Sufi music

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Sufi music is the generic term for regionally different styles of Islamic music , which is part of the ritualistic beliefs of followers of Sufism .

In many orders ( Tarīqa ) of the dervishes the practice of music is common, which often only consists of chants, but in other tariqas it is also accompanied by instruments. The music is part of the Dhikr (remembrance of God), because in the songs either the names of God are recited or the love of God or the Prophet Mohammed is sung about .

Turkish nay

In some cases, the lyrical works of well-known Sufi poets (for example Rumi or Yunus Emre ) were later used as song texts.

Musical instruments

In the different traditions there are also different ways of accompanying Sufi music - if at all - instrumentally. Often the instruments used are frame drums ( Bendir or Daf ) and the reed flute Nay , but also the stringed instruments Tanbur , Ghichak and Rabāb . The sound of the nay is usually described as plaintive or wistful, which is why it is generally considered the instrument of the Sufis. Just as the pipe was cut from its home , the reed, its sound symbolizes the longing of the soul, separated from solitude, of the spiritually seeking person for their original home.

Indian-Pakistani music

The qawwali has found a large audience in Pakistan and northern India . This style of music was mostly known in the west with the poem form of the Ghazals by the Pakistani musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan .

In the Pakistani province of Sindh , admirers of the Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif maintain their own singing tradition, in which they accompany each other with the long-necked tanburo . Some Pakistani dervishes produce a rhythm during ecstatic round dances with the iron tongs Chimta, which are up to a meter long, or use them to accompany religious songs.

further reading

  • Seyyed Hoseyn Nasr: The Influence of Sufism in Traditional Persian Music. In: Studies of Comparative Religions. Volume 6, No. 4, 1972, pp. 225-234.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean During, Zia Mirabdolbaghi, Dariush Safvat: The Art of Persian Music . Mage Publishers, Washington DC 1991, ISBN 0-934211-22-1 , p. 53.