Poetry is the very heart of Arab classical music. Heroic odes, oral histories and war and tribal narratives were at the crux of the pre-Islamic culture of the nomadic Arab peoples. During this period, Bedouin tribes even held major poetry competitions during annual fairs; the winning poems were embroidered in gold and suspended on massive banners for all to see; the best were collected in the 8th century in a compendium called al-Mu'allaqat, or "the hung poems."
Early Islam rejected music as being conducive to immorality. Indeed many ultraconservative Muslims today continue to look down on music, and even ritual cantillation of Koranic verses and the muezzin's call to prayer are not considered "music." Even so, language and poetry are at the very heart of Arab culture; the Koran, too, is full of rich rhythms and rhyme, and its language is dazzling. So it is not surprising, then, that Arab music has flourished over the centuries, with a particularly deep relationship to its lyrical content.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, Arab classical music flourished in the caliphate of Baghdad, far from the dicta of more "pure" Islamic jurisprudence. Here, such musicians and theorists as Ishaq al-Mawsili (767-850) blossomed; one of the great Islamic philosophers and scholars, Abu Nasr al Farabi (b. 872), who wrote a great treatise on music, taught in Baghdad, as well as in Cairo and Damascus. Al Farabi's work, Kitab al-musiqa al-kabir ("Great Book of Music"), delineates rigorously prescribed elements that are still relevant: maqamat, or tonal systems; iqa, the theory of rhythm; alhan, which are the different types of melodies; al-alat al-mashhura, instruments; and how the instruments should be tuned (taswiya).
In the 20th century, Arab classical music flourished, thanks in part to the recording industry and a concerted attempt by enthusiasts to sustain the tradition. However, the style did not stagnate during these decades; indeed, composers and performers alike eventually embraced Western instruments like the cello, double bass, oboes and electric guitar.
From the 1920s and 1930s through the 1970s, Cairo was an epicenter for Arab classical music activity: composers and artists like Mohammed Abd el-Wahaab, Umm Kulthum, Farid el-Atrache, Asmahan (Amal el-Atrache) and Abd el-Halim Hafez flocked to Cairo not just to perform on its stages, but to make recordings and films that were broadcast throughout the Arab world, radiating their passion for Arab classical music to millions of listeners near and far. —Anastasia Tsioulcas
