [continued (14)][Rumi]}[14th April 1991]]

***~2048J~1280

****– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 70

#[See eg [Redbook2:282][19830522:1130b]{The Sufi}[22nd May 1983]&f]

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[continued]

‘...Drama has had some ties with religion, as in Iran and other areas where the Shiite branch of Islam is concentrated. Here a passion play developed, rooted in traumatic memories of Islam’s earlier years. This was a local phenomenon, uninfluenced by Christian Europe, and, though stereotyped, it movingly re[-]enacted Shiite martyrdom.’*

**

*{cf [[Redbook9:123][19910415:0840x]{[Islamic Art –] Dance and Theatre [continued (5)]}[15th April 1991],] 123}

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 69

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[continued]

‘… There has been an active tradition of folk dance in most Islamic countries, in addition to dancing as an entertainment spectacle and, particularly in Persia,* as an art form. A ritual dance was instituted in the Sufi Mawlawiyah (Mevleviyah) in Turkey. The dance, performed by dervishes (members of the mystical order), is considered to be a manifestation of mystical ecstasy rather than an entertainment or an expression of aesthetic urges.’

**

*NB again

[ref eg [Redbook9:118-119][19910415:0840m]{[Islamic Art –] Music [continued (3)]}[15th April 1991],

[Redbook9:120][19910415:0840r]{[Islamic Art –] Music [continued (8)]}[15th April 1991], &al]

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 68-69

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[continued]

‘(Dance and Theatre)

‘The performing arts have received comparatively little attention in the otherwise rich literature of the Islamic peoples. This is most probably the result of the suspicions entertained by some orthodox Muslim scholars concerning the propriety of the dance and the theatre. Because this applies particularly in relation to the vexing theological question of human portrayal and its connection with idolatry, the performing arts have traditionally been regarded by the faithful with more than usual caution.’

*

* – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 68

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‘From the beginning of the 19^th century, Islamic music was affected by the intensification of contacts and relationships with Western music.’

*

* – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 68

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‘Ishaq and Ibrahim al-Mawsili actively participated in the contemporary* controversy between modernism, a Persian romantic** style tending towards exuberance of embellishments, and Arabian classicism,*** characterised by simplicity and artistic severity.’

****

*(ie c[irca]8thC[entury][ce])

**

{G~

|

v[ersus]

|

M~}

***

[?But simplicity, or at least simplification, = R~]

**** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 67-68

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‘By the end of the Umayyid period, the disparate elements of conqueror and conquered were fused into the style of classical Islamic music. With the establishment of the Abbasid caliphate in 750[ce],* Baghdad (in modern Iraq) became the leading musical centre. The Abbasid caliphate is the period of the Golden Age in Islamic music. Music, obligatory for every learned man, was dealt with in varied aspects – among them virtuosity, aesthetic theory, ethical and therapeutic goals, mystical experience, and mathematical speculation. The artist was required to possess technical proficiency, ** creative power and almost encyclopaedic knowledge.’***

****

*{2048J~768[ce]}

**{U~, j~?}

***U~}

**** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:67]

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‘In the belief of the [Pre-Islamic]* Mazduk sect (a dualistic Persian religion related to Manichaeanism, a Gnostic religion), music was considered as one of the four spiritual powers.’

**

*[Square brackets per ms]

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 67

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‘By the 9^th century,* many Greek treatises had been translated into Arabic. Arabic culture preserved Greek musical writings, and most of those that reached the West did so in their Arabic versions. Arab theorists followed Greek models, often developing them further. ...The influence of Islamic music on European music is, at present, a subject of controversy.’

**

*{2048J~A~896[ce]}

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 66

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‘Islamic music is monophonic;* ie. It consists of a single line of melody. In performance everything is related to the refinement of the melodic line and the complexity of the rhythm. The notion of harmony is completely absent, although occasionally a simple combination of notes, octaves, fifths, and fourths, usually below the melody notes, may be used as an ornamentation. Among the elements contributing to the enrichment of the melody are microtonality (the use of intervals smaller than a Western half-step or lying between a half-step and a Western whole step) and the variety of the intervals used.’

**

*{cf Development of polyphony in Christian Europe by c[irca]900CE (2048J~A~896)}

[[Redbook8:214-227][19910205:1412c]{The History of Western Music}[5th February 1991]]

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 65-66

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[continued]

‘After the advent of Islam a deep change occurred in the social function of music. Emphasis was laid on music as entertainment * and sensual pleasure, rather than as a source of high spiritual emotion, a change mainly resulting from Persian influence.** Knowledge of music was obligatory for the cultured person. Skilled professional musicians were highly paid and were admitted to the caliph’s palaces as courtesans and trusted companions. The term tarab, which designated a whole scale of emotions, characterises the musical conception of the time and even came to mean music itself.

‘Fashionable secular music – and its clear association with erotic dancing and drinking – stimulated hostile reactions from religious authorities. As Muslim doctrine does not sanction permitting or prohibiting a given practice by personal decision, the antagonists relied on forced interpretations of a few unclear passages in the Quran… or the Hadith. Thus both supporters and adversaries of music found arguments for their theses.

‘In the controversy, four main groups emerged:

(1) uncompromising purists opposed to any musical expression;

(2) religious authorities admitting only the cantillation of the Quran and the call to prayer, or adhan;

(3) scholars and musicians favouring music, believing there to be no musical difference between secular and religious music; and

(4) important mystical fraternities, for whom music and dance were a means towards unity with God.***

‘Except in the Sufi brotherhoods, Muslim religious music is relatively curtailed because of the opposition of religious leaders.’

****

*{cf [?] 65}

**NB: A pattern emerges, throughout, of Persian G~ to Arabic Muslim M~.

[Hmm....]

***

**** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:65]

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‘Words and rhetorical speech were the principal means through which the *Bedouin expressed feelings. The shair, or poet-musician, said to be possessed by supernatural powers, was feared and respected. His satirical song-poems were a formidable arm against enemies, and his poems of praise enhanced the prestige of his tribe. Musician-poets, especially women,** accompanied the warriors, inciting them by their songs, and those who fell in battle benefited from the elegies of the singer-poets.’

***

*[pre-Islamic]

**NB

[Underlining in hatched in ms, inserted later]

*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:65]

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‘Islamic music is characterised by a highly subtle organisation of melody and rhythm, in which the vocal component predominates over the instrumental.* It is based on the skill of the individual artist, who is both composer and performer and who benefits from a relatively high degree of artistic freedom. The artist is permitted, and indeed encouraged, to improvise. He generally concentrates on the details forming a work, being less concerned with following a preconceived plan than with allowing the music’s structure to emerge empirically from its details. Melodies are organised in terms of maqamat (singular maqam), or “modes”, characteristic melodic patterns with prescribed scales, preferential notes, typical melodies and rhythmic formulas, variety of intonations, and other conventional devices. The performer improvises within the framework of the maqam, which is also imbued with ethos (Arabic tathir), a specific emotional or philosophical meaning attached to a musical mode. Rhythms are organised into rhythmic modes, or iqaat (singular iqa), cyclical patterns of strong and weak beats.’

**

*{cf early Christian European music (to c[irca]1500/1600[ce])

(VIII. [[Redbook8:214-227][19910205:1412c]{The History of Western Music}[5th February 1991],] 214ff}

**– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 65

[& see [Redbook9:75][19910411:0935l]{[Music in Islam]}[11th April 1991];

[Redbook9:99][19910414:1104e]{Islamic Art – The Word (1) [continued (5)]}[14th April 1991]]

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[continued]

‘… The Polish scholar Tadeusz Kowalski tried to interpret the “molecular” structure of Arabic literature – the absence of large units of thought or architectural structure – typical of the greater part of Islamic literatures, which might be described as “carpet-like”. * This “molecular” structure can be related to the atomist theories and occasionalist world view embodied in Islamic theology, which, unlike Christianity, does not admit of secondary causes and requires only short spans of hope from the faithful.’

**

*{U~}***

**– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:64]

***{I hope this analogy is helpful. I have earlier**** typified the U~ type in the Army Sergeant – the man who runs the Army; and indeed the type who may have run the [British] Empire. This type is frequently characterised by the considerable extent of his knowledge: that (and bullying) being generally a part of the method by which he maintains his position. The knowledge will be considerable, in a depth limited to that necessary to perform practical functions; and, often, in an extent of mostly unrelated facts. But there is almost always completely lacking any significant ability to manipulate (eg analyse, synthesise) the knowledge at a higher level, necessary for strategic decisions and for theoretical advances.}

#

#*

****{ref earlier Vol[ume] []}

#{See [[Redbook9:158][19910421:1410p]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] Periods of Islamic Art [continued (6) – ]{Leo.... [continued (4)]}}[21st April 1991],] 158.

[[Redbook9:146][19910420:0953gg]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued:] Late Period of Islamic Art [continued (9)]}[20th April 1991],] 146,

[[Redbook9:147][19910420:0953#]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued (#)]}[20th April 1991],] 147,

[[Redbook9:173][19910421:1410#]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued (#):] The Late Period [continued (#)]}[21st April 1991],] 173}

#*{2048M~512[ce]

Birth of Muhammad 570[ce]

A[nno] H[egirae] (Medina) 622[ce]

Death of Muhammad 632[ce]

2048M~U~640[ce]}

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