Contestation of Islam in Contemporary Egypt Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Overview Islam in Egypt today is contested across a broad media spectrum from recorded sermons, films, television and radio programmes to newspapers, pamphlets and books. Print, recorded and broadcast media facilitate an ongoing ideological © Copyrighted Material debate about Islam – its nature and its normative social role – featuring a wide variety of discursive positions. known as Chapter 3 rooted in Islamic tradition and deeply felt by its practitioners (Nelson Can public Public Qur’anic recitation is immensely moving for Muslims. And yet, might expect the answer to be ‘no’, because the Qur’an’s linguistic content is Michael Frishkopf fixed and its recitation highly regulated.tilawa Nevertheless, scope for variation and stylistic variety.tilawa In the past, such divergence resulted from localised chains of transmission, shaped by contrastive contexts and did not typically convey widely significant ideological positions. However,) within thisover debate? the past tilawa century the mass media has generally facilitated the formation is and one circulation of Islam’s ofmost essential and universal practices, deeply more broadly recognisable and influential participate in ideological struggles to define Islam? Certainly, new edition of her book, rise of a Saudi style since the first edition appeared in 1985. This is precisely the period I am attempting, in part, to document here. My sincere thanks to Kristina Nelson, for her What is the role of Qur’anic recitation (generally groundbreaking study and insightfulThis chapter comments extends on the an seminalearlier draft, work to of Wael Kristina ‘Abd Nelson. al-Fattah, In the postscript to the Usama Dinasuri, Iman Mersal and Dr Ali Abu Shadi, for their critical insights and feedback, to staff at al-Azhar University, and to numerous Egyptians (reciters and others) with whom I’ve conducted countless informal discussions. This research was supported by generous grants from the American Research Center in Egypt (2003–4) and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2004–6). scholars including Kepel (1993), Gaffneyal-Musannafat (1994), Abed-Kotob al-Fanniyya (1995), Ibrahim (1996), Johansenwww.a s(1996),hgat eAbdo.co m(2000) ww andw. Wickhamashgat e(2002)..com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate. com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com The Art of Reciting the Qur’an Multiple discourses have been documented in recent years by a wide range of tilawa tilawa , SonoCairo and the Islamic Research Academy of styles within a more autonomous prima facie allows significant © Copyrighted Material (00), Nelson comments on the 00). , one 76 sonic field. In this chapter, I aim to show how the cassette medium, embedded in the historical circumstances of its emergence in Egypt, has recently enabled a new ideological distinction between ‘Egyptian’ and ‘Saudi’ of this distinction, the latter powerfully represents, and promotes, influential reformist-revivalist Islamic ideology within contemporary Egyptian society Introduction to For Muslims, the Qur’an is Divine Revelation ( ( kalam Allah starting around the year 610 CE and continuing until the Prophet’s death in 632 CE. Following the dominant of God as a Divine Attribute, hence uncreated and eternal with God Himself. The Music and the Play of Power Qur’an is inextricably attached to its recitation as solo vocal performance. Muslims rarely read the Qur’an without reciting it and the experience of the Divine text © Copyrighted Material is therefore primarily auditory (Nelson 2001:xiv, Nasr 1995:57).Tilawa The injunction to recite is explicit in both Qur’an and Sunna. ) as revealed in the Arabic language to the Prophet Muhammad, ‘recitation’ (Rahman 1979:30). God revealed (some say ‘recited’) the Qur’an to the archangel Gabril. Gabril subsequently recited it to Muhammad, who recited it to his Companions ( in Contemporary Egypt said that Gabril taught him the Qur’an in seven ‘ order to be intelligible to different Arab tribes (Tirmidhi 2000: no. 2867). Phonetic variation, perhaps stemming from the multiple of recitation to emerge and eventually ten principal variant ‘readings’ ( were fixed, each associated with a particular teacher, plus sub-variants ( Ash‘ari sahaba ROM (a single CD can contain the entire Qur’an plus commentaries) and video. Internet downloads are 3increasingly common, especially as Internet cafés proliferate, and Islamic satellite television channels (such as creed, most Egyptian Muslims accept the Speech for Qur’anic recitation. ButSince cassettes the 1990s, remain other central, phonogram due to formatsthe ubiquity have ofemerged, playback including CD, CD- equipment, low cost and the importance of asynchronous channels, as discussed below ), and so on in a continuous chain to the present. The Prophet tilawa most comprehensive being that by Nelson (2001), which likewise focuses on contemporary Egypt. See also 4Pacholczyk (1970), al-Faruqi (1987a, 1987b) and Rasmussen (2001). 4 wahy reports ( A number of studies of Qur’anic recitation have been published in English, the styles. (including those5 of Muslim, Bukhari, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Darimi and Ibn Hanbal cited here) are known as ‘ ), the fixed Speech of God the command ‘ Sunna constitutes the customs of the Prophet Muhammad as passed down through citations in his chapter employ the al-Alamiah Enumeration]). The Qur’an itself clearly 3 states (in 73:4) ‘ Hadith By means and from the Prophet’s Sunna, ‘He is not one of us who does not chant the Qur’an’ (Bukhari 2000: no. 6973). 5 www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate. The word ‘Qur’an’ itself implies com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com ) about his speech and behaviour. The most reliable . iqra’ Iqra’ rattil al-Qur’ana’ (‘recite!’) tartilansahih (Lings 1983:43–4; Bukhari 2000: no. 3 [note that ahruf ahruf ) have greatly expanded synchronous bandwidth ’ (‘true’). The first revealed verse (Qur’an 96:1) begins with ’ (dialectical variants) in , allowed different schools © Copyrighted Material ’ (‘chant the Qur’an in measure’) (Pickthall 1953), qira’at riwayat ) ) Hadith . collections Hadith © Copyrighted Material www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate. com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com © Copyrighted Material associated with their students. In Egypt, the principal reading is presently ‘Asim law, ‘Asim of Kufa (d. 745) (Sa‘id 1975:69). Since the manner of the Prophet’s recitation carried the force of Divine authority, it was codified as the fixed ‘rules’ governing: the correct recitation of the Qur’an. A large component of tajwid Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam their assimilation ( topics include regulation of the length riwayaof the waqf concerns phonetics, including proper articulation of each letter and rules for tahqiq also developed in parallel (pause) with theand oral one. With the Prophet’s approval, someof Hafs of hisbin Sulayman (d. 796) from the literate companionsDespite recorded the importance Qur’anic versesof recitation in Arabic and script oral and transmission, after his death a written the tradition to first textual recension ( (r.632–34 CE). By the time of the thirdhadr Caliph, ‘Uthman (r.644–55 CE), a number of written versions existed (stemming partly from the multiple © Copyrighted Material over various Qur’anic passages, thus undermining the unity of the community). Soon after 650, ) (see ‘Abd al-Fattahidgham 2001, Nelson 2001). recension and having all other versions burnt (Sa‘id 1975:19ff.). Thisibda’ ‘Uthmani recension has remained the only authoritative marks (points and vowels), the text corresponds to a particular ), emphasis ( comprises 114 (resumption) and the relative speed of recitation (from arranged approximately in order of decreasing length (the opening Independently, the to facilitate orderly monthly recitation, especially during Ramadan. mushaf property of most sacred objects, for the sacred – presumably – does not change. Tilawa What then is fixed and what is variable in ( mushaf tafkhim al-tajwid suras 6 of each ) was carefully prepared by the first Caliph Abu Bakr dependent variables) with ais value fixed, along to aa dimension,large extent, qualitative by three or discursive quantitative. sources: the written text Once a ), its phonological ‘readings’ ( (chapters), each divided into7 a number of ) and de-emphasis ( sonic realisations is sharply limited by mushaf ‘Uthman responded by fixing a second authoritative madd each corresponding to a particular sonic,). In textualthe analysis or pragmatic which dimensionfollows, I (Bussman define a qira’a 1996:374), nevertheless remain freetilawa (within limits). By means of variation along these dimensions, different yetmushaf equally acceptable recitations of the same passage in (long vowels), handling the the same is divided into 30 roughly equal units ( of his father-in- performance (or each moment in each performance, for time- ahkam al-tajwid passage has been selected for recitation, the range of its possible Hafs ‘an Donzel and W.P.6 Heinrichs (eds), 77 University of 7 Alberta, <www.brillonline.nl.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/subscriber/qira’a entry?entry=islam_SIM-4383>www.ashgate.com wPronouncedw (accessedw.ashg ‘ 12/12/06).ate.com www.ashgate.com www .ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com w tarqiq R. Paret (2006), ‘Kira’a’, in P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van ww.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com mushaf may be distinguished. Over time, with the accumulation (inherent ahruf ). Other : ; augmented with diacritical mus-haf qira’at ) and disputes arose tilawa Umma ) and its rules of recitation ( ’ (‘sh’ is not a digraph). qira’a qira’at ? Fixity is an important ayas (Muslim . The sura Encyclopaedia of Islam and variable ajza’ (verses) and © Copyrighted Material excepted).