The Middle East What is an ethnic group? People who share a common culture, including • Language • Ancestors • History • Food • Music, dance, art • Non-religious holidays, rituals They are united by these factors, and feel a common connection. Three major ethnic groups of the Middle East • Arab • Persian • Kurd * The major religion is Islam, followed by Christianity and Judaism. ARAB ethnic group ARAB Dress / Clothing Agal Keffiyeh (cord) (scarf) thawb (robe/tunic) Arab Clothing Keffiyeh Iraq Palestine (scarf) Arab Clothing Arab Clothing Arab Clothing Arab Clothing Arab Clothing Arab Clothing Hijab Niqab Abaya ARAB Music http://www.issaboulos.com/acms/www/about_inst.html Arab Classical Music Ud, also spelled oud, has a deep, pear-shaped body; a fingerboard; and a relatively short neck and somewhat less acutely bent-back peg box. Its strings are plucked with a plectrum and are fastened to a tension bridge on the instrument's belly. The instrument musically and technically evolved during the Islamic period in Spain (711-1492) and gained its current characteristic appearance. Modern 'uds are fretless and are not completely standardized in size or number of strings; five courses of string-pairs are common, six and seven pairs are also found. Click here to listen to the ud. Buzuq (long-necked lute), is found in both folk and urban contexts. It comes usually with two or three double courses and a variable number of movable frets. Its metal strings produce a bright sound and are well suited for drone effects. In recent years, several Palestinian groups integrated the instrument in the classical takht as part of a growing interest in exploring its possibilities Nay, is an urban instrument and the only wind instrument used in Arab classical music. It appears alongside the lute, the qanun, the daff and the darbukkah. It’s an open tube that has six finger-holes in front and one thumb-hole in the back. The edge of the tube at the top is lightly bevelled. Nay varies in length and each one is designated by the name of its fundamental note (given by opening the first hole): nay Mahur (C), nay Dukah (D), nay Buselik (E), nay Chargah (F), nay Nawa (G), nay Husayni (A), nay 'Ajam (B ), nay Kardan (c), and so on. Click here to listen to the nay http://www.issaboulos.com/acms/www/about_inst.html Arab Classical Music Qanun, is one of the classical instruments of the Arab world, known in both oral and written traditions. It is the plucked box. On the modern Arab qanun, there are two to five levers for every string (in triples). Intervals can be minutely adjusted by rotating the levers, which control the tension of the strings; this permits a full range of keys. Arab performers play in octaves or double octaves. The right hand is notated in the treble clef and the left in the bass. Riqq, is a small, circular frame drum with jingles. It is dominantly used in North Africa, Iraq, the Levant and Sudan. It is between 20 and 25 cm in diameter and is played in takht ensembles of Egypt, Syria or Iraq where it goes beyond the simple rhythmic requirements of the other percussion instruments in terms of ornamentation and color. See how to play the riqq! Darbukka, a single-headed goblet drum. It is made from pottery, wood or metal; the bottom is open and the skin head is directly attached by nails, glue or binding. It is found in a range of sizes, particularly in North Africa, where several may be played together in ensembles .The origin of the term darabukka is somewhat obscure but probably lies in the Arabic word darba (to strike), or durub (rhythmic cycles), darbukka could mean, therefore, your strike, or your rhythm. http://www.framedrums.net/instruments/riq/ ARAB Language & Writing Arabic Script The Arabic script is a writing The Arabic script is After the Latin script (ex. used system used for writing written from right for the English alphabet), it is several languages of Asia and to left in a cursive the second-most widely used Africa, such as Arabic, style. Numbers are writing system in the world. Persian, Kurdish, and Urdu. written from left to right Most letters change Used to write: Arabic, Baluchi, form depending on Number of letters in the Dari, Hausa, Kashmiri, Kazak, whether they alphabet: 28 (in Arabic). Some Kurdish, Malay, Pashto, appear at the additional letters are used Persian/Farsi, Punjabi, Sindhi, beginning, middle or when writing other languages. Turkish, Uyghur, Urdu and a end of a word, or on number of other languages. their own. http://miftahularabia.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/27/ Arabic Alphabet Kufic is the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic script. Its name is derived from the city of Kufa in Iraq, although it was known in Mesopotamia at least 100 years before the foundation of Kufa. Thuluth means “a third" in Arabic. It is called this because one-third of each letter slopes.. Diwani is a cursive style developed during the reign of the early Ottoman Turks (16th century - early 17th century). Types of Arabic Handwriting Naskh comes from the Arabic term "to copy". This style allows faster copying of texts. Naskh was used in copying Qur'ans and other Muslim texts. It was and is a very widely used form of script. It is written using a small, very fine pen known as a cava pen, which makes the script suitable for use in book production. Ruqʿah style of handwriting is the most common type of handwriting. It is the easiest script for daily handwriting. Due to ease of writing, it is used in the titles of books and magazines and in commercial advertisements. The Persian or Perso-Arabic alphabet is a writing system based on the Arabic script. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic alphabet ʒ), and) ژ ,(t͡ʃ) چ ,(p) پ was adapted to the Persian language, adding four letters .ɡ). Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add other letters) گ Arabic Script Arabic Keyboard Click HERE to write on an Arabic keyboard http://www.arabic-keyboard.org/write-arabic/# Kurdish (Kurds) ethnic group Kurdish Location Kurdish Location A “stateless nation”, if the Kurds had their way, they would have their own country. They already have their flag made for when or if they ever get their own country. Kurdish (Kurds) Dress / Clothing Kurdish Clothing Kurdish Clothing Kurdish (Kurds) Dance The dances tell of the customs, traditions and everyday life of Kurdish Dance people, enacting work, the marriage ceremony and notable battles and wars. Kurdish folk is a form of line dancing, with one or two figure dancers often added to the center of the dancing circle. The dances are always performed to live music played on traditional instruments Kurdish Clothing & Dance Click here for a Kurdish music video. Kurdish Clothing & Dance Kurdish (Kurds) Music Kurdish Music There are three types of Traditional instruments found in all Kurdish classical performers: parts of Kurdistan are the tembûr, bilûr, zirne, mey, dahol and daf. • storytellers (çîrokbêj) • minstrels (stranbêj) • bards (dengbêj) Many songs are epic ballads, recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes or the sorrow of separation and unfulfilled love. Music is also closely tied to religious ceremonies and the transitions of life. zirnes The bilur and the mey are the main woodwind instruments used in Kurdish music of all regions. Kurdish Music The daf, an important musical instrument, is strongly associated with Kurdish struggle to preserve their culture. Made of goat’s skin, its tones are enhanced with metal hoops attached to the rim. Kurdish tembûr Kurdish (Kurds) Language Latin Arabic Latin Arabic Kurdish Alphabet Modern Kurdish has not developed its own uniform writing system, rather there are different ways of writing it, depending on geography. • In Turkey and Syria, a modified Latin alphabet is used. • In Iran and Iraq, a modified Arabic alphabet has been used. Kurdish written in Kurdish written in Latin alphabet Arabic alphabet Kurdish Language Bezin bo şewêkîş bêt şwênî xoy xoş dekat. The goat makes his place comfortable even if it’s for only one night. Persian ethnic group Persian Location Taleh Azeri Turk Gliaki Mazandarani Kurd Lur Persian Sparsely populated Arab Qashqai Persian Location Baloch Arab Persian Language / Script Words are written from right to left, numbers are written from left to right. Persian Keyboard Persian Dress / Clothing Persian Dress / Clothing Shalwar Kameez Chador A chador is a full-body-length semicircle of fabric that is open down the front. This cloth is tossed over the woman's or girl's head, but then she holds it closed in the front. The chador has no hand openings, or any buttons, clasps, etc., but rather it is held closed by her hands or tucked under the wearer's arms. Hijab Persian Music & Instruments Kamancheh The kamancheh is the traditional classical bowed lute of Persian classical music and dates back to antiquity. Often known as the "spiked fiddle", because of the spike protruding from its lower end, it is played vertically in the manner of the European viol. The bowstrings are pulled by the player. It has a small, hollowed hardwood body with a thin stretched fish-skin membrane. Its neck is cylindrical, and it has four strings. Click here to listen to the kamancheh. Click HERE to listen to the setar setar The ancestry of the setar can be traced to the ancient tanbur of pre- Islamic Persia. It is made from thin mulberry wood and its fingerboard has twenty-five or twenty-six adjustable gut frets. Setar is literally translated as ``three strings''; however, in its present form, it has four strings and it is suspected that setar initially had only three strings.