Arabic and Indian Music

Good evening, 

I wanted to start my blog off with saying congrats to everyone, we are almost done with the first semester of freshman year. SO much stress, time, and effort put into this school year while a pandemic is going on. Keep y’alls head’s up and remember that we are almost halfway through. 

On to my blog, and some background on what I will be discussing…

In class when we went over all the basics of Arabic and Islamic music and its culture, I started thinking about what I wanted to talk about. Normally I start with where the culture originated, where it came from, and how it formed, but I wanted to dig deeper in other parts of the Arabic/ Islamic culture. I searched for a little bit and came across an article about “Culture, Traditions, and Art” within Saudi Arabia, and was very interested in finding out about their folk music, dance and poetry.

Saudi Arabia’s cultural inheritage is celebrated at the Jenadriyah National Culture and Heritage Festival. The Jenadriyah National Culture and Heritage Festival is named after the village, Riyadh, where it is held. It showcases horse and camel-racing, poetry, sword dances, as well as carpet-weaving, pottery and regional costumes (obviously traditional cuisine as well). One of Saudi Arabia’s most compelling folk and traditional folk rituals is the “Al Ardha,” the country’s national dance. It is a sword dance, where drummers beat out a rhythm and the poet chants. The dance and song incorporate the sound of the “mizmar,” an oboe like woodwind instrument.  The drums play a really important part to the dance because it is traditional to the tribal customs. Below is a video of the “mizmar” and of the Jenadriyah Culture and Heritage Festival. Let me know what you think :)) 

As I researched further into the Arabic and Islamic Culture, I came across poetry, which is usually sung instead of recited. It is an important part to Arab cultural life and was considered one of their highest expressions of literary art. It was primarily a tradition found from the Bedouins during the nomadic time, it is a form of preservation of history in the form of traditional and social values. I was searching for other sources that would give me more information on why poetry is such a big deal within Arabic culture, and came across a tour guide on poetry. What I read was that in today’s Saudi Arabia, musicians use ancient Arabic poetry to influence others around them, and to influence their history and traditions. At first, the poetry was written down, but the Arabs found that singing their poems would allow people to look at it differently and be an easier way to gain an audience. Below is a video of an ancient poem being sung. 

The last thing that I want to touch on are the traditional clothes worn in Arabic and Islamic culture. There are a lot of casual clothes, but here are some that I wanted to talk about; the abaya, brisim, bushiya, and hareer. The abaya is a common Islamic dress that originated in the Arabian Peninsula, it is a black long-sleeved robe-like dress that comes down to the floor and can be decorated with beads and thread or it can be left plain. The brisim is the color silk thread used in embroidery of almost all common traditional wear, it can be neutral colors or bright colors to make the clothes more appealing or bright. The bushiya is a semi-transparent veil that covers the face and is typically worn by women so that they can be dressed “modestly.” It is almost like the Hijab but has transparency to it. The last thing that I want to talk about is the hareer, almost like the brisim, it is used in embroidery but is a red silk, the red symbolizes the life force within the Islamic community. Although these are only some of the traditional clothing items, I found them very interesting and I hope that you do too. Below are pictures of the clothing I talked about, I did not find the hareer.

Articles Used:

https://sacm.org.au/culture-traditions-and-art/

https://riyadh-tours.com/arabic-poetry/#:~:text=Poetry%20is%20the%20greatest%20expression,Arabia%20and%20other%20gulf%20states.  

https://amwrri.org/cultural-clothing/#:~:text=Abaya%20%E2%80%93%20A%20common%20Islamic%20dress,with%20embroidery%2C%20beads%2C%20etc.