Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2016
It is often assumed that as ‘orthodox’ Islam rejects music, Qur’anic recitation (tilawa) and the Call to Prayer (adhan) are its only acceptable melodic practices. By the same logic, the special music of Sufism is bracketed under the labels ‘heterodox,’ or else ‘popular,’ Islam. Both ‘orthodox’ and ‘Sufi’ practices are then categorically distinguished from the ‘secular’ world and its music. This erroneous ‘tripolar’ view of music and religion in Egypt can be ameliorated by considering the rich range of Islamic melodic practices performed there.
For the information in this article, I am thankful for the cooperation of numerous religious singers, poets, and Sufi shaykhs in Egypt, especially Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Alim al-Nakhayli, Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami, Shaykh Muhammad al-Hilbawi, and members of the Hamidiyya Shadhiliyya, Ja‘fariyya, Jazuliyya, and Bayyumiyya orders. I am also grateful to the music historian Mahmud Kamil, and Dr. Ibrahim ‘Abd al-Hafiz and Dr. Muhammad Omran, of the Egyptian Folklore Institute.