Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- Glossary of Khowar words used in text
- Map 1 Pakistan and neighbouring countries; shaded area corresponds to Chitral district
- Map 2 Chitral district
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Rowshan: Chitral village life
- 3 Emotions upside down: affection and Islam in present day Rowshan
- 4 The play of the mind: debating village Muslims
- 5 Mahfils and musicians: new Muslims in Markaz
- 6 Scholars and scoundrels: Rowshan's amulet-making ulama
- 7 To eat or not to eat? Ismaiʾlis and Sunnis in Rowshan
- 8 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Mahfils and musicians: new Muslims in Markaz
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- Glossary of Khowar words used in text
- Map 1 Pakistan and neighbouring countries; shaded area corresponds to Chitral district
- Map 2 Chitral district
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Rowshan: Chitral village life
- 3 Emotions upside down: affection and Islam in present day Rowshan
- 4 The play of the mind: debating village Muslims
- 5 Mahfils and musicians: new Muslims in Markaz
- 6 Scholars and scoundrels: Rowshan's amulet-making ulama
- 7 To eat or not to eat? Ismaiʾlis and Sunnis in Rowshan
- 8 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
My most respected and able listeners: love's name is the blossom of the rose garden of the heart. With love's perfume life's hope is bright; the garden of hope is green and related thoughts are allowed to fly high and freely. Love is such a blessed thing that there is no alternative.
Introduction to a commercially produced tape of one of the musical programmes discussed in this chapterINTRODUCTION
The audiocassette has a bad name in present day Pakistan. Religious organisations, movements and political parties in Pakistan have used audiocassettes to spread hatred and violence amongst Pakistan's Muslims. Recordings of addresses by the leaders of Sunni and Shiʾa religious paramilitary organisations call on people to identify those belonging to other than their own communities as kafirs (infidels). They are told that it is their duty as Muslims to wound their opponents so that they ‘bleed for centuries’. It will come as a surprise, then, that the most popular audio cassettes in Chitral talk of the ‘garden of the heart’ (ishqo gurzen) and the ‘high thoughts induced by love’ (ishqo zhang khial).
This chapter seeks to document and theorise the power of music and music-making in Chitral. By focusing on musical gatherings known as mahfils and the commercial music recordings of these gatherings, I explore the complex attitude towards the ‘Islamic’ displayed by Chitrali performers and their audiences.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Living IslamMuslim Religious Experience in Pakistan's North-West Frontier, pp. 122 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005