Yale Journal of Music & Religion Volume 4 Number 1 Voice, Media, and Technologies of the Article 2 Sacred

2018 Paralinguistic Ramification of Language Performance in Islamic Ritual Michael Frishkopf University of Alberta

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Recommended Citation Frishkopf, Michael (2018) "Paralinguistic Ramification of Language Performance in Islamic Ritual," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 4: No. 1, Article 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1099

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Michael Frishkopf

Ritual practice is a powerful social force logical, sociocultural, and spiritual impact? In molding psychological, sociocultural, and spi- order to answer such questions, we require, first ritual realities, capable of adapting to dynamic of all, a holistic, integrative understanding of the environments to maintain its multiple functions. ritual phenomena under consideration. As ritual practices trace paths across social space For ,3 that means comprehending the and time, changes are induced—intentionally or nature of the vocal performance lying at the core not—in response to different environments: the of every ritual. While such performance appears personnel and social context of performance, to exhibit features of both “speech” and “song,” language, ideology, and other cultural factors. it should not be classified according to these The result is a branching structure—what I call categories—not even along the putatively “ramification”—as ritual practices subdivide liminal continuum between them. Rather, such and localize, though, due to similar environ- performance should primarily be understood as mental conditions, as well as the impact of comprising the performance of language, fusing globalization, branches may converge or diffuse a linguistic-referential and a paralinguistic- widely as well. expressive component. That structure therefore maps those environments, both reflectively and forma- 3 In this article I use the singular “Islam” (with tively, as a model of and model for living in the “Islamic”) in a generalized sense, while underscoring world.1 Analyzing and comparing rituals, we its encompassed diversity, fully cognizant of the oft- observed dangers of reifying a concept covering such deepen our understanding of their environments a vast scope of varied beliefs and practices. As an while illuminating the ritual process itself, in the anthropologist engaged in local ethnography, I might tradition of ritual studies.2 refrain from doing so, or even affirm that there is no singular “Islam.” But from the perspective of What is the distribution of ritual practices, religious studies, and especially when engaging the and how can it be interpreted in relation to present topic, such usage cannot be avoided: I am attempting to understand patterns and connections individuals, performance contexts, societies, and across a coherent yet wide, even contradictory, range cultures? How does ritual achieve its psycho- of related ritual phenomena. A concise name is required precisely because such a connected diversity cannot otherwise be discussed or even recognized. In 1 Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural my view, these connections—structural, semantic, System,” in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected and historical, which are recognized by a global Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 93. community of , as well as contemporary 2 See, for example, Victor W. Turner, The Ritual discourse (of Muslims and non-Muslims alike)— Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Ithaca, NY: support its use. As Shahab Ahmed has noted, Cornell University Press, 1977); Catherine M. , coherence does not presuppose essence, and Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York: proponents of the anti-reification “” position Oxford University Press, 1997); and Roy A. have not explained how a plural can exist without a Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in the Making of singular; see Shahab Ahmed, What Is Islam?: The Humanity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Importance of Being Islamic (Princeton, NJ: 1999). Princeton University Press, 2017), 136.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 5 The logic behind this imperative does not But application of the “speech-song” model stem from a familiar argument (frequently to Islamic ritual practice remains problematic invoked by ethnomusicologists) that “song” even when conceived etically. For this model should never be used to describe Islamic ritual distorts understanding by dividing a deeply simply because Muslims reject the concept as a interconnected network of vocal-linguistic-ritual descriptor of Islamic practice, as is well known phenomena through imposition of two cate- from the literature.4 For the most part (English- gories whose boundaries—however defined— speaking Muslims excepted, a category that until are largely irrelevant to the sonic ritual relatively recently comprised virtually nobody), phenomena under investigation, while mis/ it is not the English word song that is rejected, underrepresenting the intervening “liminal” but rather its (ostensible) synonyms in the many zone (reduced to a hyphen), as a one- languages of the . - dimensional, uncharted negative space of speaking Muslims do not describe ritual vocal secondary importance between the terra cognita performance as ghināʾ (approximately, “song”); of the two poles. Such a model artificially to do so would be taken as not merely a separates related phenomena, while obscuring linguistic error but a moral one as well. the coherent category centered on the hy- One might, however, set out to use “song” in phenated middle, whose scope is marked by a purely “etic” sense, according to a “scientific” performed language, and which is central to definition, as a technical term to be shared across Islamic ritual as well. cultural, religious, and linguistic boundaries, Widening the observational lens to its presumably without contradicting local classi- maximal aperture, one observes the ritual ficatory schemata. 5 A similar etic definition centrality of that category, what I call “language could be formulated for “speech.” performance,” 6 deriving from the theological Thus “song” could be taken to represent centrality of sacred texts and their referential instances of vocality displaying a minimal meanings. Language performance spans all degree of tonal and temporal consistency (lest ritual genres, each one combining linguistic “song” become “speech”), whereas speech (mainly referential, symbolic, discursive, would display maximal degrees of consistency cognitive) and paralinguistic (mainly non- (lest “speech” become “song”). We would referential, continuous, affective, expressive, thereby lose sight of the cognitive schema performative) aspects. Each genre exhibits implied by a local taxonomy of concepts, but we instances scattered throughout the “liminal” would also gain analytical and comparative space between “speech” and “song.” All are power. What could be the objection to that? inextricably linked to Islam’s originary sources, primarily Qurʾan and , and thence to each other. Linguistic and paralinguistic aspects of

4 See, for example, Kristina Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qurʾan (Cairo: American University in 6 See Michael Frishkopf, “Against Ethnomusi- Cairo Press, 2001), chap. 3: “The Samāʿ Polemic.” cology: Language Performance and the Social Impact 5 Cf. Alan Lomax, Cantometrics: An Approach to of Ritual Performance in Islam,” Performing Islam the Anthropology of Music (Berkeley: Distributed by 2/1: 11–43; and “, Ritual, and Modernity in University of California, Extension Media Center, : Language Performance as an Adaptive 1976). Strategy” (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 1999).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 6 each ramified at some point in Islamic history. Islamic studies has, on the whole, neglected But whereas linguistic aspects—discretely ritual as compared to scholarship on history, law, encoding discursive principles of Muslim literature, philosophy, mysticism, theology, art, belief—tended to rigidify, paralinguistic aspects and architecture—despite the frequent obser- remained comparatively fluid, adapting to vation that Islam is a religion of orthopraxy environmental change without contradicting the more than orthodoxy.9 verbal foundations of faith. More critically, even when the scholarly Focusing on the contrast between linguistic focus, ritual appears primarily as a linguistic and paralinguistic aspects, rather than between form, neglecting paralinguistic features tran- speech and song, is thus of crucial importance in scending textual formulations. Scant attention understanding Islamic ritual. Yet Islamic studies has been paid to the situated ethnography of has devoted insufficient attention to the ritual performance, though performance is distinction between the two, and especially to absolutely central to Muslim experience and to the latter. the social significance of Islamic ritual as an adaptive phenomenon. Ritual in Islam Unsurprisingly, exceptions tend to occur in ethnomusicology, 10 if not exclusively so, 11 Despite several excellent synopses7 and focused monographs, articles, and encyclopedia entries,8 Islam, ed. H. A. R. Gibb and H. J. Kramers (Leiden: 7 E.g., Frederick M. Denny, Islamic Ritual: Brill, 1961), 493–95; and J. R. Bowen, “Salat in Perspectives, Theories, ed. Richard C. Martin, —the Social Meanings of an Islamic Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies (Tucson: Ritual,” Man 24/4 (1989): 600–619. University of Arizona Press, 1985); Marion Holmes 9 John L. Esposito, What Everyone Needs to Katz, Prayer in Islamic Thought and Practice Know about Islam, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford Uni- (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); the versity Press, 2011), 140; and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, overview essays by Toorawa and Steinfels in Jamal J. The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity Elias, Key Themes for the Study of Islam (London: (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 85. Oneworld Publications, 2014); and G. R. Hawting, 10 See Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qurʾan; The Development of Islamic Ritual (Aldershot, Anne K. Rasmussen, Women, the Recited Qurʾan, England, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate/Variorum, and Islamic Music in Indonesia (Berkeley: University 2006). of California Press, 2010); Earle H. Waugh, Memory, 8 E.g., Charles Hirschkind, The Ethical Sound- Music, and Religion: Morocco’s Mystical Chanters scape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006); 2005); Earle H. Waugh, The Munshidin of Egypt: Richard T. Antoun, Muslim Preacher in the Modern Their World and Their Song, Studies in Comparative World : A Jordanian Case Study in Comparative Religion (Columbia: University of South Carolina Perspective (Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 1989); Regula Qureshi, of Press, 1989); Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qurʾan; and : Sound, Context, and Meaning in Th. W. Juynboll, “,” in Encyclopaedia of (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Islam: Brill Online, ed. Th. Bianquis and P. Bearman 1995); and Michael Frishkopf, “Mediated Qurʾanic (Leiden: Brill, 2007); Hussein M. Fahim, “Ritual of Recitation and the Contestation of Islam in Salat Al-Jum`a in Old Nubia and in Kanuba Today,” Contemporary Egypt,” in Music and the Play of in Nubian Ceremonial Life: Studies in Islamic Power in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Syncretism and Cultural Change, ed. John G. Asia, ed. Laudan Nooshin (London: Ashgate, 2009). Kennedy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 11 See Frederick M. Denny, Islamic Ritual: 1978); Saba Mahmood, “Rehearsed Spontaneity and Perspectives, Theories, ed. Richard C. Martin, the Conventionality of Ritual: Disciplines of Şalāt,” Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies (Tucson: AMET American Ethnologist 28/4 (2001): 827–53; A. University of Arizona Press, 1985); and William A. J. Wensinck, “Ṣalāt,” in Shorter Encyclopedia of Graham, “Islam in the Mirror of Ritual,” in Islamic

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 7 though this literature is comparatively small, and ); madīḥ, naʿt (praise of the Prophet or music studies has tended to neglect phenomena ); inshād dīnī or anāshīd dīniyya (poetic for which an aesthetic dimension is not primary. religious hymnody); (celebration of The language performance phenomenon thus Prophet’s or saints’ birthdays); ḥaḍra, , falls between disciplinary cracks. Equally im- , ḥizb, manẓūma (components of Sufi portant, most studies do not take up the role of ritual).12 language performance in Islamic ritual as a These named ritual practices themselves whole. exhibit a certain degree of intersection, ambi- What is “ritual” in Islam? This English guity, and inclusion (thus ṣalāh contains duʿāʾ, word, like “song” a foreign one for most tartīl, and adhkār; duʿāʾ includes the more Muslims, corresponds to multiple terms in specific supplications’ ṣalawāt and istighfār); Arabic, Islam’s , all rough their names, unruly overlaps, intertextual con- equivalents or subtypes but none identical in nections, and ambiguous definitions condense semantic scope. Some identify specific ritual multiple factors of history, language, region, use, phenomena by text, theme, purpose, occasion, or meaning, and function, rather than presenting a mode of performance, while others are broader; logical framework for analysis. Each culturally some are complete rituals, others ritual elements. specific constellation reflects an emic ontology Thus: ʿibāda (worship); ṭuqūs (rite, ritual); of inherent interest, yet without precluding use dhikr (remembrance of God generally, inclu- of the broader, if etic, term “ritual” as a means of ding short phrases [adhkār] used in prayer as illuminating relationships among multiple types, well as daily life); ṣalāh (canonical prayer— highlighting what they share, and how they often namāz outside the Arab world— differ. comprising movement sequences [rakaʿāt] accompanied by Qurʾanic recitations and Islamic Ritual Centers on Sacred adhkār), daily supererogatory prayers of the Language: Performance of an Intertext same type (e.g., sunna prayers preceding or Each of the aforementioned ritual types centers following the canonical ones; at night), on language performance, featuring wide and special prayers (e.g., tarāwīḥ in , paralinguistic variation. Certainly Islamic ritual , funeral prayers); adhān and iqāma includes more than language. There are sacred (calls to prayer); tilāwa, qirāʾa, tajwīd, tartīl movements (rukūʿ and sujūd, bowing and (Qurʾanic recitation); khuṭba (Friday sermon, prostrating of ordinary prayer; ṭawāf or typically incorporating adhkār and tilāwa); circumambulation of the Kaʿba); there are duʿāʾ (plural, adʿiyya), , ibtihāl sacred times (daily prayers, weekly jumʿa (supplication); istighfār (request for forgive- (Friday) prayer, midmonthly “white days” ness); ṣalawāt (requests for blessings on the (ayyām al-bayḍ), the annual , the two Eids, Prophet); hajj and ʿumra (pilgrimage to ); birthdays of Prophet and saints), and sites (the manāsik (ceremonies, rituals, especially for pilgrimage); takbīr, tasbīḥ, taḥmīd (praise of

12 For an exhaustive enumeration and explication and Comparative Religious Studies: Selected Wri- of these forms, see Constance E. Padwick, Muslim tings (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 87–103. Devotions: A Study of Prayer-Manuals in Common . Use (London: SPCK, 1961).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 8 at Mecca, , and Jerusalem), and The uttered word is so central in Islam that it a sacred direction (toward the Kaʿba). defines a relation to God in both directions— But accompanying every such action, at the Divine revelation of the Word mundanely spiritual core of every ritual, is the vocalized repeated by humankind in prayer, echoing word word (kalima)—a performed text and a hearing, from Word. And Word is transmitted through a means of remembrance through dhikr—a vocalization and hearing more than seeing. word itself significantly combining dual Indeed, throughout the Qurʾan (literally, “reci- meanings of “remembrance” and “mention”— tation”), God is al-Samīʿ—the All-Hearing, a affirming and restoring one’s connection to God. name nearly always followed by al-ʿAlīm—the In particular, every ritual act is validated by a All-Knowing, for knowledge is through hearing, verbal niyya (intention), and even ostensibly expressed in word: nonlinguistic rituals (fasting, circumambulating) The word of your Lord is complete in its truth are accompanied by adʿiyya, adhkār, ṣalāh, and and justice. No one can change His words: He is other verbalizations. the All Hearing, the All Knowing. (Q6:115)14 Islam is relatively flexible in its ritual conditions. Generally, one can pray anywhere As Abraham and Ishmael built up the foundations of the House15 [they prayed], ‘Our and anytime; anyone may serve as prayer leader Lord, accept [this] from us. You are the All (); no special paraphernalia are required. Hearing, the All Knowing.’ (Q2:127)16 While ornate mosques, beautiful prayer rugs, Every bodily action of Islamic ritual constitutes exquisite prayer beads, professional reciters and a form whose meaning is expressed in sanctified may be deployed, they are unnecessary; linguistic utterances. Two of the most frequent Islamic prayer requires no special architecture, ritual acts—supplicatory prayer (duʿāʾ) and equipment, or clergy. Even the sequence of body Qurʾanic recitation (tilāwa)—are entirely verbal. postures (rakʿa)—standing, bowing, prost- Furthermore, ritual texts are all intertextually rating, sitting—comprising the ṣalāh prayer connected via quotation, inclusion, or theme, cycle is not absolutely required; movements can forming a single coherent intertext. be reduced to gestures or “intentions of The centrality of language performance is gestures,” 13 as circumstances require. The not surprising considering that the entire religion traveling, aged, or infirm are permitted to sit in a chair or even to lie down. But vocalized 14 language is indispensable, the unified core of In this article, references to the Qurʾan are marked QX:Y, where X is the chapter (sura) and Y is ritual. the verse (āya). Translations are from M. Abdel Why? Because Islam itself centers on Haleem, The Qurʾan: A New Translation (Oxford: New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). language. Theologically prior to all other ritual is 15 The Kaʿba at Mecca. a “word,” kalimat al-tawḥid, or “word of unity”: 16 It is noteworthy that God is named “All- la ilāha illā Allāh—nothing is to be worshipped Hearing” in the Qurʾan 41 times; of these, 31 deploy the combination al-Samīʿ and al-ʿAlīm (All-Hearing, except God, often reduced, for the Sufi, to a All-Knowing). He is named as All-Seeing (al-Baṣīr) single syllable of pure aspiration, hu (He). 12 times; the word is often coupled with al-Samīʿ but never with al-ʿAlīm (Hanna E. Kassis, A Concordance of the Qurʾan [Berkeley: University of 13 Cyril Glassé, The New Encyclopedia of Islam California Press, 1983]). Perhaps Qurʾanic know- (Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman Altamira, 2003), 400. ledge inheres in hearing more than seeing (contrast, in English: “I see that” vs. “I hear that”).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 9 is founded on two key sacred compilations of God is infinite Spoken Word, that is, utterance, emanating from Islam’s two central Language performed, which can never be figures, God () and His messenger written down in its entirety, a message the (rasūluh), Prophet .17 Respectively, Qurʾan instructs the Prophet to deliver to these are: (1) the Qurʾan (“recitation”), God’s mankind: Speech (kalām Allāh), delivered through the Say [Prophet], “If the whole ocean were ink for archangel Jabril (Gabriel) to Muhammad, writing the words of my Lord, it would run dry beginning with the command “recite!” (iqraʾ ; before those words were exhausted”—even if We Q96:1); and (2) Hadith (“conversation”), précis were to add another ocean to it. (Q18:109) of the Prophet’s speech and action as recounted God’s power of creation inheres in His spoken by companions and passed down, the basis for word, the simple imperative “Be!”: sunna (prophetic custom) shaping all ritual He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth, practices. Further, these utterances are so closely and when He decrees something, He says only, identified with their utterers that they stand for “Be,” and it is. (Q2:117) the sacred figures themselves. Likewise, the Prophet is analogized to sacred According to the dominant Ashʿari theology, language performed, a messenger (rasūl) the Qurʾan is not a book of God’s creation, a receiving and carrying a revelatory message mere message (risāla) to Muhammad. Rather, (risāla), orally impressed not only on his the Qurʾan is an uncreated Attribute of God memory but on his very being. He thereby Himself, His Speech and Knowledge, after its becomes, for many Muslims, a living Qurʾan.19 “heavenly archetype” (al-lahw al-maḥfūẓ, the Mystical interpretations of Revelation Preserved Tablet).18 God is the Word, identified uphold the Prophet’s illiteracy as a touchstone of with the Qurʾan’s 99 Names (asmāʾ Allāh al- Qurʾanic authenticity, a metaphorical “virginity” ḥusnā) referencing His attributes and by which whose miraculous relation to the Qurʾan the Qurʾan asks that He be called (Q7:180; Sufis revealed into him is analogous to the virgin birth use several of these Names—particularly: hu, of Jesus through Mary. The illiterate Prophet ḥayy, qayyūm, quddūs—to remember, name, was like a blank tablet upon which the oral and evoke Him in dhikr). Qurʾan could be impressed—via recitation—

17 without distortion, a pure matrix for the Divine These are further affirmed in the shahāda, 20 verbal testimony of Faith. The illocutionary Word that shaped him. In a famous hadith, shahāda, recited to newborn infants and at every Sayyida Aisha (one of the Prophet’s wives), prayer (ṣalāh), also suffices for conversion: “ashhadu asked about the Prophet’s character, replied: “his an lā ilāha illā Allah wa ashhadu an Muhammadan ʿabduhu wa rasūluh (I testify that only God is to be worshipped, and I testify that Muhammad is his servant and messenger). On “illocutionary,” see J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962). 19 Esposito, What Everyone Needs to Know 18 A. T. Welch, R. Paret, and J. D. Pearson, “al- about Islam, 11. Ḳurʾān,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., ed. P. 20 Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Donzel, and W. P. Heinrichs,

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 10 character was the Qurʾan” (kāna khuluquh al- Q2:286: “Lord, do not take us to task if we Qurʾān).21 forget or make mistakes . . .”). Likewise, the Qurʾan absorbs the Prophet, Beyond content, language also serves to frequently addressing him in the second person prescribe performance through discursive (e.g., Q47:16), praising him (Q33:21), and specifications of structure, timing, sequencing, calling for his blessing (Q33:56). and pronunciation. Prescriptions appear in the The Qurʾan is an essentially oral, intangible Qurʾan as exhortations (e.g., Q33:41: Ya ayyuhā text—language performed—its writing subsi- alladhīna āmanū udhkurū Allāha dhikran diary. This status is underscored by its name kathīran, “Believers, remember God often” to (Qurʾan, “recitation”), by the distinction perform dhikr; Q33:56: inna Allāha wa between Qurʾan and musḥaf (its written repre- malāʾikatahu yuṣallūna ʿalā al-nabī, ya ayyuhā sentation), and by Hadith. According to the alladhīna āmanū ṣallū ʿalayhi wa sallimū latter, Jabril taught the Prophet to recite Qurʾan; taslīma, “God and His angels bless the God loves to hear the Prophet recite it; the Prophet—oh you who believe, bless him and Prophet loved to hear it recited; he praised give him greetings of peace” to perform those who recite with beautiful voices; he ṣalawāt; Q73:4: rattal al-Qurʾān tartīlan to called for all to recite and receive spiritual recite Qurʾan). The Qurʾan recommends duʿāʾ rewards;22 indeed, the Qurʾan calls for its as the principal form of worship (Q40:60). own recitation (Q73:4). Then there is that other great compendium But the embodiment of performed language of utterances, Hadith (“narrative,” “talk,” “con- is not limited to the Prophet, since his sunna is versation”), describing the Prophet’s words and commended to all. The hāfiẓ (memorizer) has deeds, each introduced by a validating chain committed the recitational Book to memory, a (isnād) of quoted speech, itself a form of stupendous feat not infrequently achieved in language performance (e.g.: “X said that ‘I childhood. To perform ordinary prayer (ṣalāh), heard Y say that “I heard Z say that the Prophet one must internalize language, including requi- said . . .”’”). Thus filtered through the site adhkār (e.g., takbīr, tasmīʿ, , Community (Umma), Hadith is crucial to shahāda) and at least two Qurʾanic verses (the Qurʾanic interpretation, and constitutive of Fātiḥa and another). Many adʿiyya, as well as religious ritual. Both the call to prayer—adhān other prayers (e.g., Sufi ḥizb), are composed of (“announcement,” cf. Qurʾan 9:3)—and prayer elements extracted primarily from the Qurʾan, itself are linked thematically, textually, and some of whose verses are themselves often prescriptively to the Qurʾan, but details come recited as adʿiyya (e.g., Q2:127, itself refer- from Hadith (Bukhari’s Sahīh contains whole encing recitation, partially quoted above, and sections devoted to each type of ʿibādāt.23 The Prophet lives through Hadith: a corpus by which all Muslims have come to know and love him,

21 Ibid., 57–58. one that is incessantly quoted aloud, which 22 Bukhari, and Muslim, English Translation assumes his stature and becomes his presence. Hadith of Sahih Bukhari and Muslim: English– Arabic (Birmingham, UK: Dar as-, 2016): Bukhari 4991, 4998, 5023, 5049; Muslim 1845, 1851, 1856, 1862, 1867, 1872, 1874. 23 Ibid.: șalāh in chaps. 8, 9, 10; adhān in chap. 11.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 11 Ritual practices traced to the Qurʾan and Some genres exhibit more linguistic flexi- Hadith are often interpreted and represented bility than others. Thus, the private duʿāʾ is a through specialized books, for instance as potentially free-form “intimate conversation” formulated in explanations of ṣalāh,24 aḥkām al- (munājāh) with God. In public the duʿāʾ is tajwīd, rules of reciting the Qurʾan, 25 and performed by an imam who permutes standard manāsik al-ḥajj (hajj rituals). 26 There are verbal formulae but may also add his own; collections of ṣalawāt (blessings for the famous dāʿis (public supplicators) thereby Prophet), most famously the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt fashion a highly emotive personal style, of Muhammad Jazuli,27 for recitation. There are enhanced by use of melodic sequences and poems of wide currency—perhaps the “Burda” emotive expressions; when performed congre- of Busiri28 is most celebrated, and texts to be gationally, these engage a large number of chanted for the Mawlid al-Nabi (especially people through collective responses, such as Barzanji)29—varying in usage from regional to āmīn. global. There are likewise extensive recitational But even the relatively rule-bound congre- traditions for each Sufi order (ṭarīqa)— gational obligatory prayer (ṣalāh) exhibits some especially the group litany (ḥizb or wird), linguistic flexibility, since selection of Qurʾan rhymed blessings for the Prophet (ṣalawāt), and verses following the opening al-Fātiḥa is at the special poetry collections (dawāwīn), often imam’s discretion. composed by a founder.30 All the many forms of Islamic worship and devotion are linked through these texts— 24 Saʿīd Qahtani, Salat Al-Muʾmin: Mafhum, wa- whether serving to direct ritual, supply its textual Fadaʾil, wa-, wa-Anwaʿ, wa-Ahkam, wa- content, or underscore its authority and legiti- Kayfiyah fi Dawʾ al-Kitab wa-l-Sunna. ([Riyadh]: Muʾassasat al-Juraysi li-l-Tawziʿ wa-l-Iʿlan, 2003). macy—themselves linked in a larger intertextual 25 Suʿad Husayn al-Qalaʿi, Tabsit Ahkam Tilawat network. To appreciate the breadth and scope of al-Qurʾan al-Karim (Cairo: Dar Gharib li-l-Tibaʿa that intertext, however, requires a broad view of wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawziʿ, 2002); Muhammad Mah- mud ʿAbd Allah, Kayfa Taqraʾ al-Qurʾan (Cairo: Islamic ritual as centered on language perform- Maktabat Maʿruf, n.d.); and Abu Idris Muhammad ance. bin ʿAbd al-Fattah, ʿIlm al-Tilāwa (Cairo: Dar al- ʿAqida, 2001). 26 Muhammad Albani, Manasik al-Hajj wal Language and Ramification: Sound over ’ fi al-Kitab wa-l-Sunna wa Athar al-, Text 2nd ed. (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 1995). If Islamic ritual centers on language perfor- 27 Muhammad ibn Sulayman Jazuli, J. B, Pearson, and Alexander George Ellis, Guide to mance, how are its processes to be studied Happiness: A Manual of Prayer (Oxford: privately ethnographically? What makes such study printed, 1907). rewarding is a deeper understanding of adaptive 28 Sharaf al- Muhammad ibn Saʿid Busiri, The Mantle Adorned: Imam Al-Būṣīrī’s Burda ramification, and the sociocultural meanings (London: Quilliam Press, 2009). thereby disseminated through ritual perfor- 29 Barzanji, Mawlid al-Barzanji. Damascus: mance. Matbuʿat Maktabat Muhammad al-Mahayini. 30 E.g., Shaykh Salih al-Jaʿfari, for the ṭarīqa that Textual sanctity means that linguistic aspects bears his name: Salih Jaʿfari, Kanz al-Nafahat al- are relatively fixed, while non-referential para- Jaʿfariyya. (Cairo: Dar Jawamiʿ al-Kalim; 1993). Salih Jaʿfari, Diwan Al-Jaʻfari (Cairo: Dar Jawamiʿ al-Kalim, 1996).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 12 linguistic aspects are relatively free. The basic qirāʾāt (readings).33 These are absolutely possibility of fixity also rests on semiotics. The fixed today. underlying language of ritual—spiritually Likewise, multiple collections of hadith charged chains of discrete signifiers and were compiled, standardized, and written in the signifieds paired in semantic reference—can be centuries after the life of the Prophet, mainly the disseminated over space and transmitted over seven canonical (ṣaḥīḥ) collections. Traditions of time with comparatively little modification. Islamic law also ramified early on as they were Even in oral tradition, variation is constrained by compiled, written, and transmitted, resulting, for this linkage of form and meaning, and by instance, in the four “schools” (madhāhib) of material inscriptions: discrete graphemes, inked Sunni law, and one predominant school (Jaʿfari) on paper or chiseled in wood and stone. for the Shiʿa, but again the ramification process While paradigmatic linguistic sequences has halted today. admit a degree of permutational flexibility in The language of the call to prayer (adhān) performance, it is in their freer paralinguistic evolved slightly differently in Sunni and Shiʿa aspects—continuous, temporal, resisting lin- contexts, but change has likewise ceased. 34 guistic specification, and nonreferential—that More flexible are duʿāʾ and khuṭba, primary adaptive processes operate. Here is exemplifying recombinant elements, and new where one can analyze ritual dynamism as it Sufi orders continue to develop textual materials unfolds in relation to culture at large, and where (ḥizb, wird) out of such elements as well. At the one can read the signs of localization most other extreme of textual ramification are the clearly. myriad poetic expressions, faithfully replicating In the case of the originary texts, rami- core themes (love for the Prophet, for fication is most limited and has long since instance), 35 but everywhere formulated in halted. At one extreme is the Qurʾan itself, a locally meaningful language and metaphor. chain of signifiers, transmitted unchanged. The Supported by a perception of sacrality, Qurʾan was revealed in seven aḥruf. Muslim alongside writing, oral texts can even migrate scholars understand the purpose of this Divine beyond the borders of comprehension without ramification as addressing the multiple dialects change; the Qurʾan—always in Arabic and of Arabic then current.31 The Qurʾan was then never translated as a sacred text—is the compiled as a single written text, the Uthmanic preeminent example, but poems like the musḥaf, after a standardization entailing the “Burda” are also performed, verbatim, through- summary pruning of an increasingly ramified out the Muslim world in the original Arabic by text.32 Supplemented with diacritical marks, the those who do not understand the language. musḥaf evolved into representations of the ten Thus the linguistic content of Islamic ritual exhibits a limited degree of ramification, less responsive to the shifting sociocultural environ-

31 “Sahih Tirmidhi,” in Hadith Encyclopedia 33 Ibid., 53. (CD-ROM) (Cairo: Harf, 2000), #2867; Labib al- 34 Juynboll, “Adhan.” A telling exception was Saʿid, The Recited Koran: A History of the First republican ’s adaptation of Islamic ritual to Recorded Version (Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, Turkish nationalism; see below. 1975), 22. 35 See Schimmel, And Muhammad Is His Mes- 32 al-Saʿid, The Recited Koran, 24–25. senger.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 13 ments of its users, less readable by the scholar as determine performance, resulting in “free indicative or transformative of local conditions, variables” shaped by the ritual environment.36 mainly completed early in Islamic history. The The gap between “language” and “performance” reverse is the case for paralinguistic features of is filled with sound. And it is paralinguistic ritual performance, which remain open to sound, exceeding the bare phonetic requirements adaptive ramification to the present day. of linguistic communication, that exhibits the greatest degree of variability. Paralinguistic Performance Generally, discrete texts are incapable of precisely specifying the myriad continuous var- Vocal performance—rendering in sound, iables of paralinguistic variation, including especially paralinguistic sound beyond basic parameters of timbre (vocal sound quality), phonetic articulations—is as important as the temporality (speed, pulse, accent), tonality (pitch text itself. What is the underlying text, in any sets, pitch functions, and melodic tendencies), case? Not the fixity of words on the page ornament (tonal microstructure), melody (pitch (especially for oral traditions), and not their sequence rules), and texture (the ways multiple rendering as evanescent sounds, but something voices combine). Textual specification of pitch metaphysical (captured in Islamic cosmology by and rhythm is especially difficult in Islamic the notion of the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ, the Preserved ritual, which features ornamented, melismatic Tablet), perceptible only through inscription in nonmetric vocalizations. But in Islamic practice, the visual field, or recitation in the aural. textual underspecification is also functional, But whereas inscription is a largely tech- reflecting the discursive centrality of textual nical act performed by small numbers of skilled, content, alongside the spiritual importance of literate Muslims, vocal performance is a ritual individual emotional engagement enabled act performed by all, as well as a social act of through paralinguistic localization. Socially, communication and transmission. To perform such affective localization has facilitated Islam’s the text is to perform the ritual, to share and globalization, as language performance, carrying teach, to pass down. Instances of language similar texts, adapts and develops affective performance are acts of worship, and they lie at power in each locale. the core of ritual, whether the talbiya or adʿiyya How does this happen? Sound is powerful recited during hajj, the dhikr chanting of the Sufi because it is social and affective; that power is ḥaḍra, the call to prayer, or recitation of the intensified through feedback. During perfor- Qurʾan itself. Language performance, then, is mance, participants may vocally express internal the text’s primary mode of being, and accounts affective states to principal performers, who for its efficacy in ritual. respond by adjusting paralinguistic variables so While some textual variation—more often, as to intensify impact, a cybernetic loop culmin- selection—is often possible, the centrality and authority of Islamic ritual language imply that scope for variation lies primarily in paralinguistic features only vaguely and 36 See Michael Frishkopf, “Mediated Qurʾanic incompletely regulated by texts providing Recitation and the Contestation of Islam in linguistic content (e.g., Qurʾan) or performative Contemporary Egypt,” in Music and the Play of Power in the Middle East, North Africa and Central rules (e.g., aḥkām al-tajwīd). Texts under- Asia, ed. Laudan Nooshin (London: Ashgate, 2009).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 14 ating in what I have termed “resonance.”37 Over Qadr)39 when the Qurʾan was first revealed. At time, resonant feedback leads to the emergence this time the dāʿi’s voice cracks as he is of local performative styles, each characterized overcome with emotion, which quickly spreads, by particular configurations of paralinguistic amplified by feedback loops. At times the ritual variables, adapted to their ritual environment, pauses in mass weeping as all face the reality of but without affecting discursive meaning. death, resurrection, and judgment. Throughout a range of paralinguistic recitational While oral tradition may guide and con- styles, the call to prayer (adhān), a Qurʾanic strain the paralinguistic domain—for example, verse (āya), or a supplication (duʿāʾ) each the use of Arabic maqāmāt (heptatonic melodic expresses the same referential meanings. modes) for many recitations—this is a matter of Thus paralinguistic variables adapt and convention, not doctrine, and pentatonic modes ramify for at least three reasons. First, because also appear in Africa, or Indonesia. Provided they are unconstrained by requirements of comprehension is unaffected, manipulation of reference (whether of truth or request); second, these free variables does not directly impact because texts underdetermine them; third, denotative meaning but only its affective halo because they powerfully express, shape, and (though connotative ideological meanings may unify emotion, amplifying collective ritual also accrue). Such variables thus adapt to power through resonance. concentric circles of performance, social, and Both linguistic and paralinguistic variation is ideological context, particularly when perfor- evident, for instance, in congregational duʿāʾ. mance enables formation of feedback loops The leader (dāʿi) may select from a wide range (e.g., in responsorial settings). of possible texts or even compose his own in Indeed, it is precisely via its non-discursive response to the performative situation. power that such paralinguistic sound, flying Meanwhile, paralinguistic sound may be under the radar of reference, is emotionally both highly melodic and strongly affective via empowered by its very unintelligibility, enjoying emotional modulation of vocal timbre. During a freedom the text itself does not possess, and Ramadan, the month commemorating Reve- thereby encoding powerful, if inarticulate, lation and marked by extensive Qurʾanic meanings through expression or general associa- recitations, a long call-response duʿāʾ—known tion with ideological positions. as qunūt38—marking the final rakʿa (the so- This freedom is even supported by Islamic called , “odd”) of supererogatory night doctrines affirming authentic expression, on the prayer (tarāwīḥ) generates tremendous emotion, one hand, and the stature of the word, especially especially during the Night of Power (Laylat al- the Word of God in the Qurʾan, on the other. Recitation should directly express the reciter’s true feeling in response to the Word; to set such a word to a fixed melody would be to challenge 37 See Michael Frishkopf, “Venerating Cairo’s Saints through Monument and Ritual: Islamic the Word’s sanctity. Thus improvisation is en- Reform and the Rise of the Architext,” in Music, Sound, and Architecture in Islam, ed. Michael Frishkopf and Federico Spinetti (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018), 111–45. 39 Laylat al-Qadr, traditionally thought to be an 38 Literally meaning “standing in obedience to odd-numbered night in the last third of Ramadan, is God,” the qunūt may extend to an hour or more. conventionally celebrated on the 27th of that month.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 15 shrined as the ideal mode of delivery.40 Indeed, Travel and globalization have led to new whereas Western church music is characterized sonic configurations and meanings, and sonic by the development of increasingly accurate differences may align with religious ideology as melodic specifications, such specifications are well. In Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s less melodic style almost entirely absent in the Islamic tradition. now signals a growing suspicion that traditional All these factors meant that each perfor- Egyptian recitations are excessively musical, mance could adapt to its circumstances, so long thus marking and disseminating a more as intelligibility of the word was maintained. conservative Islam. 41 In Java today reciters Over time, with ramification, entirely distinct follow Egyptian sonic models due to Egypt’s traditions could arise and even acquire meaning long-standing global religious and (more recent) in juxtaposition. For example, while the Qurʾan media centrality, as traditional Javanese melo- is one, its recitations are many, varying not just dies recede; a hadith has been cited to justify this by individual reciter or occasion, but more practice: “recite using melodies of the Arabs.”42 broadly by culture area, social class, or religious In past centuries, the absence of paralin- ideology. These differences may begin as guistic specification, far from a lack, turned out random fluctuations or absorptions of local to be an enormous strength of the Islamic ritual culture leading to ramification. History has not tradition, enabling the affective empowerment of recorded the process, but one can imagine, for essential discursive messaging—carried by instance, Islam entering West Africa via Arabic- texts’ linguistic aspects—through the adaptation speaking traders; they would have recited of paralinguistic parameters to local sonic Qurʾan, and local residents would have repeated, performance traditions, thereby generating modulated by local sonic sensibilities. The affective significance and social solidarity Qurʾan would have been learned verbatim, around texts’ discursive meanings. while poetic texts could be translated into Hausa In this way, Islam globalized through—not or Wolof or imitated in those languages without despite—localization, generating a ramified altering their essential meanings, but deploying structure. In every locale, newly converted local musical aesthetics. Gradually there evolved Muslims could absorb paradigmatic linguistic a West African “sound” without altering the core traditions into familiar sonic milieus through Islamic message: worship of One God. In Niger paralinguistic adaptations, without disturbing the today local sonic models are anhemitonic linguistic texts or meanings themselves, blen- pentatonic (see below). ding seamlessly with the “sound world” located Likewise, the Qurʾan as well as adhān have at the core of social life. been recited using hemitonic pentatonic Java-

nese melodies in Java. In Saudi Arabia public 41 See Frishkopf, “Mediated Qurʾanic Recitation recitation occurs in prayer, and not as an and the Contestation of Islam in Contemporary independent listening practice (as in Egypt), and Egypt.” 42 Mahmud Khalil al-Husari, Ahkam Qiraʾat al- a simpler recitational style thus prevails, re- Qurʾan al-Karim (Cairo: Maktabat al-Turath al- inforced also by ideology. Islami, 1965), 114–15; Rasmussen, Women, the Recited Qurʾan, and Islamic Music in Indonesia, 75– 78, 85, 87, 112; and Hajjah Maria Ulfah, personal communication, SEM 2016. 40 See Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qurʾan, 179, 187.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 16 But today globalization and conservative or worshipped but God; I testify that Muhammad is reformist Islamic ideologies, diffusing particular His messenger.” The remainder is the actual performance styles as more legitimate and call—“come to pray, come to salvation.” The demanding conformity, are altering this calculus, adhān is quietly responsorial and thus binds the enabling ideologies to sediment more readily community together through sound: Muslims atop paralinguistic styles, and intersecting flows who hear it should respond by repeating each may induce conflict between different ramified line, except that after “come to pray, come to ritual practices.43 salvation” they respond with the ḥawqala (lā ḥawla walā quwwata illā billāh: “there is no The Range of Adaptive Ramification: might or power except in God”). Adhān, Tilāwa, Duʿāʾ While the adhān is for the most part a fixed text, some minor ramifications have occurred I turn now to consider ramification in three reflecting adaptations to time, place, and genres of Islamic language performance. I begin ideology. First, at dawn an extra formula is with the genre probably most familiar to non- inserted: “prayer is better than sleep” (tathwīb). Muslims and Muslims alike: the call to prayer Second, unlike other Sunnis, the Malikites (one or adhān (azan), recited prior to each of the five of four schools of Sunni law) repeat the first line, daily prayers. Allāhu akbar, only twice44 (though arguably all As usual, the form as well as its name are repeat it twice—the difference is only that the linked to sound. The word adhān, cognate with Malikites have shortened the line to one Allāhu “ear” (udhn), “to listen” (adhina), and “to akbar), and there are various other minor exhort, call, or announce” (aʾdhana), also links differences in repeat counts according to school. to an architectural cognate, the miʾdhana or Third, Shiʿa communities have adapted the , and linguistic embodiment in the affirmation of faith to their theology, inserting muʾadhdhin () or caller to prayer. All of ʿAli walī Allāh ( is close to God) and ʿAli these meanings point centrally to the process of ḥujjat Allāh (Ali is proof of God) as well as hayy listening to an exhortation: the call to come and ʿalā khayr al-ʿamal (come to the best of works). pray, at home or in the (implicitly that Public pronouncement of these words stands from which the call originates). implicity as a proclamation of a Shiʿa The text combines fundamental affirma- government, and Shiʿa typically repeat the final tions of Islam and being Muslim with the literal formula twice. call to come and pray. The former centers on the Fourth, though today adhān is always per- shahāda or proclamation of faith, most centrally formed in Arabic, the Turks experimented—for tawḥīd (monotheism): “God is greater [than a relatively brief period (1932 to 1950)—with a anything]; I testify that there is nothing to be Turkish version, responding to local nationalism while maintaining the meaning.45 Fifth, many 43 See Michael Frishkopf, “Venerating Cairo’s Saints through Monument and Ritual”; and “Muslims, Music, and Religious Tolerance in Egypt 44 See Juynboll, “Adhan.” Hear “ Adhan,” and Ghana: A Comparative Perspective on Dif- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCC7s7_58Ac. ference,” in Islam and Popular Culture, ed. Karin van 45 The ban (violators incurred stiff punishments) Nieuwkerk, Mark LeVine, and Martin Stokes on the Arabic adhān was lifted in 1950. Hear “Adhan (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016), 325–48. at turkish (old times),” https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=OUIgLy1L3x4.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 17 Muslims, especially those of a more mystical as an integral whole in the comparative analysis persuasion, consider that after reciting the core of performance as a means of understanding text, embellishment with ṣalawāt (blessings for Muslim cultures. But the range of instances the Prophet) is meritorious. Sixth, the iqāma crisscrosses the line ostensibly separating “song” (standing), a special abbreviated form (more and “speech,” sometimes even straying into speechlike, and lacking repeats), responds to what might be more likely to be described as a context: whereas the initial call is directed “shout.” externally to the community, the iqāma is I have selected the adhān’s final fixed directed to congregants already gathered inside phrase (Allāhu akbar Allāhu akbar, lā ilāha illā the mosque, signaling that they should stand for Allāh) as the basis for paradigmatic com- prayer behind the imam. Thus the range of parisons, illustrating individual and cultural textual ramification is limited, but even this variation. Shaykh Muhammad al-Hilbawy, a limited scope demonstrates how language adapts famous Egyptian qāriʾ and muezzin, told me he to varied environments—political, theological, could perform the adhān in any maqām, or practical. according to his mood.46 But his most common In performance, however, the range is far Egyptian models were in Ḥijāz and Rāst (see broader, through paralinguistic variants. Indeed, Figs. 1 and 2).47 His traditional Egyptian style, a closer inspection reveals that even in its textual nearly indistinguishable from singing, has sequencing the adhān is designed for such prevailed across much of the globe thanks to elaboration, facilitating localization. Each phrase Egypt’s religious and media centrality. In (counting Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar as a single contrast are localized versions, such as an phrase) repeats twice. While not specified, this example from Sudan featuring a pentatonic repetition is almost universally interpreted as a melody and a wide (notated) vibrato (Fig. 3). In license to elaborate on the second repeat via Sanaa (Yemen), the adhān is frequently more extensive melismas. performed as a kind of intoned shout (which While it is generally understood that the first cannot be entirely conveyed by the notation of muʾadhdhin, Bilal, was selected for his beautiful Fig. 4), which some claim as an expression of an voice, there is of course no record whatsoever of injunction against melodic calls. his performance, and the vocal timbres, rhythms, and melodies used to perform the adhān are nowhere specified in textual sources. As a result, the adhān has adaptively ramified in multiple directions and can be performed in many different ways—by a single performer at different times (responding to personal feeling or circumstance); by different performers in the

same culture (reflecting individual aesthetics); or 46 Likewise, the celebrated Syrian reciter Sabri in different places (reflecting local sonic culture al-Moudallal also attributed choice of melodic mode or religious ideology). to his mood (Shannon 2006, 188) 47 These two examples are drawn from a The adhān defines a ritual paradigm; previously published chapter: Michael Frishkopf, multiple instances should be considered together “Music,” in The Islamic World, ed. Andrew Rippin (London: Routledge, 2008).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 18 Figure 1: Shaykh Muhammed al-Hilbawi, a famous Egyptian reciter, performs the adhān in maqām Ḥijāz, probably its most common melodic mode in Egypt and elsewhere.

Figure 2: Shaykh al-Hilbawy performs the adhān in maqām Rāst, another common mode for adhān.

Figure 3: A pentatonic, high-vibrato ornamented adhān from Sudan.

Figure 4: Adhān from Sanaa, Yemen: an intoned shout.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 19 All is not localization, and mass media A similar variety appears in tilāwa, generate broader and more unpredictable Qurʾanic recitation.48 Here I invoke a para- paths of dissemination, but processes of digm generated by a line of text of Surat ramification continue—only now they are Yusuf, one verse from the story of Joseph not constrained to slowly trace geo- (Q12:4) containing exactly 43 syllables: graphical lines as they often did in the past, idh-qaa-la-yuu-su-fu-li-a-bii-hi-yaa-a-ba- and sometimes there are convergences. ti-in-ni-ra-ay-tu-a-ḥa-da-ʿa-sha-ra-kaw-ka- Modern transport and recordings have ban-wash-sham-sa-wal-qa-ma-ra-ra-ay-tu- ensured that Islamic centers—notably hum-liy-saa-ji-diin (Joseph said to his Mecca and Cairo—exert global force. father, “Father, I dreamed of eleven stars Today one hears a call in the Egyptian style and the sun and the moon: I saw them all in Indonesia or the Meccan style in India bow down before me.”) because these have been established as Certain paralinguistic variables are con- powerful sonic models. In fact, it is strained by aḥkām al-tajwīd (e.g., pause conceivable that a new form of standard- points), but the majority are free.49 Figures ization is emerging with the advent of 5–7 illustrate three ways of reciting the recordings, but as the adhān is nonmetric, it same text, all appearing in Egypt today via seems likely that a measure of impro- recordings, each representing an entire visation will continue to prevail. ramified style. Two are by the famous From a Muslim perspective, the text Egyptian reciter Shaykh Mustafa Ismaʿil, and sound immediately convey the renowned for recitations expressing Egypt- message: adhān, time to pray. From the ian musicality. They differ as adapted to non-Muslim perspective of someone un- distinctive contexts: the mujawwad (closer accustomed to the adhān, various words to “song,” slower, modulating through might be used to describe these perfor- maqāmāt) is used for listening sessions in mances: “singing,” “chanting,” “speaking,” the mosque and funerals (maʾātim), while even “shouting”; singing might be further the murattal (closer to “chant,” faster, subdivided stylistically, “in the Egyptian remaining in just one maqām without style,” “Sudanese style,” “Javanese style.” repeats) is used by the imam in prayer, and Emic perspectives may take up some of for individual study. these distinctions and even criticize certain Mujawwad recitation, featuring re- subtypes—“too melodic” or “too Java- petitions responding to listener feedback, nese.” But the adhān is a unified paradigm has clearly been shaped by informal of language performance, one that is listening sessions, in which assembled arbitrarily split by deploying such words, listeners call out their appreciation of each precluding a holistic treatment with the phrase, driving the recitation style toward capacity to illuminate Islam’s history, and sociological reality today. 48 The first three Qurʾan examples are drawn from a previously published paper: Frishkopf, “Med- iated Qurʾanic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam in Contemporary Egypt.” 49 See ibid., 77–80.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 20 resonance. This process has been insight- Whereas the latter three styles resist the fully explored by Kristina Nelson.50 label “music,” and the last one particularly, The third is by the Saudi reciter Shaykh it is important to consider them together in Ahmad al-ʿAjmi in a Saudi style order to properly understand the relative resembling murattal in some respects, but position of each within the Muslim world more rapid, in an ethos of sorrowful and why they have differentiated in chanting (the weeping vocal timbre is particular ways. impossible to represent in the notation) far A completely different paralinguistic from the musical dimensions of Egyptian style comes from Shaykh al Rama chant, which instantiates the central Mouhamadou Sanoussi of Niger; his musical aesthetic of ṭarab (ecstasy). recitation comprises two pentatonic scales, Nothing could be farther from the Saudi one minor and used in ascent, the other sound. This ideological disconnection from major and used in descent, set a whole step music is made explicit in one of his public apart (see Fig. 8). What cannot be statements: represented here is also the difference in If you recite for anything other than God— vocal timbre. Note that these two formulae, for impermanent worldly things, reputation, the taʿawwudh and , precede all or fame—then God will hold you recitations and comprise another standard accountable and will ask you: for what did paradigm. As for the adhān, a traditional you recite? And you answer: I recited it for Javanese recitation deploys hemitonic you. And He responds: you recited so that 52 it might be said that you are a reciter, and pentatonic scales. indeed it was said. And then He throws you into the Fire. And you will be among the first to burn in the Fire.51 What al-ʿAjmi’s words show is that this style, which the reciter uses when leading prayer in Mecca, takes on meanings of “Wahhabi Islam” when transported to Egypt. Yet another style requires no tran- scription: the recitation of the Qurʾan when praying by oneself, in which case the selected passage is recited in a form of heightened speech (jahrī) or silently to oneself (sirrī); the latter is used for noon and afternoon prayers.

50 In The Art of Reciting the Qurʾan. 51 al-ʿAjmi (2006), www.alajmy. com; translation by the author. The website also con- 52 “Al Qur'an Langgam Jawa,” https://www. tains a diatribe against singing. youtube.com/watch?v=6nEMZTp4ZO4.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 21 Figure 5: Shaykh Mustafa Ismaʿil: Mujawwad. Segment from recitation of Qurʾan 12:4 by Shaykh Mustafa Ismaʿil in the mujawwad style.53 The maqām is Bayyatī on D4 (E4, second line from bottom, is half flat); absolute pitch is Bayyatī on D3 (an octave below); the horizontal axis indicates seconds. The text runs as follows (syllables are separated by one or more dashes and asterisks; the latter indicate melismatic tones on the preceding syllable): idh- qaa-*-la-yuu-su-fu-li-a-bii-*-*-*-hi-yaa-*-a-ba-ti-*-in-*-ni-ra-ay-*-tu-a-ḥa-da-ʿa-sha-*-ra kaw-*-*-*-ka-*-ban-*- *-wash-*-*-sham-*-*-sa-wal-*-qa-*-ma-*-ra-*-ra-ay-*-tu-hum-*-*-liy-*-saa-*-*-*-ji-*-*-diin-*-*-*-*-*-*-.

Figure 6: Recitation of Qurʾan 12:4 by Shaykh Mustafa Ismaʿil in the murattal style.54 The maqām shown is again Bayyatī on D4; absolute pitch is Bayyatī on G3. Again, dashes separate syllables and asterisks denote melismas. Text: idh-qaa-la-yuu-su-fu-li-a-bii-hi-yaa-a-ba-ti-in-ni-ra-ay-*-tu-a-ḥa-da-ʿa-sha-ra-kaw-ka-ban-wash- sham-sa-wal-*-qa-ma-ra-ra-ay-tuhum- liy-saa-ji-diin.

53 Mustafa Ismaʿil, Al-Shaykh Mustafa Ismaʿil (Qariʾ Misr al-Awwal): Ma Tayassar Min Suratay Yusuf wa-l- Haqa [Mujawwad] (Cairo: SonoCairo, 1978). 54 Mustafa Ismaʿil, Suratay Yusuf wa-l-ʿAnkabut [Murattal] (Cairo: SonoCairo, 1999).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 22 Figure 7: Recitation of Qurʾan 12:4 by the Saudi Shaykh Ahmad al-ʿAjmi.55 The maqām is Rāst on C4 (E4, second line from the bottom, is half-flat); absolute pitch is Rāst on A3 (a minor third below); the horizontal axis indicates seconds. Dashes separate syllables and asterisks denote melismas. Text: idh-qaa-la-yuu-su-fu-li-a-bii-hi-yaa-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*-a-ba-ti-*-in-*-*-*-*-*-*-ni-ra-ay-tu-a-ḥa-da-ʿa-sha-ra-kaw-*-ka-ban-wash-sham-sa-wal-qa-ma-ra-ra- ay-tu-hum-*-liy-saa-ji-diin.

Figure 8: The taʿawwudh and basmala of Shaykh al Rama Mouhamadou Sanoussi, from Niger.

55 Ahmad al-ʿAjmi, Al-Mushaf al-Murattal, vols. 10 and 11 (from :13 through al-Hijr) (Cairo: Ushun, 1996).

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 23 These examples show the diversity of sonic response. Note how this ratio decreases (indica- ramification, which leads to a wide and multi- ting increasing congregational involvement) as dimensional array of language performance the pitch level rises. The call/response line instances displaying diverse clusters of para- length shortens from 3 to 1.6 seconds, quicken- linguistic features generally not classifiable as ing the pace, then extends again as the congre- “song” or “speech.” gation enters more actively and forcefully, Other forms of Islamic language perform- progressively more involved. ance tend not to be examined by ethnomusico- Meanwhile the words shift from (1) stan- logists because—unlike Qurʾan and adhān— dard supplication to (2) a supplication directed to they do not approach the domain of “song.” the performing group, requesting group unity, Their consideration requires too much technical then (3) shifting from supplication to a general apparatus to be of much interest to those who testimony of faith; here the response echoes the study “speech” in Islamic studies, and too much call instead of punctuating with the usual āmīn knowledge of Islam for those based in lingustics. (Amen), and emotional unity is maximized. As a result, their paralinguistic aspects go largely The second example is a qunūt, closing the unstudied, though their ramified diversity is witr of ṣalāt al-tarāwīh (Ramadan supererog- highly revealing, particularly in the case of the atory night prayers), video-recorded at the Grand call-and-response congregational duʿāʾ, in Mosque of Mecca during the Night of Power which feedback processes are immediately (Laylat al-Qadr). During this most sacred of all audible. Ramadan nights, connections between Heaven I thus conclude with an analysis of and Earth are believed to be most open to paralinguistic variation in two examples of the supplicatory petitions and sacred reality (al- congregational duʿāʾ. ḥaqīqa) most immediately present, a fortiori at Naively, an outside observer would un- the Kaʿba, sacred center of Islam. (“On that doubtedly categorize the first instance as a kind night the angels and the Spirit [Jabril] descend of “speech,” because there is no consistent tonal again and again with their Lord’s permission on content. Yet its paralinguistic dimension is every task; [there is] peace that night until the crucial to its emotional force through an inten- break of dawn”: Q97.) Thus the context is sifying upwards progression of pitch, tempo, especially conducive to emotional resonance. congregational involvement, and emotional ex- On this particular occasion, the imam’s pression, resembling the corporate ecstasy powerful voice, amplified and resonating typical of Sufi ḥaḍras. Such a progression re- throughout the massive, packed mosque, 56 quires paralinguistic analysis to be properly delivering heartfelt, humble petitions trans- understood as a means of answering key ques- mitted via highly emotional melodic invoca- tions in ritual studies: When, where, and why is tions, triggers mass weeping, intensified via this style deployed? How has it changed over feedback cycles that appear to affect the reciter time? What is its social-spiritual impact? directly. I have selected three short excerpts from this performance to illustrate the phases of its development (Table 1). The C/R ratio is the length of the call divided by the length of the 56 The enormous open-air Grand Mosque (masjid al-ḥarām) holds as many as two million worshippers.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 24 Table 1: Duʿāʾ sequences

Part 1: Pitch level C#3; Line length = 3 sec; C/R ratio = 4 Imam’s call Translation Congregation’s Response Allāhumma lak al-ḥamdu ḥatta Oh God, to you is the praise Āmīn tarḍa until your satisfaction ya rabbina lak al-ḥamdu ḥatta Oh God, to you is the praise Āmīn tarḍa until your satisfaction ḥamdan la yantahi ḥatta tarḍa Unending praise until your Āmīn satisfaction wa laka al-ḥamd idhā raḍāt To you is the praise if you are Āmīn pleased wa lak al-ḥamd baʿd al-riḍā To you is the praise after you are Āmīn pleased

Part 2: Pitch level D3; Line length = 1.6 sec; C/R ratio = 4 Imam’s call Translation Congregation’s Response Waḥḥid bayna qulūbinā Unify our hearts Āmīn Waḥḥid kalimātinā Unify our words Āmīn Waḥḥid ṣufūfanā Unify our rows Āmīn Wanṣurnā ʿalā man aʿdānā Grant us victory over our Āmīn enemies

Part 3: Pitch level A3; Line length = 3.2 sec; C/R ratio = 0.9 Imam’s call Translation Congregation’s Response Lā ilāhun maʿa Allāh There is no deity with God Lā ilāha illā Allāh Allāhu Akbar God is greater Allāhu akbar

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 25 Normally the imam is free to select any from there, to each other, and back to him in a Qurʾanic passages when leading prayer, but for massive display of affective feedback. witr the sequence is specified by Hadith: Briefly they are all connected in resonant narrated that Allah’s Messenger used faith, sonically and emotionally, a single, solid, to recite in witr the sura al-Aʿlā, al-Kāfirūn and standing, weeping mass of humanity before al-Ikhlāṣ, rakʿa by rakʿa.57 (Sunan al-Tirmidhi God—a foreshadowing of the “Day of Book 3, no. 461, 462) Judgment,” described precisely thus in Islamic As usual, however, paralinguistic content is eschatology, everyone contemplating his or her relatively free. This freedom may manifest as own life, sins, and contrition. But despite varying levels of tonality, from “speech” to unleashing such intensive emotion, the imam “song.” But it may also manifest in other ways, remains in control. Always his voice emerges as we see in this instance. out of the wept pauses, shaky at first, then In the first rakʿa the imam chants in a clear, refocused and calm, returning to the tonal line, strong tone, deploying maqām Rāst throughout. reaching upwards to Rāst on the fifth degree, But at Q87:12, while reciting “He who will enter then the upper octave. Finally, after about 20 and burn in the greatest fire,” his voice begins to minutes, he concludes the duʿāʾ with a sequence crack, on the verge of weeping. Then again in of ṣalawāt (calls for blessing on the Prophet), the second rakʿa, his voice reaches the breaking and the witr ends with the final prostrations and point while reciting Q109. Finally, reciting for sitting. The qunūt is not always like this; its the witr, his voice weeps during Q112 (Ikhlāṣ), length, intensity, and paralinguistic features have said to condense the entire Qurʾan and thus been shaped by its special spatio-temporal-social standing for Revelation as a whole. context. Then he begins his duʿāʾ, the qunūt. It is a terribly moving performance, textually and This brief examination of three genres of Islamic melodically skillful, navigating the maqāmāt language performance—adhān, tilāwa, and from Rāst to related modes (Sīkā, Huzām, and duʿāʾ—shows that ramification operates pri- ʿIrāq), building emotion as he develops his marily in the paralinguistic domain, responding petition, the vast congregation responding āmīn to context and feedback. While adhān and as his voice occasional cracks, even weeps. tilāwa examples provide a sense of the nature Finally he breaks down completely into sobbing, and scope of ramification, duʿāʾ examples offer departing tonal expression for more primal vocal a glimpse of the feedback processes themselves. emotion, leaving long silences as the entire Both adhān and tilāwa have been con- mosque, brimming with millions of worshippers ditioned by local vocal and musical styles— gathered for ʿumra on this sacred night, sobs from Sudan to to Java. In both cases along with him, with each other, tears streaming ideological factors also come to bear, shaping, forth, his emotion projected to the group, and, for instance, the degree of melodicity (lesser in the case of Saudi tilāwa or Yemeni adhān, greater in Egypt), or—in conjunction with religious legitimacy and the global media 57 The first sura of every rakʿa is al-Fātiḥa (Q1); thus the meaning of the hadith is that the second sura economy—patterns of diffusion. Paralinguistic will be al-Aʿlā (Q87), al-Kāfirūn (Q109), and al- aspects of Egyptian performance have signaled Ikhlās (Q112), respectively.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 26 and projected Egypt’s religious authority in the token, the paralinguistic sound of language Sunni world; more recently, Saudi styles have performance is largely free; there are virtually no done the same. The globalization of these sonic universally recognized sacred melodies in Islam. styles may sediment new layers, in parallel to Nonreferential, unmoored by fixed meanings, local counterparts. Or they may extinguish the flying under the radar of reference, paralinguistic latter, as appears to be happening in Indonesia.58 features ramify widely in adaptive relation to As Saudi tilāwa styles have infiltrated Egyptian individual, culture, society, and ideology, sonic space, they implicitly carry Wahhabi providing a shifting sonic map of Islamic history thought in their wake.59 and societies. Their analysis and interpretation Language performance of Islamic ritual can reveal much about the diverse environ- adapts through feedback. Some feedback is ments of performance, and about the ritual indirect and slow: for using the “wrong” style, a process itself. muezzin may not be retained, a qāriʾ not invited, a preacher’s television program canceled. But many live genres invite immediate performative feedback, allowing cybernetic processes to cycle far more rapidly. Mujawwad tilāwa in the mosque enables rapid feedback informally, while the congreg- ational duʿāʾ is more explicitly responsorial. The duʿāʾ thus provides an ideal setting for micro- analysis of paralinguistic adaptation. Such feedback loops not only move participants; they also appear as the engine of local adaptation itself. Paralinguistic sound is powerful because it is social and affective, yet nonreferential; that power is multiplied through the feedback process, toward adaptation and resonance. In Islamic ritual, paralinguistics takes on a special significance. Due to the centrality and sanctity of core texts (primarily Qurʾan and Hadith), the finality of prophecy with Muhammad, and of revelation with the Qurʾan, purely linguistic ramification is quite limited. 60 By the same

58 See Rasmussen, Women, the Recited Qurʾan, and Islamic Music in Indonesia, 85. 59 See Frishkopf, “Mediated Qurʾanic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam in Contemporary “The chain of messengers and prophets has come to Egypt.” an end. There shall be no messenger nor prophet after 60 Muhammad is the khātam al-nabiyyīn, “seal of me” (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi). the prophets” (Q33:40), while according to Hadith:

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 4, No. 1 (2018) 27