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Chapter 3 m o .c te a g h s Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the .a w w w
m o Contestation of Islam in Contemporary Egypt.c te a g h s .a Michael Frishkopf w w w
m o .c te a g h s .a w w w m Overview o .c te a g h s Islam in Egypt today is contested across a broad media.a spectrum from recorded w w w sermons, films, television and radio programmes to newspapers, pamphlets and m o books. Print, recorded and broadcast media facilitate.c an ongoing ideological te a g debate about Islam – its nature and its normativeh social role – featuring a wide s .a variety of discursive positions. What is the rolew of Qur’anic recitation (generally w w known as tilawa) within this debate? m o .c Public tilawa is one of Islam’s most essentialte and universal practices, deeply a g h rooted in Islamic tradition and deeply felts by its practitioners (Nelson 2001). .a w Can public tilawa participate in ideologicalw struggles to define Islam? Certainly, w
m Qur’anic recitation is immensely movingo for Muslims. And yet, prima facie, one .c te a might expect the answer to be ‘no’,g because the Qur’an’s linguistic content is h s fixed and its recitation highly regulated..a Nevertheless, tilawa allows significant w w w scope for variation and stylistic variety. In the past, such divergence resulted m o from localised chains of transmission,.c shaped by contrastive contexts and did not te a g typically convey widely significanth ideological positions. However, over the past s .a w century the mass media hasw generally facilitated the formation and circulation of w more broadly recognisablem and influentialtilawa styles within a more autonomous o .c te a g h s This chapter extends.a the seminal work of Kristina Nelson. In the postscript to the w w new edition of her book,w The Art of Reciting the Qur’an (2001), Nelson comments on the
m rise of a Saudi style o since the first edition appeared in 1985. This is precisely the period .c te I am attempting, ina part, to document here. My sincere thanks to Kristina Nelson, for her g h s groundbreaking study.a and insightful comments on an earlier draft, to Wael ‘Abd al-Fattah, w w Usama Dinasuri,w Iman Mersal and Dr Ali Abu Shadi, for their critical insights and feedback,
m to staff at al-Musannafato al-Fanniyya, SonoCairo and the Islamic Research Academy of .c te a al-Azhar University,g and to numerous Egyptians (reciters and others) with whom I’ve h s conducted.a countless informal discussions. This research was supported by generous grants w w from thew American Research Center in Egypt (2003–4) and from the Social Sciences and
m Humanitieso Research Council of Canada (2004–6). .c te a g Multiple discourses have been documented in recent years by a wide range of h s scholars.a including Kepel (1993), Gaffney (1994), Abed-Kotob (1995), Ibrahim (1996), w w wJohansen (1996), Abdo (2000) and Wickham (2002). © Copyrighted Material 76 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
sonic field. In this chapter, I aim to show how the cassette medium, embeddedm in o .c te the historical circumstances of its emergence in Egypt, has recently enabled a anew g h s ideological distinction between ‘Egyptian’ and ‘Saudi’ tilawa styles. By meansa . w w of this distinction, the latter powerfully represents, and promotes, influentialw
m reformist-revivalist Islamic ideology within contemporary Egyptian societyo . .c te a g h s .a w w w Introduction to Tilawa in Contemporary Egypt m o .c te a g h For Muslims, the Qur’an is Divine Revelation (wahy), the fixeds Speech of God .a w (kalam Allah) as revealed in the Arabic language to the Prophetw Muhammad, w
m starting around the year 610 CE and continuing until the Prophet’so death in 632 CE. .c te Following the dominant Ash‘ari creed, most Egyptian Muslimsa accept the Speech g h s of God as a Divine Attribute, hence uncreated and eternal.a with God Himself. The w w w Qur’an is inextricably attached to its recitation as solo vocal performance. Muslims m o rarely read the Qur’an without reciting it and the .experiencec of the Divine text te a g is therefore primarily auditory (Nelson 2001:xiv,h Nasr 1995:57). The injunction s .a to recite is explicit in both Qur’an and Sunna. wThe word ‘Qur’an’ itself implies w w
‘recitation’ (Rahman 1979:30). God revealed (somem say ‘recited’) the Qur’an to the o .c archangel Gabril. Gabril subsequently recitedte it to Muhammad, who recited it to his a g h Companions (sahaba), and so on in a continuouss chain to the present. The Prophet .a w said that Gabril taught him the Qur’an win seven ‘ahruf’ (dialectical variants) in w
m order to be intelligible to different Arabo tribes (Tirmidhi 2000: no. 2867). Phonetic .c te a variation, perhaps stemming from theg multiple ahruf, allowed different schools h s of recitation to emerge and eventually.a ten principal variant ‘readings’ (qira’at) w w w were fixed, each associated with a particular teacher, plus sub-variants riwayat( ) m o .c te a g h Since the 1990s, other s phonogram formats have emerged, including CD, CD- .a w ROM (a single CD can containw the entire Qur’an plus commentaries) and video. Internet w
m downloads are increasingly ocommon, especially as Internet cafés proliferate, and Islamic .c te satellite television channelsa (such as Iqra’) have greatly expanded synchronous bandwidth g h for Qur’anic recitation. s But cassettes remain central, due to the ubiquity of playback .a w w equipment, low cost andw the importance of asynchronous channels, as discussed below.
m A number ofo studies of Qur’anic recitation have been published in English, the .c te most comprehensivea being that by Nelson (2001), which likewise focuses on contemporary g h s Egypt. See also Pacholczyk.a (1970), al-Faruqi (1987a, 1987b) and Rasmussen (2001). w w Sunna constitutesw the customs of the Prophet Muhammad as passed down through
m o reports (Hadith.c ) about his speech and behaviour. The most reliable Hadith collections te a (including gthose of Muslim, Bukhari, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Darimi and Ibn Hanbal cited h s here) are .a known as ‘sahih’ (‘true’). The first revealed verse (Qur’an 96:1) begins with w w w the command ‘iqra’’ (‘recite!’) (Lings 1983:43–4; Bukhari 2000: no. 3 [note that Hadith m o citations.c in his chapter employ the al-Alamiah Enumeration]). The Qur’an itself clearly te a statesg (in 73:4) ‘rattil al-Qur’ana tartilan’ (‘chant the Qur’an in measure’) (Pickthall 1953), h s and.a from the Prophet’s Sunna, ‘He is not one of us who does not chant the Qur’an’ (Bukhari w w 2000:w no. 6973). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 77 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m associated with their students. In Egypt, the principal reading is presently Hafs ‘anm o o .c .c te te a ‘Asim: the riwaya of Hafs bin Sulayman (d. 796) from the qira’a of his father-in-a g g h h s s a law, ‘Asim of Kufa (d. 745) (Sa‘id 1975:69). Since the manner of the Prophet’sa . . w w w w w recitation carried the force of Divine authority, it was codified asahkam al-tajwidw : m m o the fixed ‘rules’ governing correct recitation of the Qur’an. A large componento of .c .c te te a a g tajwid concerns phonetics, including proper articulation of each letter andg rules for h h s s .a .a w their assimilation (idgham), emphasis (tafkhim) and de-emphasis (tarqiqw ). Other w w w w topics include regulation of the length of the madd (long vowels), handling the m m o o .c .c te waqf (pause) and ibda’ (resumption) and the relative speed ofte recitation (from a a g g h h s tahqiq to hadr) (see ‘Abd al-Fattah 2001, Nelson 2001). s .a .a w w w Despite the importance of recitation and oral transmission,w a written tradition w w m m o also developed in parallel with the oral one. With the Prophet’so approval, some of his .c .c te te a literate companions recorded Qur’anic verses in Arabic scripta and after his death the g g h h s s .a first textual recension mushaf( ) was carefully prepared by.a the first Caliph Abu Bakr w w w w w w (r.632–34 CE). By the time of the third Caliph, ‘Uthman (r.644–55 CE), a number of m m o o .c written versions existed (stemming partly from the multiple.c ahruf) and disputes arose te te a a g g h over various Qur’anic passages, thus underminingh the unity of the Umma (Muslim s s .a .a w community). Soon after 650, ‘Uthman respondedw by fixing a second authoritative w w w w m recension and having all other versions burntm (Sa‘id 1975:19ff.). This ‘Uthmani o o .c .c te recension has remained the only authoritativete mushaf; augmented with diacritical a a g g h h s marks (points and vowels), the text correspondss to a particular qira’a. The mushaf .a .a w w w comprises 114 suras (chapters), each dividedw into a number of ayas (verses) and w w m m o arranged approximately in order of decreasingo length (the opening sura excepted). .c .c te te a a g Independently, the mushaf is divided ginto 30 roughly equal units (ajza’ [sing. juz’]) h h s s .a to facilitate orderly monthly recitation,.a especially during Ramadan. w w w w w w What then is fixed and what is variable in tilawa? Fixity is an important m m o o .c property of most sacred objects,.c for the sacred – presumably – does not change. te te a a g g h Tilawa is fixed, to a largeh extent, by three discursive sources: the written text s s .a .a w w w (mushaf), its phonological w‘readings’ (qira’at) and its rules of recitation (ahkam w w m al-tajwid). In the analysism which follows, I define a variable as an association o o .c .c te te a of each tilawa performancea (or each moment in each performance, for time- g g h h s s .a dependent variables) with.a a value along a dimension, qualitative or quantitative. w w w w w Once a mushaf passagew has been selected for recitation, the range of its possible m m o sonic realisations iso sharply limited by qira’at and tajwid. Yet certain variables, .c .c te te a a g each correspondingg to a particular sonic, textual or pragmatic dimension (Bussman h h s s .a .a w 1996:374), neverthelessw remain free (within limits). By means of variation along w w w w these dimensions, different yet equally acceptable recitations of the same passage in m m o o .c .c te the same qira’ate may be distinguished. Over time, with the accumulation (inherent a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w wPronounced ‘mus-haf’ (‘sh’ is not a digraph). m m o o .c .c R. Paret (2006), ‘Kira’a’, in P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van te te a a g Donzelg and W.P. Heinrichs (eds), Encyclopaedia of Islam (web edition), Brill Online, h h s s .a University.a of Alberta,
in oral traditions) of sonic communications through historically-conditioned socialm o .c te networks, such variability enables contrastive tilawa styles to emerge. a g h s Given a particular passage and qira’a, recitational variation is non-discursive:a . w w it does not alter the linguistic text of tilawa (Bussman 1996:13, 479). Manyw free
m variables capture paralinguistic dimensions of recitation, often with continuouso .c te a (for instance, pitch, duration, loudness) or complex (for instance, timbre)g values, h s .a and typically time-dependent, as opposed to the discrete-sequential wphonological w w variables of linguistic discourse. Being non-discursive, such variables also m o .c resist discursive description or specification (indeed, the difficultyte of specifying a g h continuous time-varying features is one reason they have s not been fixed by .a w ahkam al-tajwid) and tend to remain out of awareness. Rather,w their significance w
m is primarily expressive and affective, selectively emphasisingo and colouring but .c te never altering the cognitive meaning of a Qur’anic passage.a At the same time, their g h s provision for spontaneous, situational expressivity enables.a great affective power. w w w Table 3.1 summarises some of the variable aspects of tilawa, including sonic m o and textual variables (under the reciter’s direct control),.c together with others te a g relating to the social context of recitation and theh social positions of participants. s .a A fourth set of variables is applicable for commerciallyw recorded tilawa. w w
m o .c Table 3.1 The principal free variables definingte public tilawa style (variables a g h in italics). Media variables s apply to recorded tilawa only. While .a w the number of variables is warbitrary, this particular set defines a 38- w
m dimensional vector space,o within which styles can be represented as .c te a distinctive regions. g h s .a w w w 1. Sonic Variables m o 1.1 Timbral 1.1.1 Vocal timbre.c te a g 1.1.2 Emotionalh expression (as judged by Egyptian reciters and listeners) s .a 1.2 Tonal 1.2.1 Ambitusw (width of tonal range) w w 1.2.2 Tessitura (centre of tonal range) m o c 9 1.2.3. Mode preference te a g h 1.2.4s Extent of modal modulation .a w w1.2.5 Melodicity (melodic complexity, development, ornament) w
m o .c te a g h s .a w w w
m Whileo at the phonetic level discourse is also continuous, at the phonological level .c te a continuitiesg are aggregated into a discrete set of phonemes; discourse (as the term is used in h s the field .aof linguistics) comprises a sequence drawn from this set. w w w A mode is a tonal structure comprising a pitch set carrying additional structures, m o including.c tonal functions (tonic, dominant, leading tone) and melodic tendencies. In Arabic, te a modeg is known as maqam and the same modes are used in secular music and tilawa. h s Commonly.a used tilawa modes include Bayyati (D, E half-flat, F, G, A, B half-flat, C) and w w Rastw (C, D, E half-flat, F, G, A, B half-flat). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 79 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
1.3 Temporal 1.3.1 Use of interphrasal pause m m o 10 o .c 1.3.2 Tone rate .c te te a a g g h 1.3.3 Rhythm h s s .a .a w 1.4 Dynamic 1.4.1 Dynamic level (sirran or jahran, plus amplification level) w w w w w m 1.4.2 Dynamic range m o o .c .c te 1.4.3 Use of accent (stress) te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w 2. Textual Variables w w w m 2.1 Setting 2.1.1 Melisma (average number of tones per syllable) m o o c c . 11 . te te a 2.1.2 Word painting (taswir al-ma‘na) a g g h h s 2.2 Text pacing 2.2.1 Repetition (of textual segments) s .a .a w w w w w 2.2.2 Average syllable duration w m m o 2.2.3 Syllable duration variation (standard deviation)o .c .c te 12 te a 2.3 Text selection a g 2.3.1 Selection of textual passage g h h s 13 s .a 2.3.2 Textual boundaries of selection .a w w w 14 w w w 2.3.3 Inclusion of du‘a’, or not m m o 15 o .c 2.4 Phonetics 2.4.1 Regional accent .c te te a a g g h 2.4.2 Qira’a h s s .a .a w w w w w w 3. Pragmatic Variables m m o o .c .c te 3.1 Context 3.1 Occasion (for example, obligatoryte prayer, listening majlis, study a a g g h session, maytam, studio recording)h s s .a .a w 3.2 Status 3.2 Reciter’s social positionw (status, specialisations, professionalism) w w w w m 3.3 Presentation 3.3 Reciter’s personal mimage (dress, comportment) o o .c .c te 3.4 Audience 3.4.1 Attendance te a a g g h h s 3.4.2 Listener behaviours .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w 10 m Tones per second (tps).m In a monophonic vocal context, I take a ‘tone’ to be a o o .c .c te maximal temporal intervalte exhibiting approximately constant pitch and bounded by an a a g g h h s adjacent pair of syllabic attacks points (which would, if transcribed, correspond to a ‘note’). .a .a w w w Thus the set of tone boundariesw comprises the union of (1) syllable onsets and (2) moments w w m of pitch change. m o o .c 11 .c te For example,te raising the tonal level to describe Paradise, or matching maqam to a a g g h h s textual mood. s .a .a w 12 w w Althoughw the mushaf is fixed, the particular passage recited is variable; its selection w w m m o may be influencedo by contextual factors, personal preference, or in order to express a .c .c te te a particular messagea through the Qur’anic medium. g g h h s 13 s .a In.a theory, the reciter may begin and end with any verse. However, boundaries are w w w w w most typicallyw determined either by sura or juz’ boundaries, especially on recordings. m 14 m o o During certain prayers (especially dawn and Ramadan tarawih prayers), the reciter .c .c te te a a g mayg append a concluding du‘a’ (supplicative prayer) to his recitation. h h s s 15 .a .a The careful phonetic specifications of tajwid manuals do not preclude a certain w w w w w degreew of variability, enabling regional Arabic accents to recognisably emerge. © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 80 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
4. Recorded Media Variables m o 4.1 Medium 4.1 Medium (for example, cassette, CD, CD-ROM) .c te a g 4.2 Sound effects 4.2 Artificialreverb h s .a 4.3 Cover graphics 4.3.1 Cover text w w w 4.3.2 Cover fonts m o 4.3.3 Cover images .c te a g h 4.3.4 Cover art s .a w 4.4 Production 4.4.1 Producer name w w
4.4.2 Producer specialisation m o .c 4.5 Distribution 4.5 Primary retail location (for example, sold from cassettete shop, a g h stationery shop, newspaper kiosk, street display) s .a w 4.6 Use 4.6 Use (for example, pedagogy, background sound)w w
m o .c te In Egypt, the reciter is generally called qari’, thougha in the context of g h s congregational prayer he may be the imam (prayer leader).a or (on Friday) khatib w 16 w w (preacher). The teacher of recitation and professional reciter specialist is called m o muqri’. Recitation itself is called qira’a (‘reading’), .tajwidc (‘improving’) and tartil te a g (‘chanting’). Besides their more general meanings,h however, each of the latter two s .a terms is also associated with a style of recitation,w whose name is derived from the w w same linguistic root. These recitational styles mare called mujawwad (derived, like o .c tajwid, from the Arabic root j-w-d), and murattalte (derived, like tartil, from r-t-l). a g h These styles, corresponding to distinctives regions of the ‘free variable’ space .a w defined above, developed in response to wsocial and media forces of mid-twentieth- w
m century Egypt. Mujawwad (or tajwid) iso a slow-paced, melodically elaborate style, .c te a designed for the listener’s contemplationg and requiring great skill from the reciter, h s who is a highly accomplished (usually.a professional) specialist. Murattal (or tartil) w w w is a faster, less melodic style used for individual devotions and study, as well as m 17 o obligatory prayer. The world-wide.c influence of the Egyptiantilawa tradition has te a g rendered the mujawwad–murattalh contrast globally significant. s .a w The experience of recitationw is never merely a matter of the cognitive w 18 apprehension of Qur’anic textm and meaning. Rather, it is pre-eminently emotional. o .c te Emotional power is stirreda both by meanings of the fixed Divine text and by the g h s .a w w w 16 m The followingo summary of tilawa practice is based primarily on my own participant- .c te observations and conversationsa in Egypt, supplemented by secondary sources (Sa‘id 1975, g h s Daoud 1997a, Nelson.a 2001). w 17 w Tajwid wmay also refer to the rules governing recitation (see below) and qira’a
m applies to anyo act of reading, not just Qur’anic recitation. As such, the most general term .c te a denoting allg Qur’anic recitation (no more and no less) is tilawa. h 18 s The.a Prophet himself offered advice concerning the appropriate emotions, both w w w experiential and behavioural, associated with Qur’anic recitation, stating in a hadith, ‘indeed m o the Qur’an.c was revealed with sadness [huzn], so if you recite it weep, and if you can’t weep te a theng feign weeping’ (‘in al-Qur’ana nazala bil-huzni, fa idha qara’tumuhu fabku wa in lam h s tabku.a fa tabaaku’) (Ibn Majah 2000: no. 1327). Sufis in particular ascribe great emotional w w powerw to recitation (Ghazali 1901:733ff.). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 81 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m sonic substrate created by the reciter (partly in response to those meanings). Asm o o .c .c te te a the Prophet said, ‘Beautify the Qur’an with your voices, for the beautiful voicea g g h h s s a increases the Qur’an in beauty’ (Darimi 2000: no. 3365). The reciter’s personala . . w w w w w expression of affective response is sonically communicated through free variablesw m m o in the domains of timbre, dynamics, accent, timing and pitch. o .c .c te te a a g Recitation may be performed privately or publicly. Quiet privateg recitation h h s s .a .a w (sirran) not intended to be heard by others, occurs in individual prayer,w in certain w w w 19 w rak‘as of congregational prayer (salat al-jama‘a) and for individual study and m m o o .c .c te devotions. It is never mujawwad. By contrast, public recitation,te intended to be a a g g h h s heard by others (jahran), may be performed mujawwad or murattals . The Prophet .a .a w w w himself exhorted public recitation, stating ‘I like to hear w [Qur’an] recited by w w m m o someone other than me’ (Bukhari 2000: no. 4661), indicatingo that both reciter and .c .c te te a listener receive spiritual rewards (Ibn Hanbal 2000: no. a 8138). Public recitation g g h h s s .a is most constrained during the first two rak‘as of dawn,.a sunset, night and Friday w w w w w w congregational prayers. Here, where there is neither time nor inclination (nor, often, m m o o .c ability) for mujawwad and where responsorial behaviour.c is precluded, the imam or te te a a 20 g g h khatib recites murattal. Memorials (maytam, arba‘inh , dhikra) allow considerable s s .a .a w flexibility for professional mujawwad recitations,w as does the tilawa listening w w w w m session (majlis), performed in the mosque beforem or after prayer (especially before o o .c .c te dawn and Friday noon congregational prayers),te and on religious holidays. Again, a a g g h h s the reciter is usually a mujawwad professional.s Additionally, listeners can respond, .a .a w w w expressing spiritual-aesthetic feeling at thew qafla (melodic-textual cadence) with w w m m o cries of ‘Allah!’ or ‘Ya Salam!’ which stiro the reciter to greater expressive heights .c .c te te a a g in a feedback process closely resemblingg the tarab (musical ecstasy) aesthetic of h h s s .a traditional Arab music (Racy 2003)..a These exclamations stimulate highly affective w w w w w w states, including profound sadness (huzn, shajan) and mystical or musical ecstasy m m o o .c (wajd, tarab), the latter highly .ccontroversial. Such sessions have often attracted te te a a g g h listeners for aesthetic as well has spiritual reasons. Finally, recorded recitations (of s s .a .a 21 w w w any of the above types) allowsw the listener maximal contextual freedom. w w m The relationship betweenm tilawa and music is complex, one manifestation of o o .c .c te te a what Nelson calls the ‘a sama‘ polemic’ (2001:32ff.), related to a long-standing g g h h s s .a Islamic debate over the.a admissibility of music generally (Roy Choudhury 1957, w w w w w Farmer 1957). Whereasw music and singing were widely practised throughout m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s 19 s .a Each prayer.a is composed of between two and four rak‘as; each rak‘a includes w w w w w Qur’anic recitation,w followed by a bow and two prostrations. The imam recites Qur’an m m o publicly duringo the first two rak‘as of dawn, sunset, night and Friday congregational .c .c te te a prayers. Recitationa in other rak‘as is private. g g h h s 20 s .a Memorial.a recitations are generally held outdoors after evening prayers, in a w w w w w colourfulw suwan (tent) where guests can be received, and are loudly amplified. Themaytam m m o occurso immediately after burial, the arba‘in after 40 days and the dhikra sanawiyya .c .c te te a a g annuallyg thereafter. Egyptian intellectuals and Islamic reformists alike deem the arba‘in a h h s s .a pre-Islamic.a Pharaonic survival; the latter also condemn it. w w w w 21 w w See Nelson for a more detailed summary of recitation contexts (2001:xxiii–xxviii). © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 82 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
Islamic societies, normative religious discourse – drawing primarily on Hadithm o .c te – counterposed a Sufi point of view (that under the right conditions music supportsa g h s spirituality [for example, Ghazali 1901]) with a more puritanical one (that music,a . w w at best, is a distraction from God; at worst, an incitation to sinfulness [for example,w
22 m Dunya 1938]). Unsurprisingly, the ‘polemic’ intensifies concerning applicationo of .c te a music to recitation of the sacred text itself. For Muslims, tilawa is not singing,g just h s .a as the Qur’an is not poetry. Textually and theologically, the distinctionw is obvious: w w the Qur’an is unique; its inimitability (i‘jaz) Divine. Sonically and pragmatically, m o .c the distinction is more ambiguous. But, unlike song, tilawa containste neither poetic a g h nor musical meters; it is performed as an improvised vocal solo,s unaccompanied .a w by instruments, and is sonically marked by ahkam al-tajwid. w w
m Yet public recitation is always pitched, exhibiting o the tonal logic, and .c te sometimes the complexity, of music. Further, in pre-massa media Egypt a broad g h s region of overlap between musical and religious sonic-social.a practices prevailed. w w w Public recitation draws upon musical resources, especially the modal system of m o maqamat. Traditionally, tilawa and singing were .c often performed at the same te a g events, even by the same performers. Up until theh early twentieth century, tilawa s .a experts such as Shaykh Ali Mahmud (1878–1949)w and Shaykh Muhammad Rif‘at w w
(1882–1950) also sang qasidas and muwashshahatm (elevated art music genres) o 23 .c (Tawfiq 199x:16, 19, 67), and the kuttab (Qur’ante school) provided vocal training a g h for the greatest singers, including Umms Kulthūm and Muhammad ‘Abd al- .a w Wahhab (Tawfiq 199x:31, Danielson 1990,w 1997), at least through the first third of w
m the twentieth century. o .c te a Undoubtedly, ‘free variables’ haveg always enabled the differentiation of h s discernable tilawa styles, but until modern.a times such styles could only crystallise w w w and propagate through face-to-face interaction and thus must have remained both m o numerous and relatively localised,.c or at least of limited influence. The advent of te a g broadcast and recording technologyh in the twentieth century, however, has catalysed s .a w a new quasi-independent symbolicw field of recitations, and a new dimension of w 24 symbolic difference withinm that field. Despite some early reservations, uptake of o .c te tilawa into the mass mediaa system – starting with phonogram discs in the early g h s twentieth century (Racy.a 1976:33–4, 1977), followed by radio in the 1920s – was w w w
m o .c 22 te Thus in onea hadith, the Prophet allows girls to sing for the ‘Id (Muslim 2000: no. g h s 1479); in another,.a the devil is told that his voice is mizmar (a wind instrument) (Qalamuni w w 2000:109). w
23 m Whereo precise dates of publication are not known, but where the decade is known, .c te a the latter isg indicated (for example, 199x) in preference to n.d. h 24 s For.a instance, the concern that tilawa recordings might be played in inappropriate w w w contexts was articulated. Shaykh Muhammad Rif‘at consulted with Islamic legal experts m o before.c his first radio broadcast in 1934, and was always reluctant to record (lest an impure te a persong touch a phonograph disc) (Tawfiq 199x:66–7). Shaykh Muhammad Salama, who h s began.a reciting in 1910, only became convinced of the legality of radio broadcasts in 1948 w w (Sa‘daniw 1996:41). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 83 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m rapid. In 1934, Radio Egypt (al-Idha‘a al-Misriyya) was launched (ERTU 2004:47)m o o .c .c te te a with melodious recitations by Shaykh Rif‘at (Rizk 2004, Tawfiq 199x:66)a and g g h h s s a tilawa was aired frequently thereafter. Radio set ownership expanded significantlya . . w w w w w in Egypt during the 1950s (Starkey 1998:424), and in 1964 the governmentw added m m o a new station called Radio Qur’an (Idha‘at al-Qur’an al-Karim), specialisingo .c .c te te a a g in tilawa and other Islamic programming (ERTU 2004:47). Egyptiang Television h h s s .a .a w (al-Tilifizyun al-Misri, founded 1960) soon featured religious programmingw as w w w w well. With direct access to radio archives, the state-owned recording company, m m o o .c .c te SonoCairo (Sawt al-Qahira, founded 1964), became Egypt’s largestte phonodisc a a g g h h s producer, offering a wide range of popular music and producings most of the great .a .a w w w reciters, including Shaykh Mustafa Isma‘il (1905–78), Shaykhw ‘Abd al-Basit ‘Abd w w m m o al-Samad (1927–88), Shaykh Mahmud Khalil al-Husari o (1917–80) and many .c .c te te a others, for world-wide export. a g g h h s s .a What was the impact of mass media on the form and.a meaning of recitational w w w w w w styles? First, the mediaisation and concomitant commercialisation of audio m m o o .c production (together with the decline of the kuttab.c ) induced an unprecedented te te a a g g h bifurcation between religious and secular vocal forms,h since the commercial value s s .a .a w of the latter increasingly profited from a fashionablew sexiness unacceptable within w w w w 25 m the religious domain (though socially acceptablem outside it). Singers no longer o o .c .c te trained their voices in tilawa and Qur’an reciterste gradually withdrew from other a a g g h h s vocal specialisations. The sonic-social separations of tilawa and singing ultimately .a .a w w w enabled the former to emerge as an independentw expressive field within which w w m m o disparate Islamic ideologies could potentiallyo be expressed (though that potential .c .c te te a a g was not yet realised). Moreover, massg media – facilitating broad dissemination, h h s s .a repeatability and context-independence.a – enabled the crystallisation of widely- w w w w w w recognised sonic styles, which therefore attained broader social significance and m m o o .c communicative potential. .c te te a a g g h In exploring this significanceh and potential, it is useful to analyse content s s .a .a w w w diversity and concentration wof production, and to distinguish between synchronous w w m and asynchronous channelsm of mass media distribution. Synchronous broadcast o o .c .c te te a media (for example, radioa and television) enforce simultaneity on producer and g g h h s s .a consumer, while asynchronous.a ‘product’ media (LP, cassette, CD) do not. The w w w w w latter thus enable greaterw user control and repeatability (particularly if user- m m o recordable), and typicallyo offer more diversity as well. Discrete and tangible .c .c te te a a g media products galso tend to reify sonic styles through synecdochic relations to h h s s .a .a w them. Asynchronousw media therefore enable a more flexible symbolic language of w w w w social communication, by which style can be embedded into quotidian discourse m m o o .c .c te at a ‘grass-roots’te level through local playback operations. a a g g h h s Until sthe late 1990s, synchronous Egyptian mass media, monopolised by the .a .a w w w state, featuredw relatively low diversity and high concentration, for both ideological w w m m o o .c .c te te a 25a g g In the 1930s, radio authorities declared the voice of the female reciter to be h h s s .a ‘‘awra.a ’ (‘shameful’) and forbid its broadcast (Daoud 1997a:82); ironically, female singers w w w w w (includingw the greatest stars of popular music) were not affected by this ruling. © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 84 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
and economic reasons. Such media therefore represented a coercive form of top-m o .c te down communication. Until the 1970s, production of asynchronous mass mediaa g h s (LPs) likewise featured low diversity and strong centralisation, due to thea high . w w cost of manufacturing equipment and state dominance. Furthermore, thew social
m impact of any diversity was limited by the costliness of playback equipment.o .c te a Tilawa diversity was also constrained by the fact that al-Azhar-trainedg reciters h s .a enjoyed the greatest prestige and therefore provided the ideal modelsw for Qur’anic w w recitation, both within Egypt and abroad. These factors precluded the development m o .c of a system of tilawa styles adapting in dialectical relation to thet esocial conditions a g h of their production and consumption, in which consumers’ playbacks preferences .a w could constitute utterances in a non-discursive communicativew language of w
m style. During this period one main public mediated style o– Egyptian mujawwad .c te – dominated. a g h s Two related seismic changes of the mid-1970s enabled.a an asynchronous, w w w decentralised mass media system to emerge in Egypt for the first time: the advent m o of inexpensive cassette technology and the development.c of a free market capitalist te a g economy. With the subsequent growth of new Islamich trends in the 1980s came s .a the crystallisation of an additional tilawa style andw the ideologisation of the entire w w tilawa style system. This development will bem extensively analysed below. o .c te a g h s .a w A Semiotic Theory of Style Differentiationw and Communication w
m o .c te a Whereas simple signs (for example, grepresentational photographs) may represent h s absolutely, tilawa style signs are abstract,.a bearing no autonomous relation to the w w 26 w non-tilawa world. As Saussure argued for language, sonic style signs mean m o only relatively, insofar as they,.c and their meanings, are differentiated from one te a 27 g another. However, sonic styleh signs and linguistic signs are fundamentally s .a w different. While the linguisticw system is large and complex, its constituent signs w
(morphemes) are simple,m lacking much internal complexity. By contrast, the o .c te sonic style system is simple,a while its constituent signs (styles) are complex, g h s providing affective potential..a In performance, the affective immediacy of the w w sonic style sign naturalisesw its own meaning (see Langer 1957). Speaking of
m language, Saussureo argued that ‘the terms arbitrary and differential designate two .c te a correlative properties’g (1986:116). However the complexity of the abstract (hence h s .a differential) stylew sign enables it to mean in non-arbitrary (iconic, indexical) w w ways, while its abstraction implies that even non-arbitrary meanings arise only m o .c te a g h 26 s A. a note on terminology: Saussure’s sign comprises the pair signal/signification w w (Saussurew 1986:67) while Peirce’s is a triple representamen/semiotic object/interpretant
m (Merrello 2001:28). For the moment I will conflate object and interpretant with signification .c te a as meaningg , while signal and representamen will be my sign. h s 27 .a ‘A linguistic system is a series of phonetic differences matched with a series of w w conceptualw differences’ (Saussure 1986:118). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 85 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m in relation to other such style signs. That is, the system of style signs exhibitsm o o .c .c te te a both Saussurian and Peircean properties in that it comprises a set of meaningfula g g h h s s a differences, which may be non-arbitrarily related to meaning. a . . w w w w w The total possible meaning of a style sign (in a social space) is the aggregationw m m o of such meanings over all active differences in which the sign participateso (within .c .c te te a a g that space). By ‘active difference’ I mean those semiotic contrastsg which are h h s s .a .a w socially realised – through cognitive or practical juxtaposition – by agentsw sharing w w w w the social space. By ‘semiotic value’ I mean a potential meaning for a particular m m o o .c .c te sign user in a particular social space. Then the set of all suchte semiotic values a a g g h h s comprises the value space for a particular sign. I claim that ins a social-semiotic .a .a w w w system (S), the meaning of one sign relative to another is simplyw the difference w w m m o between their respective semiotic values: that is, the aggregatedo difference in .c .c te 28 te a potential meanings. Symbolically, one may write the totala meaning (M) of s in g g h h s s .a S as a sum of differences: M(s, S) = ∑ {v(s) – v(s')} where.a s is a sign, v(s) is its w w w w w w set of associated semiotic values and the sum ∑ ranges over all signs s' such that m m o o .c (s, s') constitutes an active difference in S. Note that.c a semiotic value w in v(s) te te a a g g h is cancelled by its recurrence in v(s'), but may h be highlighted by another sign s s .a .a w s" when v(s") does not contain w. We will encounterw concrete examples of this w w w w m phenomenon later on. m o o .c .c te Likewise, ideology is always embeddedte in a system of differences, since a a g g h h s one ideology exists only in oppositional s relation to others. When aligned with .a .a w w w ideological differences, total meaning w is ideological: semiotic differences are w w m m o ideologised and the semiotic system is ideologicallyo activated. In this case, semiotic .c .c te te a a g differences may both express and promoteg ideological differences with which they h h s s .a are aligned. The mass media serve.a not only to differentiate ideologically active w w w w w w style signs, but also (subsequently) to empower them. m m o o .c My claim is that with the advent.c of asynchronous mass media (and particularly te te a a g g h cassettes) and associated political,h economic and social changes, the space of s s .a .a w w w Egyptian tilawa styles has beenw ideologically activated and has begun not only to w w m express Islamic ideologies,m but also to promote them (non-discursively) through o o .c .c te te a social communication ofa stylistic preference, concretised in acts of cassette selection. g g h h s s .a Embedded in activities.a of cassette production, retail, purchase and playback is a w w w w w style-selection operationw which is also ideological. The dissemination of the selection m m o itself thus constituteso an ideological message and a statement of position. .c .c te te a a g In the discussiong which follows, I contrast a pair of semiotic differences h h s s .a .a w within the evolvingw semiotic system of tilawa styles in Egypt. The first is the w w w w non-ideological difference between murattal and mujawwad styles, as found in m m o o .c .c te the traditionalte binary style system prevailing up until the 1970s. The second is the a a g g h h s contemporarys difference between Egyptian mujawwad and the ‘Saudi’ style of .a .a w w w w w w m m o 28 o .c .c In fact, meaning will vary according to the perspective of the agent, who constructs te te a a g a particularg meaning through a process of selection and emphasis for which the system can h h s s .a never.a entirely account. More accurately, then, meaning is a weighted set of differences, w w w w w wherew weights represent these selections and emphases. © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 86 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
public recitation (see Hassan 1999, Nelson 2001:236). The latter style entered them o .c te Egyptian soundspace in the late 1970s, at a time when the cultural, technologicala g h s and economic conditions for the ideologisation of tilawa style (bifurcationa of . w w Egyptian soundspace; decentralised, free-market economy; asynchronousw media)
m were already in place. o .c te a I aim to show how a distinctive ‘Saudi’ style of Qur’anic recitation,g by h s .a accumulating a distinctive set of meanings within the symbolic systemw of tilawa w w styles, becomes ideologically activated, powerfully promoting a set of discursive m o .c positions collectively comprising a reformist-revivalist Islamic ideologyte prevalent a g h in Egyptian society today. This ideology, sometimes termed thes ‘New Islam’ (al- .a w Islam al-Jadid), opposes the traditional mystical-aesthetic w values of Egyptian w
m Islamic practice. In turn, the appearance of this newly-ideologisedo Saudi style .c te sign has induced the counter-ideologisation of traditionala Egyptian mujawwad g h s recitation, transforming it into an oppositional style. a sign evoking traditional w w w Egyptian-Islamic values. m o .c te a g h s .a The Traditional Binary Style System w w w
m o .c Table 3.2 sets out the differences between Egyptiante mujawwad and murattal style a g h signs in the pre-cassette era. s .a w w w
m Table 3.2 Differences between mujawwado and murattal style signs in the pre- .c te a cassette era (variablesg with identical values across the two style h s signs are omitted). This.a analysis is rooted in interpretive fieldwork in w w w Cairo; in particular, the concept of ‘expression’ is based on general m o consensus among.c Egyptian listeners. te a g h s .a w Free Variable w Mujawwad Murattal w
1.1.1 Timbre m More tense More relaxed o .c 1.1.2 Expression te More expressive Less expressive a g h 1.2.1 Ambitus s Wide Narrow .a w 1.2.2 Tessitura w Lower Higher w
1.2.4 Modulation m Extensive Little o .c te 1.2.5 Melodicity a Elaborate, developmental Low g h 1.3.1 Pause s Lengthy, following cadence (qafla) Little .a w 1.4.1 Dynamic levelw High (amplified) Low w
m 1.4.2 Dynamico range Wide Narrow .c te 1.4.3 Accenta More Less g h s 2.1.1 Melisma.a Extensive Little w w 2.1.2 Wordw painting Some None
m 2.2.1 Repetitiono Much None .c te a 2.2g.2 Syllable duration Long Short h s 2.a2.3 Syllable duration variation Higher Lower w w w © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 87 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
29 2.3.1 Textual passage Some preference for narratives No preference m m o o .c 3.1 Occasion Majlis, maytam Prayer, study .c te te a a g g h 3.2 Social position Professional specialist – muqri’ Any h s s .a .a w 3.3 Personal image Traditional reciter image Any w w w w w 3.4.1 Attendance Many (public setting) Variable (private or public) m m o o .c 3.4.2 Listener behaviour Feedback No feedback .c te te a a g g 30 h h s 4.1 Medium Phonograph records Rarely mediateds .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te In order to contrast mujawwad and murattal, it is helpful to tecontrol variables a a g g h h s by comparing recordings of the same Qur’anic passage by a singles reciter. Thus .a .a w w w I present below a transcription and analysis of recordings w by Shaykh Mustafa w w m m o Isma‘il (1978) (1999), reciting a single passage in both styleso (see Examples 3.1 .c .c te 31 te 32 a and 3.2, and Tables 3.3 and 3.4). This passage, from Surata Yusuf (Qur’an 12:4 ), g g h h s s .a contains 43 syllables and can be transliterated as follows:.a idh-qaa-la-yuu-su-fu- w w w w w w li-a-bii-hi-yaa-a-ba-ti-in-ni-ra-ay-tu-a-ha-da-‘a-sha-ra-kaw-ka-ban-wash-sham- m m o 33 o .c sa-wal-qa-ma-ra-ra-ay-tu-hum-liy-saa-ji-diin. .c te te a a g g h Transcriptions are prepared using a graph: ah continuous-time, relative-pitch s s .a .a w system resembling standard staff notation. Thew horizontal axis represents time, w w w w m marked in seconds, while the vertical axis representsm pitch, on a 6-line quasi treble o o .c .c te staff (the top line is F5; the bottom line is C4).te The melody is indicated by a heavy a a g g h h s horizontal line. Small vertical tick marks alongs this line appear at the start and end .a .a w 34 w w of tones (constant syllable-pitch units). w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w 29 m Many Egyptians express somem preference for listening to narrative Qur’anic o o .c .c te passages in the mujawwad style, especiallyte the dramatic story of the Prophet Yusuf (Joseph), a a g g h h s though this preference is neithers universal nor absolute. .a .a w 30 w w Shaykh al-Husari wasw the first to record the complete Qur’anic text in murattal w w m style (al-mushaf al-murattal)m on LP in the early 1960s (see Sa‘id 1975), and his version o o .c .c te remains authoritative. However,te this recording was innovative and exceptional: from a a g g h h s the early twentieth centurys until the 1980s tilawa recordings centred on mujawwad .a .a w w w performance. w w w 31 m m o The same passageo will be used for analysis of the Saudi style (see Example 3.3, .c .c te te a below). a g g h h s 32 s .a ‘When Joseph.a said to his father: Oh my father! Lo! I saw in a dream eleven w w w w w planets and thew sun and the moon, I saw them prostrating themselves unto me’ (Pickthall m m o 1953:12:4). o .c .c te 33 te a a g Arabicg syllables are generally of two types, short (CV) and long (CVV or CVC), h h s s .a and frequently.a cross word boundaries. Here, a dash marks syllable boundaries, long vowels w w w w w are doubled,w and the consonant hamza (glottal stop, typically marked ’) is not notated when m m o initiatingo a syllable. .c .c te te a 34a g g Thus three successive syllables sung on a single pitch will be represented as a heavy h h s s .a vertical.a line divided into three segments; conversely, a single syllable may be sung on three w w w w w pitchesw (melisma). © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 88 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
In the mujawwad recording, 12:4 is recited in three breath phrases (withm o .c te intervening pauses filled by audience response) for a total duration of 93 seconds.a g h s The first segment begins with ‘idh-qaa-la’, ending on ‘kaw-ka-ban’; the asecond . w w begins at ‘in-ni-ra-ay-tu’, completing the verse. Only the third breath w phrase,
m presenting the entire verse without pause, is transcribed in Example 3.1. oThis kind .c te a of repetition is typical of the mujawwad style. Tables 3.3 and 3.4 compareg specific h s .a variables in the two styles. w w w
m o .c te a g h Example 3.1 Segment from recitation of Qur’an 12:4 bys Shaykh Mustafa .a w Isma‘il in the mujawwad style (Isma‘il 1978).w The maqam w
m is Bayyati on D4 (E4, second line fromo bottom, is half- .c te flat); absolute pitch is Bayyati on D3 (ana octave below); the g h s horizontal axis indicates seconds. The.a text runs as follows w w w (syllables are separated by one or more dashes and asterisks; m o the latter indicate melismatic tones.c on the preceding syllable): te a g idh-qaa-*-la-yuu-su-fu-li-a-bii-*-*-*-hi-yaa-*-a-ba-ti-*-in-*-h s .a ni-ra-ay-*-tu-a-ha-da-‘a-sha-*-ra-kaw-*-*-*-ka-*-ban-*-*-w w w
wash-*-*-sham-*-*-sa-wal-*-qa-*-ma-*-ra-*-ra-ay-*-tu-hum-*-*-m o .c liy-*-saa-*-*-*-ji-*-*-diin-*-*-*-*-*-*-.te a g h s .a w w w
m o .c te a g h s .a w w w
m o .c te a g h s .a w Example 3.2 Recitation ofw Qur’an 12:4 by Shaykh Mustafa Isma‘il in the w
murattal stylem (Isma‘il 1999). The maqam shown is again o .c te Bayyati a on D4; absolute pitch is Bayyati on G3. Again, g h s dashes .a separate syllables and asterisks denote melismas. Text: w w idh-qaa-la-yuu-su-fu-li-a-bii-hi-yaa-a-ba-ti-in-ni-ra-ay-*-tu-a-ha-w
m da-‘a-sha-ra-kaw-ka-ban-wash-sham-sa-wal-*-qa-ma-ra-ra-ay-tu-o .c te a hum-liy-saa-ji-diin.g h s .a w w w
m o .c te a g h s .a w w w
m o .c te a g h s .a w w w © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 89 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
Table 3.3 Differences between mujawwad and murattal recitations of Qur’an m m o o .c 12:4 as performed by Shaykh Mustafa Isma‘il. Note that not. c all te te a a g g h differences listed below are visible in the notations. h s s .a .a w w w w w w m Free Variable Mujawwad Murattal m o o .c .c te 1.1.1 Timbre More tense More relaxed te a a g g h h s 1.1.2 Expression More expressive Less expressive s .a .a w w w 1.2.1 Ambitus Wide ambitus (7th) Narrower ambitusw (5th) w w m m o 1.2.2 Tessitura Lower tessitura Higher tessiturao .c .c te te a 1.2.5 Melodicity Melodically elaborate Melodicallya simple g g h h s 1.4.2 Dynamic range Wide Narrow s .a .a w w w w w 2.1.1 Melisma Much (1.884) Negligiblew (1.047) m m o 2.2.2 Syllable duration Longer (average 0.74 seconds) Shortero (average 0.45 seconds) .c .c te te a 2.2.3 Syllable duration variation Higher (56% of average) Lowera (40% of average) g g h h s s .a 3.1 Occasion Live recording (majlis) .a Studio recording w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g Table 3.4 Differences between mujawwad andg murattal recitations by Shaykh h h s s .a .a w Mustafa Isma‘il, considering the wsame recordings analysed above, w w w w now in the context of a longer sequence of verses. m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s Free Variable Mujawwad s Murattal .a .a w w w 1.2.4 Modulation Frequent and elaboratew modulations Few and simple modulations w w m 1.2.5 Melodicity High: extended melodicm development, Low o o .c .c te climaxing at periodicte cadences (qaflas) a a g g h h s 1.3.1 Pause Long pauses betweens phrases None .a .a w w w 2.2.1 Repetition Much repetitionw No textual repetition w w m 3.4.1 Attendance Many m None o o .c .c te 3.4.2 Listener behaviour Ecstatic listenerte responses during pauses None (studio) a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m These contrasts along multiplem sonic, textual and pragmatic dimensions enable o o .c .c te te a the differentiation of twoa style signs, implying contrastive meanings stemming g g h h s s .a primarily from contrasts.a in the contexts and purposes which shaped them. Murattal w w w w w is shaped by its usesw – among all Muslims – for practice and memorisation, m m o personal devotions,o and obligatory prayer (salah), all contexts requiring a .c .c te te a a g relatively rapid andg simple recitational style. Mujawwad, by contrast, is used by h h s s .a .a w trained recitersw in public listening ceremonies less constrained by either ritual or w w w w pedagogical requirements. Here, recitational complexity can flourish, and this fact m m o o .c .c te has demandedte a specialisation and professionalisation in which success is equated a a g g h h s with the s ability to move the listener using musical and expressive techniques, .a .a w w w while remainingw faithful to mushaf, qira’at, and ahkam al-tajwid. w w m m o Theo meaning of mujawwad relative to murattal may then be ‘computed’ with .c .c te te a referencea to the semiotic values of each, as shown in Table 3.5. g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 90 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
Table 3.5 Some partial meanings (third column) of mujawwad relative to m o murattal, computed as differences between semiotic values. Until.c te a g the advent of Saudi style, these differences were related to contextualh s .a contrasts, but not consistently ideologised. w w w
m o .c Semiotic values Differences te a g h s .a w Egyptian mujawwad Egyptian murattal Partial meaningw of mujawwad w
with respect tom murattal within o .c Egyptian socialte space a g h More musical Less musical Music, song,s artistry .a w Tarab aesthetic and behaviour No tarab Tarab w w
Highly expressive Less expression Expressivitym o .c More sonic More textual Non-discursivete experience a g h Artistic elaboration of text Functional performance of text Artistics form (over function) .a w Public Private w Performance w
Tilawa professional General; non-specialised m Professional specialisation o .c te Participation as listener Participation as performer a Contemplation g h Egyptian contexts and reciters Egyptian contexts and reciterss – .a w Traditional Egyptian Islam Traditional Egyptian Islamw – w
m o .c te a g h Despite this differentiation, the meaningss of mujawwad and murattal never .a w consistently attained ideological significancew because they were derived primarily w
m from the contexts within which they wereo performed. As late as 1978, Kristina .c te a Nelson found little evidence of murattalg in the media (2001:xxiii). Even after h s mediation of the murattal style, the .samea public performers (for example, Shaykhs w w w Mahmud al-Husari, Mustafa Isma‘il, ‘Abd al-Basit ‘Abd al-Samad) recorded m o tilawa in both mujawwad and murattal.c styles. Thus tilawa styles could not even be te a g consistently associated with particularh individuals, much less with any ideological s .a w positions. w w
m o .c te a g h s The Emergence of a .Thirda Style Sign in Egypt: Historical Forces and w w Trajectories w
m o .c te a A reconfigurationg of the binary Egyptian tilawa style system was effected by h s .a three forces startingw in the mid-1970s: the technological impact of a new mass w w medium (audio cassettes) enabling widespread asynchronous communications, m o .c the economicte impact of laissez-faire capitalism and the influence of Saudi Islamic a g h culture. Thes incursion of a new Saudi tilawa style into the binary Egyptian tilawa .a w style systemw generated a new set of active differences, transforming the meanings w
m of allo three styles. In particular, those meanings now acquired an ideological .c te casta not formerly present. It is important to trace the historical process of this g h s transformation,.a because that history is embedded in their ideological power. w w w © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 91 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m Having escaped the ravages of Crusaders and Mongols, Egypt has continuouslym o o .c .c te te a remained a principal political, economic, religious and cultural centre throughouta g g h h s s a Islamic history, largely due to its large population, fertile land and geographicala . . w w w w w centrality. Cairo has the oldest and most important Islamic university in thew world, m m o al-Azhar (founded 972), drawing an international student population. oHere, for .c .c te te a a g centuries, reciters trained and disseminated Egyptian tilawa styles globally.g While h h s s .a .a w Islam’s sacred geographical centres – the ka‘ba at Mecca and the Prophet’sw mosque w w w w at Medina – are located in the Arabian Hijaz, Egypt was politically, economically, m m o 35 o .c .c te educationally and culturally dominant. During the twentiethte century, that a a g g h h s dominance was magnified as Egypt became the first Muslims country to develop .a .a w w w significant media production capabilities. Early mass media (phonodiscw and radio) w w m m o must have consolidated an Egyptian tilawa style through theo suppression of local .c .c te te a variation, while powerfully projecting a small number of reciter-starsa to worldwide g g h h s s .a proportions. Egyptians’ sense of their own global importance.a is captured by their w w w w w w oft-repeated saying, ‘The Qur’an was revealed in the Hijaz, copied in Istanbul and m m o o .c recited in Egypt’ (Sayyid 2003:24). .c te te a a g g h Throughout the Mamluk and Ottoman periodsh (1250–1798) and into the s s .a .a w early twentieth century, mainstream Islam in Egyptw was thoroughly permeated w w w w m by Sufi mysticism, for which aestheticm expression and experience (musical, o o .c .c te poetic, calligraphic, architectural) constitutete both sign and means of spiritual a a g g h 36 h s development. The broad overlap betweens musical and religious domains, as .a .a w w w exemplified by chanted religious poetryw – inshad dini (Frishkopf 2002) – and w w m m o musical tilawa in the mujawwad style,o as well as the thriving of Sufi orders and .c .c te te a a g rituals among all strata of the population,g characterised traditional Egyptian h h s s .a Islam for at least seven centuries. .However,a the twentieth century witnessed the w w w w w w development of new reformist-revivalist trends in Egypt, trends which increasingly m m o o .c drew close to the Islamic practices.c of Arabia. te te a a g g h Ever since the eighteenthh century, Arabia has featured a different kind of s s .a .a w w w Islamic piety, inspired by thew Arabian revivalist-reformer Muhammad ibn ‘Abd w w m al-Wahhab (1703–92), andm sharply contrasting with the traditional Sufi-inflected o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w 35 w w From early Mamlukw times (thirteenth century) until 1962, Egyptian superiority m m o was symbolised by o a splendid annual gift to Mecca: the Ka‘ba’s magnificent hangings .c .c te te a (kiswa), carried in aan opulent procession (the mahmal) replete with music and ritual, and g g h h s s .a symbolising political.a protection over the holy places. The gifting of the kiswa was interrupted w w w w w in the early nineteenthw century and again from 1926–37 due to conflicts with the Wahhabi m m o ikhwan who consideredo it a heresy (bid‘a) (Fr. Buhl [2009], ‘Mahmal’, in P. Bearman, Th. .c .c te te a a g Bianquis, C.E.g Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs [eds], Encyclopaedia of Islam h h s s .a [2nd edition],.a Brill Online, University of Alberta,
Islam prevalent in Egypt. Rooted in the conservative Hanbali legal school, andm o .c te influenced by reformist writings of theologian Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328), a‘Abd g h s al-Wahhab advocated a return to pure tawhid (monotheism), as established a in the . w w Qur’an and Sunna, and an unmediated relationship with God. ‘Abd al-Wahhab’sw
37 m followers advocated strict application of Shari‘a (Islamic law), purging omedieval .c te a accretions they viewed as shirk (idolatry) and bid‘a (heretical ‘innovation’),g h s .a including saint and Prophet veneration, shrines, concepts and rituals ofw intercession, w w musical ceremonies and other popular beliefs and practices especially common m o .c among Sufis. The Wahhabi movement acquired political power te due to an alliance a g h concluded with the Sa‘ud family of al-Diriya in 1744 and whichs formed the basis .a w for the modern Saudi Arabian state, established by ‘Abd al-‘Azizw Al Sa‘ud (Ibn w
m Saud) during the first third of the twentieth century (Vassilievo 2000:235ff.). .c te Egyptian reform and revival (islah wa tajdid) movements,a generally critical of g h s Sufi beliefs and practices, coalesced starting with a group.a of nineteenth-century w w w thinkers known as the ‘Salafiyya’, due to their emphasis on al-salaf al-salih m o (‘pious ancestors’) of the Prophet’s community as .can enduring ideal for Muslim te 38 a g societies. From the early twentieth century, suchh movements began to change s .a the character of mainstream Egyptian Islam, without,w however, dislodging Sufism w w entirely. Diverse reform-revival organisationsm (most importantly, the Muslim o 39 .c Brothers, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun ) shared at enumber of characteristics: the revival a g h of Islamic principles as grounded in directs readings of Qur’an, Sunna and early .a w Islamic society; the rejection of ‘hereticalw innovation’ (bid‘a), including Sufi or w
m musical ritual, perceived as counter too those principles; reform through ijtihad .c te a (reasoning) so as to incorporate economicg and technological aspects of modernity; h s focus on the unmediated relation .a between worshiper and God as idealised on w w w the Day of Judgment; transnational pan-Islamism and da‘wa (missionising); m o and socio-political engagement..c Within Egyptian reformist discourse, music and te a g aesthetic experience is widelyh condemned as haram (forbidden) and the historic s .a w connections between Islamw and aesthetic expression are generally severed. w
Historically and ideologically,m Egyptian reformist movements find their spiritual o .c te élan both in Arabia and ain Wahhabism. The spiritual movement at the heart of the g h s social one is a break with.a received Islamic tradition via a dual ‘return’ to Arabia: w w a temporal return tow Islamic historical origins (in seventh-century Mecca and
m Medina) and henceo to ‘true’ Islam, but equally a spatial return to these sacred .c te a g h s .a w w w
m o .c 37 te Thea term ‘Wahhabi’, widely used in both English and Arabic, is usually pejorative; g h s followers. a prefer the name muwahhidun, ‘unitarians’. However, for want of alternatives w w clearly identifyingw this religious trend, ‘Wahhabi’ and ‘Wahhabism’ (Ar. Wahhabiyya) are
m neverthelesso used here. .c 38te a g Such thinkers included Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1839–97), Muhammad ‘Abdu h s (1845–1905).a and Rashid Rida (1865–1935). w w 39 w Founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna (1906–49) (Mitchell 1969). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 93 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
40 m sites as ritualised in the annual hajj (pilgrimage). Furthermore, Egyptian Islamicm o o .c .c te te a reformism found common ground with Wahhabi ideas. Rashid Rida, for example,a g g h h s s a commended Wahhabism in several of his writings (Vassiliev 2000:292). a . . w w w w w Following independence in 1952, Egypt’s leading Islamic and mediaw role m m o was consolidated and empowered, regionally by President Gamal Abdelo Nasser’s .c .c te te a a g pan-Arabism, and internally by statist-socialist policies of centralisation.g The h h s s .a .a w new state monopolised religious institutions (for example, al-Azharw University) w w w w and broadcast media, and seized key industries (Roussillon 1998:345) including m m o o .c .c te primary audio media producer Misrphon, known from 1962te as SonoCairo a a g g h h s (Sawt al-Qahira) (Frishkopf n.d.). Media concentration and sexpansion entailed .a .a w w w the unprecedented amplification of Egyptian media starsw – actors, singers and w w m m o reciters – throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds. At the osame time, limitations .c .c te te a on imports and foreign investments as well as restrictionsa on exit visas, inhibited g g h h s s .a foreign cultural influences. Nasser also repressed the .a Muslim Brothers and other w w w w w w reformist-revivalist pan-Islamic currents, some of whose members sought refuge m m o o .c in Saudi Arabia where they were welcomed, taking.c up positions as teachers and te te a a 41 g g h influencing the development of Wahhabi thought.h These conditions sustained s s .a .a w a relatively closed system of Egyptian public wtilawa, centred on the prevailing w w w w m mujawwad style as epitomised by its most famousm exponents and dominating the o o .c .c te wider Islamic world. te a a g g h h s But Egypt’s cultural-religious centralitys and closure was shaken by its June .a .a w w w 1967 military losses to Israel. Many Egyptiansw attributed defeat at the hands of a w w m m o sectarian state to insufficient religiosity,o and a national turn to faith for solace and .c .c te te a a g solutions ensued, swelling the ranksg of reformist-revivalist Islamic organisations h h s s .a Nasser had tried to suppress (see Toth.a 2003:548). Soon after Nasser’s death in 1970, w w w w w w President Sadat reversed Nasser’s socialist course, guiding Egypt instead towards m m o o .c both capitalism and Islam. Expelling.c Soviet advisors (in 1972), he forged new te te a a g g h political and economic links withh the United States and Saudi Arabia and loosened s s .a .a w w w restrictions on Egyptian emigrationw (Ayubi 1983:442, LaTowsky 1984:12). w w m The crucial turning pointm came on 6 October 1973 (the 10th of Ramadan and o o .c .c te te a Jewish Yom Kippur), whena Egyptian forces succeeded in crossing the Suez canal, g g h h s s .a overcoming Israeli defences.a in an operation code-named ‘Badr’. The success of w w w w w what became knownw as ‘the crossing’ was deliberately freighted with reference m m o to the early days o of Islamic history, the period of greatest concern to Islamic .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w 40 w w This ‘return’w contrasts sharply with traditional Sufi-inflected Islam in Egypt, m m o closely associatedo with mysticism, a profusion of local sacred places (saint shrines), the .c .c te te a a g aestheticisationg of spiritual life, and esteem for the continuous, cumulative oral Islamic h h s s .a tradition. .a w w w 41 w w w Esther Peskes and W. Ende (2009), ‘Wahhābiyya’, in P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, m m o o .c C.E. .c Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (eds), Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd te te a a g edition),g Brill Online, University of Alberta,
42 revivalists. As a military hero, Sadat could now initiate another ‘crossing’.m o .c te As detailed in his ‘October Document’, the infitah (economic ‘opening’) aimeda g h s primarily to stimulate state and private sectors by attracting financial and technicala . w w aid from Arab and Western sources (Aulas 1982:7, Waterbury 1983:416ff.).w New
m laws now opened Egypt to foreign imports and free market capitalism, aso well as .c te a foreign ideas (Roussillon 1998:361). g h s .a The ‘opening’ and ‘crossing’ of Egyptian society was not onlyw westward w w towards capitalism and Western culture, but also eastward towards Saudi Arabia. m o .c Sadat feared the left, whether Nasserist or Communist. In orderte to counter its a g h return, he allowed Salafi movements, formerly persecuted, tos proliferate (Ayubi .a w 1980:491–2, Roussillon 1998:370) and a number of Muslim wBrothers forced into w
m Saudi exile under Nasser were allowed to return (Ayubi 1980:488).o Sadat promoted .c te Islamic revivalists such as the renowned Egyptian Shaykha Sha‘rawi (1911–98), g h s who returned to Egypt in the mid-1970s (after teaching.a at King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz w w w University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) to host an Islamic programme on Egyptian m o television, Nur ‘Ala Nur (Lazarus-Yafeh 1983:284)..c Sadat also reformed the te a g constitution to declare Shari‘a the primary sourceh of law. Nasser had continually s .a strained Egypt–Saudi relations, assisting the Yemeniw revolution against Saudi- w w 43 supported royalists. Sadat repaired Egypt’s relationsm with the Saudi kingdom o .c (whose support helped enable his pro-Westernte policy of infitah) and the self-styled a g h ‘believer president’ continued to burnish hiss Arab-Islamic-hero image as a source .a w of legitimation (Ayubi 1980:488, Roussillonw 1998:348–9, Vassiliev 2000:400). w
m Meanwhile, the 1970s witnessed theo ideological rise of Saudi Arabia as a .c te a world-wide political player and Islamicg power, underscoring connections between h s Islam and petro-dollars (Ayubi 1980:482)..a In 1973, retaliating against Western w w w support for Israel, Arab oil producers cut production and Saudi Arabia suspended m o petroleum shipments to the United.c States. The price of oil tripled overnight, and te a g producers – especially Saudih Arabia – enjoyed a dramatic increase in revenues s .a w and global influence (Vassilievw 2000:401). King Faisal (r.1964–75) exploited post- w
1973 windfalls to developm his country, a policy followed by King Khaled (r.1975– o .c te 82). Many Muslims, Egyptiansa included, interpreted this new wealth and power as g h s a Divine vindication of.a Saudi-style piety. w w Saudi Arabia’s newfoundw wealth and global power modernised Wahhabism,
m which subsequentlyo drew closer to Egypt’s more progressive, and burgeoning, .c te a Salafi trends. Throughg the early twentieth century, many Wahhabis had applied h s .a a strict conceptw of bid‘a, often rejecting even technological ‘innovations’ such as w w
m o .c te a g h s .a w 42 w wIn Ramadan of the year 624 CE, the Prophet Muhammad first overcame his Meccan
m enemieso at the Battle of Badr. This victory confirmed the early Muslims’ faith. Nearly 1,500 .c te a yearsg later, Sadat’s reputation was boosted through these religious-historical parallels. h s 43 .a Sadat referred to Saudi King Faisal as ‘Commander of the Faithful’, the classical w w expressionw of caliphal power (amir al-mu’minin) (Waterbury 1983:416). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 95 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
44 m electricity. From the mid-twentieth century, however, mainstream Wahhabi viewsm o o .c .c te te a were tempered – and empowered – by oil wealth (and concomitant close relationsa g g h h s s a to Western powers), as well as by interactions with Egyptian Salafism. Sucha ‘neo- . . w w w w w Wahhabism’ embraces modern technology, capitalism and consumerismw and, m 45 m o buoyed by oil, has become extremely powerful worldwide. In particular,o Saudi .c .c te te a a g Arabia has financed many Islamic groups and social projectsg in Egypt (Ayubi h h s s .a .a w 1980:491). w w w w w During the same period (1970s), Egypt was seized by economic turbulence. m m o o .c .c te Free market capitalism enabled some to accumulate vast wealth, tebut both inflation a a g g h h s and unemployment soared, the public sector declined and foreigns investments .a .a w w w failed to materialise. Government employees on non-indexedw salaries were w w m m o especially impoverished. In 1979, a separate peace witho Israel triggered Arab .c .c te te a ostracism of Egypt and erased hoped-for investments froma the Gulf states. What g g h h s s .a saved many Egyptian families were remittances from .a migrant labour, primarily w w w w w w in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. With Saudi development had come a huge m m o o .c demand for immigrant Arabic-speaking labour and. c from the late 1970s Egyptian te te a a g g h workers migrated to Saudi Arabia in droves, oftenh illegally and under the pretext s s .a 46 .a w of performing pilgrimage. There, sometimes accompaniedw by their families, they w w w w m observed at first-hand Saudi luxury, togetherm with the neo-Wahhabi creed. For o o .c .c te many such workers, the combination of materialte and spiritual wealth found in a a g g h h s the ‘holy land’ was compelling. Acculturatings to the Saudi lifestyle, they came to .a .a w w w view Egypt as comparatively poor, bothw economically and religiously. Far from w w m m o contradicting religiosity, conspicuous consumptiono validated the Saudi model as .c .c te te a a g the just reward for uncompromisingg conformity to Islamic principles: Wahhabi h h s s .a religious ideals were sanctified by .a Saudi oil. w w w w w w m m o o .c 44 .c te te a For example, Saudi ‘ulamaa (religious scholars) resisted Ibn Saud’s introduction g g h h s of radio and telegraph. In June s1930, an assembly of Saudi ‘ulama protested against the .a .a w w w teaching of technical drawing andw geography, ostensibly because the former paved the way w w m m o to artistic portraiture while othe latter taught that the earth is round (Vassiliev 2000:290, .c .c te te a 292). a g g h h s 45 s .a Esther Peskes and.a W. Ende (2009), ‘Wahhābiyya’, in P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, w w w w w C.E. Bosworth, E. vanw Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (eds), Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd m m o edition), Brill Online,o University of Alberta,
Many scholars have noted the economic consequences of Egyptian labourm o 47 .c te migration. Fewer have noted its socio-cultural implications. However, the Saudia g h s influence on Egyptian culture during this period was increasingly direct. Asa the oil . w w economies cooled after 1986, most workers returned to Egypt, bringing withw them
m new wealth and new ideas (Toth 1994:39). The most visible (and audible)o signs .c te a of this wealth were electronic media devices, especially televisions andg cassette h s .a players (Nada 1991:42, Roussillon 1998:364), as well as new smallw businesses, w w new construction, and the urban sprawl which sprang up to accommodate it all. m o .c The return of migrant workers also brought a Saudi Islam that tedovetailed easily a g h with the ideologically-related Egyptian Salafiyya. But the new s infitah bourgeoisie .a w (Infitah 1986), infused with Saudi-Islamic wealth, values andw practices, extended w
m far beyond the boundaries of more organised Salafi movements.o Thus, along with .c te the economic remittance came a cultural remittance, forminga in Egypt a reflected g h s image of that distinctive complex of Saudi culture – .awealth, consumerism and w w w Wahhabi Islam – encapsulated in the alliance between royalty (Al Sa‘ud) and the m o Wahhabiyya. .c te a g Powerful influences from both east andh west greatly weakened Egypt’s s .a former cultural and religious centrality. With traditionalw ideologies substantially w w discredited, a new mainstream source of Egyptianm Islamic discursive authority split o .c from Egypt-centric, Sufi-inflected traditionalte Islam (represented as late as 1978 by a g h the al-Azhar rector, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Halims Mahmud) towards a more pan-Islamic .a w revivalism-reformism, centred upon the w neo-Wahhabi petro-capitalism of Saudi w
m Arabia. Pejoratively, some Egyptian criticso dub this mixture ‘petro-Islam’ (al- .c te a Islam al-nafti), ‘Saudization’ (sa‘wadag ) or ‘Gulfification’ (khalwaga). Others refer h s to it more neutrally as the New Islam.a (al-Islam al-Gadid), in contradistinction to w w w the more traditional Egyptian Islam, with its mystical and aesthetic sensibilities. m o The Egyptian New Islam is.c capitalist and consumerist (albeit in Islamised te a g forms, as seen for example h in Islamic banking) more than socially activist, s .a w reflecting Saudi and infitahw values mixed with Egyptian Islamist emphasis on w private ownership (Abed-Kotobm 1995:327, Roussillon 1998:392). Further, this o .c te new wave of bourgeoisa Islamisation is not on the whole politically engaged, or g h s even self-conscious as.a a social movement: it is a ‘class in itself’ rather than a w w ‘class for itself’ (to reusew a Marxist trope) and profoundly conservative, not only
m due to religious strictures,o but because its material interests lie in maintaining .c te a political stability.g Though often replete with political discourse on unassailable h s .a Islamic issuesw (Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya), the New Islam refrains from w w overly-public challenges to local authority (Morsy 1988:360, Zubaida 1992:9), m o .c focusing onte a personal piety of salvation (for example, the obligation to veil, to a g h pray) mores than politics. The New Islam is thus an amorphous socio-cultural trend .a w in Egypt,w generally subsuming non-violent organised political-social movements w
m (sucho as the Muslim Brothers), but so much broader as to not be characterised .c te a g h s 47 .a See Ayubi (1983:447), LaTowsky (1984), Kandil and Metwally (1990), Nada w w (1991),w Toth (1994), Kandil (1999). © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 97 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m by them. Following the forceful suppression of militant Egyptian Muslim groupsm o o .c .c te te a (for example, al-Jama‘a al-Islamiyya) in the mid 1990s, it has become cleara that g g h h s s a the New Islam enjoys extremely broad public support, even among politicala and . . w w w w w cultural elites. Beyond its core of Salafis and ex-Saudi workers, New w Islamic m m o symbols and practices are diffused through social networks defined o by family, .c .c te te a a g friends and workplace relationships. Observation suggests that the massg media, h h s s .a .a w especially asynchronous media such as cassette tapes and pamphlets,w have also w w w w played a key role in this process. m m o o .c .c te It is no coincidence that the ‘cassette revolution’ (Castelo-Brancote 1987) a a g g h h s accompanied the political, economic and social upheavals of s the 1970s. Sadat’s .a .a w w w infitah enabled both the import of technology (cassette recorders,w duplicators, w w m m o players and blank cassettes), and the accumulation of o capital to pay for it. .c .c te te a Phonodisc production and consumption had been relativelya expensive, requiring g g h h s s .a significant capital investments and costly playback.a equipment, and hence w w w w w w enjoyed a limited market. New infitah-era wealth, remittances and free market m m o o .c consumerism precipitated both the formation of private.c sector cassette production te te a a g g h companies and a much broader distribution of cassetteh players. By the mid 1980s, s s .a .a w ‘boombox’ cassette recorder-players were nearlyw universal throughout Egypt, w w w w m supporting the rapid development of a privatem sector audio cassette industry. A o o .c .c te mass ‘cassette culture’ (Manuel 1993) – includingte both musical and religious a a g g h 48 h s content – escalated. s .a .a w w w In the context of infitah, the ‘cassettew revolution’ constituted a seismic w w m m o transformation of Egyptian mass mediao space from predominantly state-centralised .c .c te te a a g synchronous (radio, television, cinema)g towards relatively unregulated, private h h s s .a sector, decentralised, asynchronous.a (cassette), thus localising control at the level w w w w w w of the social agent. Producing (or selecting and playing) a cassette tape in public m m o o .c now became an act of social communication.c open to nearly anyone. While state te te a a g g h regulatory mechanisms, requiringh pre-publication authorisation from the Censor s s .a .a w w w for Artistic Works (al-Raqabaw ‘Ala al-Musannafat al-Fanniyya, for music) and w w m al-Azhar’s Islamic Researchm Academy (for Islamic tapes), enabled some control, o o .c .c te te a in practice only flagranta violations of religious, moral and political codes have g g h h 49 s s .a been rejected, especially.a from the 1990s onwards, and ‘underground’ production w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m 48 m o For instance,o SonoCairo’s total production in 1970 was 995,763 phonodiscs .c .c te te a a g (LPs and 45g rpm discs); at this time there was little private sector competition. By 1985, h h s s .a SonoCairo’s.a cassette production had reached 1,922,140. In 1995 (by which time SonoCairo w w w w w no longerw dominated the market) it was 2,072,418 (Egyptian Ministry of Information m m o 1999:182).o These figures neglect the simultaneous dramatic expansion of the private sector .c .c te te a a g duringg this period, though for various reasons its output is difficult to estimate precisely. h h s s 49 .a .a Conversation with Dr Ali Abu Shadi, former head of the Censor for Artistic Works w w w w w (2004).w © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 98 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
50 flourished (Khalafallah 1982). Government control of recorded media has thusm o .c te shifted from active stylistic production to a more limited filtering function. a g h s All these developments set the stage for a double foreign colonisationa of . w w Egypt’s sonic media space (comprising primarily musical and Islamic recordings)w
m from west and east. By the late 1970s, recorded music was awash with theo sounds .c te a of Western rock, pop and jazz. A few years later, Islamic cassettes g – recorded h s .a sermons, lectures and tilawa – proliferated, much of it exhibiting a wNew Islamic- w w Saudi direction, including recognisable Saudi tilawa styles. Such cassette tapes m o .c (and later CDs, CD-ROMs and videos) not only introduced foreignte ideas, but also a g h amplified and disseminated them throughout Egyptian society.s .a w By the 1990s, whole Cairo neighbourhoods bore the symbolicw imprint of w
m New Islamic values and practices, particularly in Nasr City,o and, on a humbler .c te economic scale, Faisal Street (aptly named for the eponymousa Saudi King). While g h s these symbols do not always necessarily derive from Saudi.a Arabia, they are often w w w perceived as such. Their rapid reproduction both expresses the New Islam and m o provides a communicative mechanism for the diffusion.c of its ideologies. Women te a g veil, often in the Saudi style, yet elegantly so. Menh may sport Saudi-style dress s .a (Ayubi 1980:494). Local sacred spaces, especiallyw the shrines of saints, are w w eschewed as bid‘a, as is Sufi ritual generally.m The Ramadan tarawih prayer is o .c extended, resembling Meccan practice. Traditionalte Egyptian rituals are rejected, a g h including memorials (depriving the mujawwads reciter of his main income) and .a w the newborn’s seventh-day feast (subu‘w), which is replaced by the Saudi-style w
m ‘aqiqa. New business enterprises typicallyo reflect the Saudi-Islamic values of .c te a their entrepreneurs, in products (women’sg veils), names (such as ‘Hajj and ‘Umra h s Market’) or Qur’anic signage (for.a example, 2:172: ‘O ye who believe! Eat of w w w the good things that We have provided for you’ on a sandwich shop; 37:107 on a m o butcher’s shop; 76:21 on a café,.c and so on) (see Figure 3.1). te a g More pertinent to the presenth discussion are Islamic media production s .a w companies founded in Egyptw in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Capitalising on the w
Islamic trends, these companiesm reproduce and distribute sounds, images and texts o .c te signifying the New Islama (Gharib 2001:5–8). Even their names – al-Risala, al- g h 51 s Nur, Taqwa and Harf .aare four examples – imply reformism. Such companies do w w not traffic in musicw or Sufi cassettes. Formerly tilawa recordings were produced
m by general audio productiono companies (such as SonoCairo) whose catalogues .c te a also included musicg and songs. Producing music and tilawa under one roof h s .a summarised thew historically close relation between the two fields. In the New w w
m o .c te a g h s .a w 50 w wThe Reciters’ Union and Egyptian Radio also censor tilawa recordings (thanks to
m Kristinao Nelson for this information). .c te 51a g ‘Risala’ (‘message’) connotes both the Qur’an and missionising; ‘nur’ (‘light’) h s symbolises.a God (Qur’an 24:35); ‘taqwa’ means ‘purity’; ‘harf’ (‘letter’) connotes a w w Qur’anicw reading, but also implies literalism. © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 99 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
52 m Islam, that relation does not hold. These companies specialise in Islamic vocalm o o .c 53 .c te te a genres, including tilawa, du‘a’, anashid (without music), khutab (sermons)a g g h h s s a and durus diniyya (religious lectures). Their tilawa catalogues feature a Saudi . . w w w w 54 w reciters and de-emphasise the mujawwad style of traditional Egyptian w Islam. m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w Figure 3.1 The Faisal Street branchw of El-Tawheed & El-Nour (‘Monotheism w w m m o & Light’), a phenomenallyo successful chain of Egyptian department .c .c te te a stores, selling aa wide variety of household goods and garments, g g h h s s .a especially conservative.a women’s clothing (visible in the upper two w w w w w w display windows), at cut-rate prices, all wrapped in Islamic garb. m m o o .c The brightly.c illuminated glass storefront, brimming with wares, te te a a g g h clearly symbolisesh the consumerist-capitalist New Islam of Egyptian s s .a .a w Sa‘wadaw , to which it caters. Besides the religious name, short Qur’anic w w w w m versesm and Islamic sayings, displayed on external signage, colours o o .c .c te (greente for Islam, white for purity) and the goods themselves convey a a g g h h s ans ethos of religious conservatism. (Photograph by the author.) .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te 52 te a It shoulda be noted that the unprecedented disconnection between the social field of g g h h s s .a music and.a the New Islam in Egypt does not mean that Muslims refuse music in its entirety, w w w w w but ratherw that the two fields are separated in practice. m 53 m o o Islamic hymns, also called inshad. New Islamic discourse prefers the term ‘anashid’, .c .c te te a a g perhapsg since ‘inshad’ is associated with traditional Islamic and Sufi performance. h h s s 54 .a .a Thus, in 2003, al-Risala’s catalogue contained 12 reciters: nine Saudis, one Kuwaiti w w w w w andw two Egyptians (one of whom is the Saudi-oriented Shaykh Muhammad Gabril). © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 100 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
Through these companies, and increasingly through mainstream audio producersm o .c te as well, the distinctive sound of Saudi-style recitation (a sound closely associateda g h s with the New Islam) has been widely disseminated in Egypt, supplying,a and . w 55 w extending, a growing New Islamic market. w
m What is this Saudi style of public tilawa? Though often labelled ‘murattalo ’, .c te a Saudi style should not be confused with traditional Egyptian murattal.g According h s .a to a prevailing Saudi view, Egyptian contexts for mujawwad (the maytamw or the w w mosque majlis) are bid‘a and tilawa professionalism is frowned upon. Rather, live m o .c public tilawa occurs primarily in congregational prayer (salat al-jama‘ate ), where a g h the reciter is the imam (prayer leader). Even on studio-recordeds cassettes, Saudi .a w tilawa retains the meaning of prayer because such recordingsw feature the same w
m imam-reciters and styles. During Ramadan, the longest o such recitations occur .c te during tarawih, most importantly at the sacred mosquesa of Mecca and Medina, g h s culminating in a lengthy melodic du‘a’. These recitations.a are broadcast and w w w released on cassette and CD. m o Certain sonic contrasts between Saudi and traditional.c Egyptian styles directly te a g support theological interpretations, while othersh present arbitrary semiotic s .a differences, aligning with theological ones throughw usage. The Wahhabi philosophy w w prevailing in Saudi Arabia attenuates melodic elaborationm and tarab-like repetition o .c characteristic of traditional Egyptian mujawwadte : by contrast, Saudi recitation is a g h rapid, melodically simple and direct. At thes same time, Saudi recitation tends to be .a w more melismatic and is perceived as morew emotionally expressive than Egyptian w
m murattal, deploying a plaintive, beseechingo timbre iconic of supplicatory prayer .c 56 te a (du‘a’). The tarawih du‘a’ is primarilyg an emotional appeal to God for salvation h s on the Day of Judgment, and it invokes.a an enormous upswelling of weeping. To w w w a large extent this supplicatory ethos characterises Saudi tilawa generally. While m o the reciter doesn’t actually weep,.c his voice is typically tinged with remorse far te a g more than that of his Egyptianh counterpart – such is the widespread Egyptian s 57 .a w perception. The sound of wSaudi recitation is shaped by the acoustics of its most w common live venues – them enormous sacred mosques at Mecca and Medina. o .c te a g h s .a 55 w w In 1999, even wSonoCairo, which had always championed the traditional Egyptian
m reciters, released recordingso of Saudi Shaykhs al-Sudays and al-Sharim. .c 56 te This timbrea frequently contrasts with the actual meaning of the text; unlike g h s Egyptian mujawwad.a , the Saudi style is not concerned with taswir al-ma‘na (word painting, w w sonically ‘depictingw the meaning’), but rather with expression of the reciter’s response to
m that meaning.o .c 57 te a In Egypt,g there is also a misconception – promoted by detractors – that Saudi reciters h s actually weep.a while reciting, a practice criticised as distorting the Qur’anic message and w w w as ibtizaz (‘extortion’ of emotion). I have never heard such weeping and I suspect that such m o accusations.c have resulted from the confusion of tilawa with du‘a’ (with which tarawih te a prayerg concludes and which is often featured on Saudi tapes). At the same time, a few h s Egyptian.a reciters, notably Shaykh Muhammad Siddiq al-Minshawi, are also prized for a w w ‘weepingw voice’. © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 101 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m Reverberating in their cavernous spaces, the reciter’s voice becomes an indexm o o .c .c te te a of the mosques themselves, sounding sacred space. Saudi-style recitation a also g g h h s s a indexes salah (often the context of recordings), the Muslim’s fundamentala daily . . w w w w w obligation, as well as the Saudi Arabian linguistic accent. w m m o These indexical and iconic sonic features of Saudi style, in stark contrasto to .c .c te te a a g Egyptian style, express a direct relation to God – affectively colouredg with fear, h h s s .a .a w awe, sorrow, repentance and hope of forgiveness – and are stronglyw linked to w w w w Arabia. Through them, Saudi style points to the New Islam with its literalist, anti- m m o o .c .c te intercessionist, Arabia-centric and eschatological emphases. Otherte sonic contrasts a a g g h h s to Egyptian style, including a higher tessitura and a preferences for maqam Rast .a .a w w w (rather than Bayyati), cannot be interpreted as indices or icons,w and are not directly w w m m o susceptible to theological interpretation. Resulting from vicissitudeso of local oral .c .c te te a tradition, such sonic features become arbitrarily associateda to the New Islam g g h h s s .a through usage. .a w w w w w w Pragmatic differences also support this semantic contrast of Saudi and m m o o .c Egyptian styles. Public Saudi reciters differ sharply from.c their traditional Egyptian te te a a g g h counterparts in social status and role. The traditionalh public Egyptian reciter is s s .a .a w perceived as a professional performer, an artist specialisedw in tilawa and (formerly, w w w w m at least) religious song, admired for his vocal artistrym and ability to produce tarab, o o .c .c te close to the world of Egyptian music and farte from Islamic politics. Thus Shaykh a a g g h h s Muhammad Rif‘at has been described as sa natural musician who played the ‘ud .a .a w w w and enjoyed Western classical music. Likewise,w Shaykh Mustafa Isma‘il loved w w m m o music; the popular belief that he even playedo the piano, though false, is also telling .c .c te te 58 a a g (Khalil and Hafiz 1984:1703, Tawfiqg 199x:19). h h s s .a The Saudi reciter, by contrast,.a typically rejects recitation as a profession, w w w w w w adopting instead the status of Islamic prayer leader, preacher, missionary (da‘i), m m o o .c teacher or scholar, with no connection.c to music, except occasionally to condemn te te a a g g h it. Moreover, through sermonsh and teachings, Saudi reciters may promote religio- s s .a .a w w w political positions. Recitersw such as Shaykhs ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Hudhayfi w w m and ‘Abd al-Rahman Sudaysm are widely known as imams (at Medina and Mecca o o .c .c te te a respectively) and for polemicala sermons drawing them into global media debates. g g h h s s .a One of Sudays’ sermons,.a for example, incurred an angry editorial retort from Fox w w w 59 w w News and his invitationw to a Florida Islamic conference stirred protests charging m m 60 o him with anti-Semitism.o Al-Hudhayfi has been taken to task for a political .c .c te te a a g sermon, widely gdistributed on the Internet, in which he reportedly stated ‘I am h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m 58 m o Shaykho Mustafa’s piano playing is a myth stemming from the fact that an interview .c .c te te a in his homea showed the piano. Thanks to Kristina Nelson for clarifying this matter with g g h h s s .a Shaykh Mustafa.a himself. w w w 59 w w wJohn Gibson (2002), ‘Saudi Arabia: Time to Draw a Line in the Sand (Foxnews. m m o com)’,o
61 warning America to stop interfering in the affairs of our region’. Shaykh Ahmadm o .c te al-‘Ajmi is well known for leading tarawih prayers in large Saudi mosques,a as g h s well as through cassette recordings and broadcasts on radio and television.a He is . w w also a preacher, urging reciters to ‘call forth visions of the Day of Judgment’w in
m their recitations and warning: o .c te a g h s .a If you recite for anything other than God – for impermanent worldlyw things, w w reputation or fame – then God will hold you accountable, and will ask you: for m o .c what did you recite? And you answer: I recited it for you. And teHe responds: a g h you recited so that it might be said that you are a reciter, and indeeds it was said. .a w And then He throws you into the Fire. And you will be amongw the first to burn w 62 m in the Fire. o .c te a g h s These Saudi reciters are public discursive actors, for.a whom tilawa represents w w w a particularly affective, and effective, form of Islamic outreach (da‘wa) and m o education (tarbiya) (Mahfuz and al-Zahrani 2002:30)..c te a g Live Saudi-style recitation is restricted toh mosque prayers. However s .a dissemination is effected through broadcasts andw cassette recordings, particularly w w those recorded during tarawih in the mosquesm of Mecca and Medina as well as o .c in studios, which enjoy broad popularity throughoutte the Gulf states. Many Saudi a g h reciters decline remuneration for such recordings,s thus facilitating rapid diffusion, .a w since their cassettes can be sold for only wslightly more than the cost of blank tape. w
m Following the new Saudi influence, thereo is a broad receptivity to such cassettes in .c te a Egypt and over the last ten years they ghave flooded the Egyptian market, displacing h s recordings of the traditional reciters..a w w w Studio recordings of Saudi reciters sold in Egypt are frequently enhanced by m o artificial reverb, indexing .thec enormous Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. Cassettes te a g also index tarawih prayers h by deploying the juz’ (nightly Qur’anic portion s .a w during Ramadan) rather thanw the sura as the textual unit, and by appending the w 63 concluding du‘a’. Graphicsm are also significant. Just as music cassette covers o .c te generally feature the singer,a traditional Egyptian tilawa cassette covers always g h s featured a photograph.a of the reciter as artist, clad in traditional clothing and w w framed with traditionalw medieval arabesques. In contrast, and in keeping with
m Wahhabi bans on portrayingo the human form, the reciter’s photograph does not .c te a g h s .a w w w
m o .c 61 te Reporteda in Shaykh ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Hudhayfi (1998), ‘Historic Khutbah of g h s Imaam of.a Masjid-un-Nabawiy Sheikh Ali Abdur Rahmaan Hudhayfi’,
62 m o c Ahmad al-‘Ajmi (2006),
64 m appear on Saudi-style tapes or on other New Islamic media. Instead, symbols,m o o .c .c te te a bold contemporary graphics and a preference for smooth-edged fonts and brighta g g h h s s a colours over traditional calligraphy and arabesques, suggest a simple, direct,a yet . . w w w w w contemporary Islam centred on the Qur’an, Mecca and Medina, a graphicalw style m m o – evoking the New Islam – which I call ‘Islamic Modern’ (see Figure 3.2).o .c .c te te a a g In the contemporary Egyptian soundspace, the traditional mujawwadg reciter h h s s .a .a w retains an important social role in the widely-celebrated maytam andw is still heard w w w 65 w in mosques. However, in the more widely influential phonogram media, and m m o o .c .c te increasingly even on the radio, the Saudi style now dominates.te Its popularity a a g g h h s has transformed channels of distribution. While a range of tilawas styles is still .a .a w w w available in larger cassette shops, smaller kiosks and Islamicw bookstores often w w m m o emphasise murattal and Saudi styles. More informally, Newo Islamic media are .c .c te te a sold from sidewalk stands alongside revivalist literature,a and even by itinerant g g h h s s .a street vendors. New distribution channels may be a response.a to a new and broader w w w w w w audience; they may also result from the trend (as in production) towards separating m m o o .c religious from musical material. .c te te a a g g h The transfer of Saudi style to Egypt inducesh an important semiotic s s .a .a w transformation. In Saudi Arabia, Saudi style blendsw seamlessly with the broader w w w w m social fabric, and thus may not appear asm overtly communicative or even o o .c .c te recognisable as a coherent style sign. In Egypt,te however, the symbolic coherence a a g g h h s of Saudi style emerges from its stark s contrast to the traditional Egyptian .a .a w w w styles against which it is juxtaposed. Takenw out of context, Saudi style points w w m m o unambiguously to Saudi Arabia and othe New Islam. As a reaction, traditional .c .c te te a a g Egyptian Islamic practices have alsog acquired new ideological meanings. In h h s s .a particular, the meanings of both Saudi.a and mujawwad tilawa styles have shifted w w w w w w dramatically since being juxtaposed in a single social system. Self-consciously m m o o .c adopted, public broadcast of the.c new style sign (via cassette players) becomes te te a a g g h an ideologically charged communicativeh act, serving as a proclamation of faith s s .a .a w w w which opposes the traditionallyw prevailing social norms, a non-discursive form of w w m New Islamic proselytisation.m All this is to be expected, since social juxtaposition o o .c .c te te a of contrasting styles producesa new active differences. It remains to examine these g g h h s s .a differences in greater .adetail (see Table 3.6). w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m 64 m o Capitalisingo on the increased popularity of murattal in the wake of Saudi influence, .c .c te te a a g SonoCairo g has re-released the murattal tapes of Shaykh Mustafa Isma‘il (Isma‘il 1999), h h s s .a Shaykh ‘Abd.a al-Basit ‘Abd al-Samad and others in new packaging. Significantly, whereas w w w w w the originalw tapes featured a photograph of the reciter, the new ones do not. I spoke with m m o the SonoCairoo engineer who designs many of their album covers and he confirmed that the .c .c te te a a g reasong for this change is the preponderance of ‘Sunniyyin’ (‘fundamentalists’) drawn to h h s s .a murattal.a who consider such images to be haram. w w w w 65 w w Celebrations of arba‘in and dhikra have abated somewhat. © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 104 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
Table 3.6 The ternary style sign system – principal differences between the m o Saudi style and the traditional public Egyptian styles, mujawwad.c te a g and murattal, as recorded (on cassette tapes). h s .a w w w
Free variable Saudi Mujawwad Murattal m o .c 1.1.1 Timbre Most tense, nasal Moderate tension Most relaxedte a g h 1.1.2 Expression Plaintive, awe-filled Mixture of huzn and Least affectives .a w (huzn, shajan) tarab (ecstasy) w w
1.2.1 Ambitus Intermediate range Widest range Narrowestm range o .c 1.2.2 Tessitura Highest Lower Middlete a g h 1.2.3 Mode preference Focus on Rast Focus on Bayyati Focuss on Bayyati .a w 1.2.4 Modulation Little Much wLittle w
m 1.2.5 Melodicity Low Great o Lowest .c te 1.3.1 Pause Few; short Many; long a Few; short g h 1.3.2 Tone rate Highest Lowest s Lower .a w w 1.4.1 Dynamic level High Medium w Low
m 1.4.2 Dynamic range Narrow Wide o Narrow .c te 1.4.3 Accent Highest Moderate a Low g h s 2.1.1 Melisma Less melisma Most melisma.a Least melisma w w 2.1.2 Word painting None Some w None
m 2.2.1 Repetition None Mucho None .c te a 2.2.2 Syllable duration Shortest Longestg Short h s 2.2.3 Syllable duration High High.a Low w w variation w
m 2.3.1 Textual passage No preference o Some preference for No preference .c te a narratives g h s 2.3.2 Textual Juz’ and Sura .a Sura Sura w w boundaries w
m 2.3.3 Du‘a’ Yes o No No .c t66e a 2.4.1 Regional accent Saudi accentg Egyptian accent Egyptian accent h s 3.1 Occasion Prayer, especially.a Maytam and Prayer (live), studio w w (primary) tarawihw (live or mosque majlis (live, (recordings)
m recordings),o studio recordings) .c te (recordings)a g h s 3.2 Social position Imam.a , preacher, Performer, artist, Performer, artist, shaykh w wmissionary, scholar shaykh w
m 3.3 Personal image o Saudi style shaykh Azhari shaykh Azhari shaykh .c te 3.4.1 Attendance a Congregation or none Audience Congregation or none g h s 3.4.2 Listener .a None or weeping Ecstatic feedback None w behaviour w (especially at du‘a’) w
m o .c te a g h s .a w w w
m 66 o .c This Saudi linguistic accent (sometimes pejoratively called ‘Beduin’ in Egypt) is te a easilyg recognised by Egyptians. One Egyptian expert even explained to me that the Saudis, h s in .a order to promote their reciters abroad, called for Egyptian muqris to teach them, for w w otherwisew their recitations would be incomprehensible to non-Saudis. © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 105 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
4.1 Medium Cassette, CD, CD-ROM Cassette Cassette m m o o .c (latest technology) .c te te a a g g h 4.2 Reverb Often added in studio None None h s s .a .a w 4.3.1 Cover text Name of textual Name of reciter Name of reciter centralw w w w w segment central central (as ‘artist’) (as ‘artist’) m m o o .c 4.3.2 Cover fonts Straight, modernist Traditional calligraphy Traditional calligraphy.c te te a a g g h 4.3.3 Cover images Qur’an and holy places Reciter’s photograph Reciter’s photographh s s .a .a w in Hijaz central; no central central w w w w w photograph of reciter m m o o .c 4.3.4 Cover art ‘Islamic modern’ Traditional Islamic Traditional.c Islamic te te a a g ornament (arabesques) ornamentg (arabesques) h h s s .a 4.4.1 Producer name Islamic General General.a w w w w w w 4.4.2 Producer Islamic (Qur’an, du‘a’, General General m m o specialisation khutba, anashid) o .c .c te te a a g 4.5 Retail location Outside music stores Music cassette shopsg Music cassette shops h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h New Meanings for Tilawa Styles h s s .a .a w w w w w w m The influence of Saudi tilawa in Egypt notm only produced a new style sign o o .c .c te carrying new meanings, it also transformed thete meaning of mujawwad itself. This a a g g h h s impact is unsurprising once it is understoods that all meaning (arbitrary or not) .a .a w w w is a function of active differences withinw a semiotic system operating in a social w w m m o space. Introducing a new sign into thato system may increase the number of active .c .c te te a a g differences for all signs in the system.g The particular historical conditions under h h s s .a which the Saudi style entered Egypt.a freighted it with semiotic values (related to w w w w w w Saudi Arabia) not associated with traditional mujawwad. In juxtaposition, the m m o o .c Saudi style consequently came.c actively to signify the New Islam. Conversely, te te a a g g h the principal public Egyptian hstyle (mujawwad) also acquired an ideological cast, s s .a .a w w w for this juxtaposition simultaneouslyw served to highlight mujawwad’s formerly w w m tacit connection to Egypt’sm national heritage and traditional Egyptian Islam: more o o .c .c te te a liberal, less politicised,a more Sufi and more tolerant of aesthetic expression. In g g h h s s .a Egypt, the principal semiotic.a opposition is now the difference between the Saudi w w w w w style and Egyptian mujawwadw . These ideas are illustrated in Table 3.7. In the ternary m m o system, Egyptian murattalo becomes a mediating style, pragmatically connected to .c .c te te a a g the old Egyptian g school and sonically connected to the Saudi one, whose meaning h h s s .a .a w is observer-dependent.w For exponents of the Egyptian tradition, murattal carries w w w w many of the meanings of mujawwad; for exponents of the New Islam, murattal is m m o o .c .c te associated tewith the Saudi styles. a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 106 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
Table 3.7 Some partial meanings of Saudi style relative to mujawwad, and m o vice versa, in Egyptian social space. Again, meaning appears as .cthe te a g sum of differences (third column). Unlike the mujawwad/murattalh s .a distinction, the mujawwad/Saudi one has become ideologicalw w w
(compare with Table 3.5 above). m o .c te a g h s .a Semiotic values Differences w w w Saudi Mujawwad Partial meaning of Saudi style with m o respect to mujawwad.c style, within te a Egyptian social spaceg h s Anti-musical Musical Shari‘a, beauty .ofa pure Islam (music w w as haram) w
m o Saudi Arabia Egypt Holy sites (Mecca,.c Medina) te a Saudi economy Egyptian economy Oil wealthg h s .a Congregational prayer Maytam, dhikra Shari‘aw, mosques, worship, anti-bid‘a w w (especially tarawih) m o Islamic expression, evoking Beauty of expression Shari‘a.c ; fear, contrition and repentance te a Judgement Day g h s Affective response to text Melodic elaboration of text .aPower of text itself w w w Qur’an centred Performer centred Transcendence of Qur’an m o New Islamism Traditional Egyptian Islam.c Infitah, sa‘wada and New Islam in te a g Egypt h s Political discourse from Apolitical reciter .a Politicised, activist Islam w w reciter w
m Narrow aesthetic range, Arabesques, wideo aesthetic Wahhabiyya, representing Islam’s .c te straightness range a ‘straight path’ (‘al-sirat al-mustaqim’, g h s .a Qur’an 1:6) w w w
m o Semiotic values .c Differences te a g Mujawwad Saudih Partial meaning of mujawwad style s .a w with respect to Saudi style, within w w Egyptian social space m o Musical .c Anti-musical Music and song te a g Tarab aesthetic and h No tarab Tarab s .a behaviour w w w Spiritual beauty of expression Fear of Judgment Day Spirituality of worldly beauty m o Melodic elaboration of.c text Affective response to text Power of reciter te a g Performer centred h Qur’an centred Performer as artist s .a More interpretive,w circuitous More literal, direct Sufism, traditionalism, arabesque w w Specialised tilawa Non-professional tilawa Professionalism, profit m o professional .c specialist te a g Shrine-mosquesh Haramayn (Mecca, Saint veneration, traditional s .a w Medina) localised Egyptian Islam w w Egyptian reciters Saudi reciters Egyptian heritage (turath) m o Traditional.c Egyptian society New Islam, infitah and Pre-infitah Egypt te a g h sa‘wada s .a Egyptianw secular state Saudi religious state Liberalism w w © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 107 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m Examples m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s a Sonic Differences a . . w w w w w w m m o In order to illustrate the differences embedded in the ternary sign system,o it .c .c te te a a g is helpful to compare instances of all three styles as disseminated throughg the h h s s .a .a w Egyptian media. In contrast to the examples of traditional Egyptianw murattal w w w w and mujawwad presented earlier (Examples 3.1 and 3.2), therefore, Example 3.3 m m o o .c .c te presents a transcription of the same passage (Qur’an 12:4) performedte by the Saudi a a g g h h s Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Ajmi. (Differences in the ternary sign systems are presented in .a .a w w w Table 3.8.) w w w m m o Compared with Shaykh Mustafa Isma‘il’s murattal, Shaykho Ahmad al-‘Ajmi’s .c .c te te a performance is extremely rapid. Expression is conveyeda by timbre, melisma g g h h s s .a and high syllable length variation, yet none of this detracts.a from the forward w w w w w w momentum of a simple melodic line. Melodic speed and lack of ornamentation m m o o .c combined with vocal purity and a ‘child-like’ tessitura.c suggest New Islamic te te a a g g h emphases: unmediated directness (the ‘straight h path’) and spiritual innocence. s s .a .a w Aside from such iconicity is the indexical connectionw to Saudi Islam via recitation w w w w m by a famous Saudi imam and da‘i, regarded (inm Egypt at least) as representing the o o .c .c te Wahhabiyya and the Holy Places (Haramaynte ) of Mecca and Medina, in a Saudi a a g g h h s accent. These places are further emphasiseds by artificial studio reverb, an icon .a .a w w w of the real acoustical reverberations causedw by (hence indexing) the vast spaces w w m m o enclosed by the Haramayn. Finally, othero differences such as the Saudi preference .c .c te te a a g for Rast, as compared with the Egyptiang preference for Bayyati, serve as differential h h s s .a ‘hooks’ on which to hang arbitrary. ameanings supported by (non-arbitrary) iconic w w w w w w and indexical factors. m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h Example 3.3 Recitation of Qur’anh 12:4 by the Saudi, Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Ajmi s s .a .a w w w (‘Ajmi 1996a,w 1996b). The maqam is Rast on C4 (E4, second w w m line from m the bottom, is half-flat); absolute pitch is Rast on o o .c .c te te a A3 (a minora 3rd below); the horizontal axis indicates seconds. g g h h s s .a Dashes .a separate syllables and asterisks denote melismas. Text: w w w w w idh-qaa-la-yuu-su-fu-li-a-bii-hi-yaa-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-a-ba-ti-*-in-w m m o *-*-*-*-*-*-ni-ra-ay-tu-a-ha-da-‘a-sha-ra-kaw-*-ka-ban-wash-o .c .c te te a a g sham-sa-wal-qa-ma-ra-ra-ay-tu-hum-*-liy-saa-ji-diin.g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 108 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
Table 3.8 Differences among Saudi, mujawwad and murattal style recitations m o of Qur’an 12:4, as based on recordings partly notated in Examples.c te a g 3.3, 3.1 and 3.2 respectively. Note that not all differences h listed s .a above are visible in the notations. w w w
m o .c Saudi style Mujawwad style Murattal stylete a g h 1.1.1 Timbre Most tense, nasal Moderate tension Most relaxeds .a w 1.1.2 Expression High Moderate Least w w
m 1.2.1 Ambitus Intermediate Widest Narrowesto .c te 1.2.2 Tessitura Highest Lower Highera g h s 1.2.3 Mode preference Rast Bayyati .Bayyatia w w 1.2.4 Modulation Little Much w Little
m 1.2.5 Melodicity Intermediate High o Lowest .c te 1.3.1 Pause Few; short Many; long a Few; short g h s 1.3.2 Tone rate Highest (4.0 tps) Lower (2.4 tps) .a Lower (2.3 tps) w w 1.4.2 Dynamic range Narrow Wide w Narrow
m 2.1.1 Melisma Some (1.419) Most (1.884)o Negligible (1.047) .c te a 2.2.1 Repetition None Much g None h s 2.2.2 Syllable duration Shortest (average 0.34 Longest .(averagea 0.74 Short (average 0.45 w w seconds) seconds)w seconds)
m o 2.2.3 Syllable duration Highest (81% of Higher.c (56% of Lowest (40% of te a variation average) average)g Average) h s 3.1 Occasion Studio recording Live.a recording Studio recording w w 3.4.2 Listener None or weeping w Ecstatic feedback None
m behaviour (especially at du‘a’) o .c te a 4.2 Reverb Medium g None None h s .a w w w
m o Visual Differences .c te a g h s .a w Graphics are key to symbolicw power and are a universal aspect of phonogram- w mediated tilawa. Since traditionalm Egyptian murattal and mujawwad do not differ o .c te in this respect, I contrasta instances of Saudi and Egyptian style cassette covers g h 67 s in Figure 3.2 (Sa‘idi 1999,.a Hudhayfi 1995). The cover on the left, featuring the w w reciter wearing traditionalw Azhari garb, conveys Egyptian Islamic traditionalism.
m Here, the performero is central, featured as ‘artist’ just as a secular singer (mutrib) .c te a would be. His nameg is rendered in elaborate calligraphy, full of decorative lines h s .a and frills inessentialw to the underlying letters, like an ornamented melody. The w w effect is completed with a busy arabesque carpet-like background. These features m o .c establish a te link between mujawwad recitation and other traditional Islamic arts. a g h The names of the production company (Sout el-Tarab, ‘The Sound of Tarab’), .a w w w
m 67 o .c While they may carry Saudi sound and meanings, it should be noted that most te a ‘Saudi’g style cassettes sold in Egypt are produced there as well. As such, although these h s graphics.a are associated with the Saudi sound in the Egyptian imagination, they may not be w w Saudiw in origin and in fact are applied to new releases of Egyptian reciters as well. © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 109 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m which also produces Sufi and music cassettes, underscores the connection betweenm o o .c .c te te a tilawa, music and mysticism. a g g h h s s a By contrast, the image on the right – a clear instance of Islamic Moderna style . . w w w w w – evokes the New Islam. In the centre, a radiant Qur’an illuminates the nightw sky, m m o implying cosmic, even apocalyptic, significance. Plain white script foregroundso .c .c te te a a g the names of the suras. Arching overhead, in dark letters set aglow by theg Qur’an’s h h s s .a .a w brilliant light, is the name of the reciter, Shaykh ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Rahimw al-Hudhayfi. w w w w Egyptian Muslims will instantly recognise the green dome of the Prophet’s m m o o .c .c te mosque in Medina. Much smaller letters just above introduce al-Hudhayfite as the a a g g h h s reciter of that mosque, but his image is absent (as per Wahhabi s prohibitions). Font .a .a w w w design, simple and direct, eschews traditional elaborations andw the use of colour, w w m m o line and light appears ‘modern’, connecting Revelation to othe present. The image .c .c te te a thus summarises the New Islam by emphasising the centrala place of the Qur’an g g h h s s .a and the Prophet in the modern world, simultaneously. a subordinating the reciter. w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w m m o o .c .c te te a a g Figure 3.2 Qur’anicg recitation cassette covers produced in Egypt. The cover h h s s .a on.a the left (Sa‘idi 1999), centred on the reciter, Shaykh Mahmud w w w w w w Abu al-Wafa al-Sa‘idi, is typical of traditional Egyptian tilawa m m o o .c .c tapes. That on the right (Hudhayfi 1995) is an instance of ‘Islamic te te a a g g h h modern’, typical of Saudi-style tapes. Sura names (Yusuf and s s .a .a w w w w al-Ra‘d), cosmic imagery and a representation of the Prophet’s w w m m mosque in Medina, rendered in brightly coloured modern graphics, o o .c .c te te a a are foregrounded. This ‘Islamic modern’ visual style preponderates g g h h s s .a .a across New Islamic media productions such as pamphlets and w w w w w w recorded sermons. © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 110 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
The production company, Mu’assasa al-Risala li al-Intaj wa al-Tawzi‘ al-Islamim o .c te (‘The Message Foundation for Islamic Production and Distribution’), specialisesa g h s in New Islamic media and their publicity literature explicitly underscoresa the . w w harmonious fusion of private enterprise and da‘wa (Gharib 2001). w
m o .c te a g h s .a Discursive Representations w w w
m o .c If tilawa style has acquired significant non-discursive ideologicalte power in Egypt, a g h then one might expect that power to be acknowledged in ideologicals discourse. .a w Indeed, a sign of the ideological power of a non-discursive channelw is its occasional w
m eruption into oral and written language. In Egypt, there are otwo primary discursive .c te positions concerning the three styles. Firstly, there is aa pro-murattal (Saudi or g h s Egyptian) position, which is pan-Islamic, Arabia-centric.a and anti-mujawwad. w w w Written sources taking this position comprise New Islamic literature (for example, m o Murad 199x) seeking to reform many Egyptian practices..c The second position te a g is anti-Saudi, pro-mujawwad and pro-Egyptian.h Written sources adopting this s .a position include those championing the Egyptianw Arabo-Islamic heritage (al- w w turath al-masri) (for example, see Qadi 1999)m and secularist writings (see various o .c in Daoud 1997a). Both types cherish the Egyptiante aesthetic heritage and condemn a g 68 h newer ‘Salafi’ trends. s .a w Many sources adopting the first positionw point to exhortations to tartil in the w
m Qur’an (73:4) and Sunna (Husari 196x:20,o Murad 199x:111) while criticising .c te a music and tarab in recitation for distortingg the Book of God (Husari 196x:21– h s 5, Sa‘id 1975:116–17), distracting.a from contemplation (Shalabi 1997:57–8, w w w 60, Murad 199x:153–4, ‘Abd al-Fattah 2001:83) or venal profiteering (Hilawi m o 1984?:80, Jaris 199x:21, ‘Abd al-Fattah.c 2001:83). The complexities of mujawwad te a g are implicitly critiqued for introducingh professional mediators into recitation (Sa‘id s .a w 1975: 81, 82–3, 111–15, 117)w and memorial recitations are condemned (Murad w
199x:153–4). The artless butm sincere voice is preferred to a musically trained one o .c te (Husari 196x:15, Murada 199x:154). A well-known hadith stating that non-Arabian g 69h s melodies are dissolute.a is invoked and the pure, simple voices of desert nomads w w (Arabians) are praisedw (Shalabi 1997:62–3).
m In contrast, the secondo position celebrates mujawwad as an instance of Egyptian .c te a greatness, demonstratingg the beauty and joy of spirituality (Fadl 1997:110). Tajwid h s .a is regarded as w a spiritual art that produced great reciter-artists, many of whom w w were also great musicians (Khalil and Hafiz 1984:6–10, 161, 170, 174). A number m o .c of books purportingte to speak of reciters in general implicitly take a nationalist a g h s .a w 68 w wA third position, which promotes the precision of murattal while explicitly
m denouncingo its more emotional (weeping) manifestations as displayed in the Saudi style, is .c te a occasionallyg enunciated as well (Murad 199x:154). h s 69 .a Jalal al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Suyuti (2003), ‘al-Itqan fi ‘ulum al-Qur’an’ w w (‘Masteryw of Qur’anic Sciences’),
m position by documenting the Egyptian tilawa tradition only (Bulk 1992?, Qadim o o .c .c te te a 1999, Daoud 1997a, Hamam 2000, Sayyid 2003). Saudi reciters are ‘Beduin’a g g h h s s a in a pejorative sense. For example, Daoud describes the ‘torture’ of listeninga to . . w w w w w ‘Beduin’ reciters: their Arabic is incomprehensible, their recitations unbeautifulw m m o (1997b:34). According to this position, beauty is spiritual while constant weepingo is .c .c te te a a g sanctimonious and inappropriate, obscuring Qur’anic meanings. As Fadlg observes, h h s s .a .a w ‘You will be surprised to find [Saudi reciters] weeping during ayat wtalking of … w w w w Paradise, instead of their hearts dancing with happiness and longing’ (1997:109). m m o o .c .c te The ‘terrible wave’ of Salafiyya is a corruption of ‘our religiouste tolerance’, a a g g h h s sacrificing the inner beauty of religion for the sakes of outward appearances .a .a w 70 w w (1997:107–10). One of the most strident polemics occurs inw an article by Ahmad w w 71 m m o Yusuf entitled ‘The Dissonance of Shaykh al-Hudhayfi’.o After emphasising the .c .c te te a historical relation between music and tilawa, the author goesa so far as to actually g g h h s s .a accuse the Saudi reciters of destroying Egyptian music:.a w w w w w w m m o o .c Suddenly Arab music in Egypt went up in smoke ….c it didn’t occur to us that te te a a g g h the true cause … is the spread of tilawa in the mannerh of the Saudi Shaykh al- s s .a .a w Hudhayfi or, more precisely, the spread of falsew Salafiyya trends coming from w w w w m the petroleum countries, which planted in them sentiments of a broad section of o o .c .c te the population this deformed idea: that ‘legal’te tilawa … is that which is free a a g g h h s from any tinge of beauty, and which deniess completely the relation between the .a .a w w w Qur’an and music, to the extent that he wwho tries to establish such a relation is w w m m o near to be accused of committing a greato sin … The Egyptian people … know .c .c te te a a g by natural intelligence the musicalityg of Qur’anic rhetoric … and so produced h h s s .a many generations of great reciters.a who established all of Arabic music via w w w w w w tilawa. (Yusuf 1997:70–74, translation by Michael Frishkopf) m m o o .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w Conclusions w w w m m o o .c .c te te a Through broad dissemination,a the mass media promote the development of widely- g g h h s s .a recognised sonic styles..a The decentralisation of an asynchronous media system, w w w w w diversifying contentw and localising control of both production and playback, m m o facilitates the developmento of a system of contrastive non-discursive style signs .c .c te te a a g circulating as ordinaryg discourse, moving closer to the real social conditions of h h s s .a .a w their productionw and consumption. Unlike television and radio, asynchronous w w w w media enable the ‘end user’ to become a ‘broadcaster’ by freely disseminating m m o o .c .c te style withinte a local audio sphere, or by circulating recorded media. The individual a a g g h h s decision tos play a particular cassette tape in a public place, or to distribute copies, .a .a w w w w w w m 70 m o o Notably, Fadl exempts Shaykhs Sudays and Hudhayfi from his censure, claiming .c .c te te a a g thatg they are closer to the Egyptian tradition. One suspects, however, that their great h h s s .a popularity.a in Egypt compelled him to exempt them. w w w w 71 w w The Arabic is ‘nashaz’, a word also used to describe poor musical performances. © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 112 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
thus constitutes a social act of communication, sometimes an ideological one.m o .c te As I have argued in this chapter, such an utterance implicitly disseminatesa and g h s advocates a sonic style together with its attendant meanings. Sonic stylea signs . w w accumulate broader social meanings (even entire ideologies) both as a functionw
m of active differences within the synchronic social system (following a Saussureano .c te a logic) and of diachronic socio-historical trajectories along which they accrueg iconic h s .a and indexical meanings (following a Peircean one). Rhetorically, disseminationw w w of stylistic meaning is rendered ‘sensible’ through the affective charge of sonic m o .c experience, the ‘presentational’ (Langer 1957) quality of stylete (instantiated in a g h performance) that naturalises meaning. ‘I feel it to be true’, one says,s and no further .a w justification is necessary. Thus the act of stylistic playback simultaneouslyw conveys w
m messages of personal conviction (‘I feel that …’) and persuasiono (‘you should feel .c te that …’). Such messages are all the more powerful for beinga non-discursive, for g h s ideological positions are then diffused under cover of. a taste preferences. A non- w w w discursive sign cannot easily be represented, or opposed, in discourse. m o Twentieth-century mediation enabled widespread.c dissemination of a dominant te a g public tilawa style (mujawwad) in Egypt. The commercialh evolution of music s .a media precipitated the extrusion, from what wasw once a continuous music-tilawa w w field, of a quasi-autonomous field of tilawa practicem that, divorced from music, o .c could accommodate a greater stylistic range.te However, as long as the media a g h remained centralised under state control, ones main public tilawa style continued .a w to dominate in practice. Then, out of thew radical economic, political, social and w
m technological transformations of post-1973o Egypt, two non-discursive tilawa .c te a style-signs – mujawwad and Saudi –g emerged, freighted with broadly distinctive h s ideological meanings. As the Saudi.a style has become associated with the New w w w Islam (transnational, Salafi, consumerist and capitalist), the traditional mujawwad m o style has (reactively) become ideologised.c as well, coming to signify traditional te a g Egyptian Islam and Egyptianh cultural heritage. Installed in thousands of shops, s .a w restaurants, markets and taxis,w each cassette audio system radiates an ideologically- w charged, non-discursive, m invisible audio sphere through which Egyptians are o .c te constantly passing. In a selecting and playing a tilawa style, the controller of g h s playback equipment (the.a message ‘sender’) is, consciously or not, cryptically w w disseminating a powerfullyw affective, non-discursive Islamic sensibility to a
m localised ‘public’ (theo message ‘receivers’), broadcasting an ethos without calling .c te a cognitive attentiong to its associated worldview (Geertz 1973a). h s .a For the religiousw discourse of sermons and print media demands cognitive w w attention, and thus triggers the critical faculties which enable the individual to m o .c filter, forte instance, New Islamic discourse clashing with entrenched beliefs a g h (attacks ons music, Sufism or saint veneration, for example). But for Muslims, .a w affectivew tilawa (correctly performed according to mushaf, qira’at and tajwid) is w
m nearlyo impossible to reject. If the non-discursive meanings of tilawa styles are .c te inarticulate,a their transformative powers are all the greater for their emotional g h s impact..a Operating outside the realm of verbal discourse, the power of Qur’anic w w recitationw is well-nigh incontestable, crypto-rhetorical, since it presents no logical © Copyrighted Material Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam 113 © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material
m challenge for the critical faculties to take up, but simply presents the feeling mof o o .c .c te te a certainty, deftly bypassing the gatekeepers of the self. For the disseminationa of g g h h s s a New Islamic meanings, then, the act of blaring Saudi-style tilawa via cassettesa in . . w w w w w a public place is far more effective than preaching in the mosque or distributingw m m o pamphlets on a street-corner – and less politically dangerous. o .c .c te te a a g The same considerations apply to media gatekeepers of the state.g Though h h s s .a .a w asynchronous media production has become increasingly privatised,w theoretically w w w w the state retains the right to ‘filter’ cassette productions. However, such censorship m m o o .c .c te relies upon discursively-defined criteria, resting primarilyte on text. Songs are a a g g h h s banned by the state’s Censor for Artistic Works only when lyricss tread on sensitive .a .a w w 72 w ground (mainly politics, religion or sex), not for sonic-stylisticw reasons. Likewise, w w m m o tilawa cassettes are banned – by al-Azhar or Egyptian Radioo – only for violations .c .c te te 73 a of discursive principles of recitation (as fixed by mushaf,a qira’a and tajwid). To g g h h s s .a ban a ‘sound’ there is neither will nor way. Yet arrayed .ain a semiotic system, non- w w w w w w discursive tilawa styles can become ideologically powerful, compensating with m m o o .c affective persuasiveness what they lack in referential.c specificity. Such styles carry te te a a g g h a covert – even subversive – ideological force, all hthe more powerful for not being s s .a .a w explicitly recognised as such. w w w w w m In this connection I will cite a single anecdote.m In 641 CE the Arab general o o .c .c te ‘Amr ibn al-‘As ‘opened’ Christian Egypt tote Islam, establishing the Arab city of a a g g h h s Fustat and building the first mosque in s Africa. Often rebuilt over the centuries .a .a w w w (see Creswell 1969:58–9, 131, 149–51), wover the last 15 years this now enormous w w m m o mosque, adjacent to Coptic Cairo, haso served as a principal centre for the New .c .c te 74 te a a g Islam in Cairo. In 1995, state authoritiesg finally evicted the mosque’s outspoken h h s s .a Salafi preacher, Dr ‘Abd al-Sabur Shahin..a However, his protégé, the imam, reciter w w w w w w and da‘i Shaykh Muhammad Gabril (principal Egyptian exponent of the Saudi m m o 75 o .c style ) was permitted to remain,.c a stylistic beacon of the New Islam. Dr Shahin te te a a g g h has himself testified that the h mosque’s attendance grew largely on the strength of s s .a .a w w w Gabril’s voice (Hassan 1999).w Today, the congregation for Shaykh Muhammad’s w w m Ramadan tarawih prayersm exceeds half a million, and his tilawa recordings are o o .c .c te te a widely distributed by variousa companies. Even state-owned SonoCairo, historically g g h h s s .a charged with promoting.a the traditional Egyptian musical and Islamic heritage, w w w w w published Gabril (startingw in 1990) and (in 1999) two Saudi reciters as well m m o (Shaykhs Sudays ando Sharim) (SonoCairo 199x:47ff.). Here is a vivid illustration .c .c te te a a g g h h s s .a .a w w w w w w 72 m m o Conversationo with Dr Ali Abu Shadi, former head of the Censor for Artistic Works .c .c te te a (2004). a g g h h s 73 s .a Conversation.a at al-Azhar Islamic Research Academy, Cairo (1995). w w w 74 w w wPerhaps because this capacious mosque contains no saint’s shrine, resembles the m m o Masjido al-Haram of Mecca and symbolises the strength of the early Islamic community. .c .c te te a 75a g g Besides similar sonic and pragmatic features, Gabril’s Saudi credentials include h h s s .a winning.a the world Qur’an recitation competition in Mecca in 1986, the first Egyptian ever w w w w w tow do so (Hamam 1996:39–41). © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material 114 Music and the Play of Power © Copyrighted Material
of how Egyptian authorities, far from being able (or even willing) to oppose non-m o .c te discursive content clashing with traditional Egyptian values, finally embracea it. g h s Today, the cities of Egypt are increasingly filled with local audio broadcastsa . w w of cassette-mediated Saudi-style recitations, a phenomenon both expressingw and
m propelling the waves of Egyptian Muslims moving towards a more Saudi-inflected,o .c te a New Islamist viewpoint. But this movement is also supported by otherg symbols h s .a of the New Islam, including tracts and sermons. The particular significancew of w w the non-discursive sonic style sign disseminated through asynchronous media m o .c inheres in its affective power, its ability to fly ‘beneath thete radar’ of critical a g h thinking, while circulating throughout the social system as ordinarys discourse, via .a w localised acts of broadcast and distribution. The implicationsw of these attributes w
m are profound. Just as ‘receivers’ absorb affective ideologicalo messages without .c te necessarily recognising them as such, equally ‘senders’a may disseminate them g h s without necessarily intending to do so. As ‘receiver’ .ina turn becomes ‘sender’, w w w potent ideological meanings rapidly circulate throughout the social system, m o largely independent of the conscious, discursive intentions.c of its social agents. te a g Recognition of this phenomenon is critical, not onlyh as a means of understanding s .a contemporary struggles to define Islam in Egypt,w but for the study of music and w w power more generally. m o .c te a g h s .a w w w
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