Sheer Survival

Sarwat Ali

In Afghanistan, the lines of demarcation between professional and non-professional music are not always clear

Publishing Date: Saturday, December 11 2004

Music in the Mind
Hirome Lorraine Sakata
Smithsonian Institution Press Washington, London
Year of Publication 2002
Price $34.95 Pages 246

Hirome Lorraine Sakata's book on the music in Afghanistan is particularly relevant to societies like Pakistan where the problems facing music are identical.

The fate of music and musicians was much in the news during the days when the Soviet forces left Afghanistan. As the power was exercised by the warlords who had divided the country into areas of control, the hardline and orthodox approach in interpreting Islam had made the practice of music difficult. But the worse was to follow when the succeeded regime, basing its credentials on rigidity and puritanism, totally outlawed the practice of music and the performing arts.

Already having a tough time in the war ravaged country during the Soviet occupation, the musicians started to sneak into Pakistan. When the Taliban took over, whatever little space was available, was squeezed out and a wholesale exodus to Pakistan became a matter of sheer survival.

In the book, the question of music and its pervasive role in society is placed within the broader societal framework. It is about the culture of Afghanistan to discover, understand and explain the relationship between musical concepts and the products of these ideas embodied in the musical sounds themselves within the socio-economic system of the people.

A general notion that music is religiously disapproved prevails. Music is looked upon with certain degree of suspicion and people who make music their profession are relegated to a low status in society. In view of the widespread practice of music this may appear paradoxical but in Afghanistan, as in many Muslim countries, no paradox is found between theory and practice. The differing traditions and practices are reconciled by means of association, consequence and definition. The question of paradox is closely tied to the problems of definition. The western notion of music emphasises the elements of sound while the Islamic sources and the interpretation of these sources speak of specific aspects, functions, consequences or other implications of these musical sounds.

In the regions of the Persian speaking provinces of Herat, Faizabad and Khadir, where the research was conducted the concepts of music and musician are based on the assumption that music is religiously un-praiseworthy because of its association with such activities specifically prohibited by religion such as drinking, intoxicating liquors, adultery and gambling. The music associated with these forbidden acts however is specifically the music of professional musicians. Non-professional music is sometimes considered music, but the lines of demarcation are not always clear.

But what exactly was the condition of music and musicians in Afghanistan in times which were not as bad as the recent history of the country? The music culture of Afghanistan was dominated by the Persian traditional music as well as the Afghan folk music until a century ago the Amir of Kabul Sher Ali Khan invited Indian Muslim musicians to his court in Kabul. He gave them lands in Kabul -- the section of the old Kabul now known as Kharabaat (entertainment quarters), transported them back and forth on elephants. These transplanted Indian musicians gained a prominent status among Afghan musicians and from that time the Indian classical music became established as the elite classical tradition of Afghanistan.

Since the acceptance of music is seen in reference to religion a few lines on Arabian music may provide a relevant context. In Arabia during pre-historic times specific songs such as caravan and elegies existed. In the 7th century a song called 'ghina' was introduced from al Hira. Ghina eventually came to mean a song in particular and music in general.

During the early Abbasid period a rationalist tendency developed among Islamic thinkers which was first influenced by theological ideas of Eastern Christians and later by direct contact with Greek philosophy translated into Arabic. Music became one of the courses of scientific study and the technical nomenclature mausiqi was directly borrowed from the Greeks. Where no Arabic equivalent was found or known Greek terms were simply transliterated with some adaptations, hence mausiqi came to represent the theoretical aspects of music and ghina was reserved for the practical art.

Nicholson had already shown the traditional Islamic divisions of the sciences. The native sciences stem directly from the study of the Quran and Hadith while the foreign sciences are those the Arabs learnt from the foreigners -- mausiqi is a division of the foreign sciences. The Native Sciences included Quranic exegesis (Ilmul Tafsir), Quranic criticism (Ilmul Qiraat) Science of Apostolic Tradition, (Ilmul Hadith), Jurisprudence (Fiqh), Scholastic theology (Ilmul Kalam), Grammar (Nahv), Lexicography (Lugha) Rhetoric (Bayan), Literature (Adab) and Foreign Sciences included Philosophy (Falsafa) Geometry (Handasa) Astronomy (Ilmul Najum), Music (Musiqi), Medicine (Tibb), Magic and Alchemy (Al sihr wal l kimiya). After 847, the rationalist view was rejected by the traditionalists -- the populace regarded the philosophy and natural sciences as species of infidelity.

In present day Afghanistan, the formal basis of the term musiqi is similar to the western concept of music. It's distinguishing characteristic in most situations is a common notion of musicality, organization of sound in time. At times, however, in the case of the call to prayer and the proper chanting of the Quran, the notion of musicality does not suffice but another distinguishing feature that of function is used.

The colloquial definition of music is more in keeping with the traditional Islamic view which emphasises the theoretical aspects of music associated with professional musicians and instrumental music. Even in contemporary usage, the traditional distinction between the native sciences and foreign sciences plays a great part in determining the incompatibility of sacred and secular music, of vocal and instrumental performances. The emphasis of scared chants and strict, vocal performances is placed on the texts, which is related directly to the Quran or literature -- the secular or instrumental music most often at the disposal of professional musician is considered mausiqi.

The research by Hirome Lorraine Sakata who is a professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, was conducted in 1966-67 and 1971-73. In the preface to the revised edition of the book she says, "proper recitation forms the basis of musical aesthetics in Islamic cultures, yet these musical sounds are identified separately either as religious chants, recitations or secular music. Herein lies the ambiguous nature of music. The Taliban reduced the sharp theoretical distinction between religious chant and secular music into simple difference of good and evil."