Moroccan Ritual Interactions

# Moroccan Ritual Interactions

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts

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# Outline

* The gnawa ritual
* Gaining popularity
* "Mainstream" Islam
* Sufi diversity
* Religious interactivity

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# Morocco

* Part of North Africa, Africa, Mediterranean, Middle East… Tricky to place

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### Abd al-Rzaq

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### Map of trade routes and Moroccan expansion by 1600AD

.image-50.image-float-right[![Trade routes](/assets/morocco-trade.png)]

* Vast region of Moroccan authority (red line)

* From the Atlantic to Senegal and the Songhay Empire

* Southern military campaigns (blue arrows)

* From Marrakech to Senegal and Timbuktu, 1584 and 1591

Map from D. Yahya, Morocco in the Sixteenth Century: Problems and Patterns in African Foreign Policy. Longman: 1981: xvi

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# Roles and Instruments

* Mʿalem
	* Plays the hajhuj (ginbri)
	* Leads the musicians
* Muqaddima (Muqaddim)
	* Runs the ritual
	* Cares for paraphernalia (incense, cloth, food)
* Drari
	* Members of the ensemble
	* Sing and play quraqib and tbal

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### Mʿalem Gaga and others demonstrating the *quraqib* and the *tbal*

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### Mʿalem Abd al-Rahim Abd Al-Rzaq demonstrating the *hajhuj*

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# Layla Ritual

* *Dakhla* (Entrance)
	* Enter from outside, public
	* Use quraqib, singing, tbal
* *Fraja* (Entertainment)
	* Acrobatic show of dance, indoors
	* Use hajhuj, singing, quraqib
* *Mluk* (Owners)
	* Mluk and maskun
	* Divided into sets of spirits

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### The fassi path through the layla ceremony

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### Mʿalem Mustapha Baqbu, trance segment from the Shurfa

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### Trance clip from *La Nuit de la Possession* (Sidi Mimun, candle)

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# How's this feel familiar?

Is this a good thing?

### And when popular music is used in religious services

Is this a good thing?
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# Interactions

* Examples from popular music

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### Nass El Ghiwane: "Mahmouma"

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### Malem Hamid al-Qasri: "Moulay Ahmed/Lalla Aicha"

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### Bonobo (ft. Innov Gnawa): "Bambro Koyo Ganda" (2017)

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### Sonia Noor (ft. Asmaa Hamzaoui): "River/La Ilaha Ila Lah" (2018)

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# Interactions

.image-40.image-float-right[![Hamadsha Layla](/assets/hamadsha-layla.jpg)]

* Examples from popular music
* Frequent borrowing from other rituals
	* An example from the gnawa and hamadsha

.center[<audio controls="controls">
	<source src="/assets/lalla-aisha-trance.wav" type="audio/wav">
</audio>]

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# Interactions

* Examples from popular music
* Frequent borrowing from other rituals
	* An example from the gnawa and hamadsha
* Sidi Ali's importance for these changes
	* Gathering of different traditions
* Ascent of the audience
	* Importance of appealing to wide tastes
	* Recognition of wide listeners
	* Leads to shifting ideas of authenticity...

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# How's this relate to what we know about Islam?

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# Pillars of Islam

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* Shahadah
	* “There is no god but God”: La illaha illa Allah
* Salah: Daily prayers
* Zakah: Almsgiving
* Sawm: Fasting during Ramadan
* al-Hajj: The pilgrimage to Mecca

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# Sufism

* Variety of traditions, practices
	* This is a huge area of land
	* Syncretic fusions of local and Islamic (global)
* “Mysticism” or “mystical” variants
	* Often focusing on personal connection with Allah (God)
	* May feature musical practices: chants, breathing
	* Prominent texts, like the Quran's 99 names of Allah
* Local religious and musical manifestations

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# Sufi Diversity

* Public variations on esoteric traditions
	* One of the problems with “popular Sufism” as an umbrella term
* Contemporary shifts
	* Commercial distribution
	* Re-contextualization (weddings, etc.)
	* Changing ritual content, shifting aesthetics
	* Putting individual traditions in context

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# Key Terms

* Tariqa: path
* Zawiya: sanctuary or lodge
* Dhikr: remembrance
* Hal: condition
* Fnaʾ: extinction
* Samaʿa: listening

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### Tariqa Harraquia: Sufi Nights at the Fez Festival (from a 2014 film)

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# Hamadsha

* Traditions and history
	* Founded by Sidi Ali bin Hamdush
	* Secondary branch from Ahmed Dghughi
* Practices
	* Layla: all night ceremony includes poetry, trance
	* More attention in recent years
	* Close relationship to Aisha
* Music
	* Guwal, tarija, rhythmic variations of 5
	* Gimbri: accompaniment string instrument

.center[
<audio controls="controls">
	<source src="/assets/hamadsha-descent-clip.mp3" type="audio/mp3">
</audio>

(Photos follow)
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# "High Art"

* Al-Ala, or Andalusian music
	* Regarded differently than “popular” sufism
	* Part of long history of poetry, devotion
* “Natures” and “turns”
	* Taba: melodic system (mode)
	* Mizan: rhythm, set of individual pieces/poems
	* Nuba: “turn,” collection of pieces within one taba
* Instruments
	* Strings (chordophones): Rabab, violins/violas, ud
	* Percussion: tar and darbouka

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### Bajeddoub: Quddam al-Isbihan

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# Shʿabi Music

* Popular music styles
	* Common at weddings, festivals, etc.
	* Rhythmically exciting patterns (like the flali rhythm)
* Borrowing from sacred styles
	* New opportunities for performers
	* New sounds for audiences
	* How do you negotiate “appropriateness”?
* Instruments
	* Strings (chordophones): violins/violas
	* Percussion: riqq and bendir
	* Other borrowed things!

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### Five Stars: “Nsiba” (Shaʿbi example)

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### ʿIssawa Pop!: "Allah Msalli Alik Ya Rassul Allah"

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### Muhammed Sousi performing malhun during the Fez Festival of Sacred Music (2011)

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### Muhammed Sousi: "Zaynab"

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# Moroccan Ritual Interactions

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts