The Islamic world has long had an ambiguous attitude toward music and musical instruments. Though, as will be seen below, there is absolutely no Qur'anic prohibition against music, most severe Islamic theologians nevertheless enforce a...
moreThe Islamic world has long had an ambiguous attitude toward music and musical instruments. Though, as will be seen below, there is absolutely no Qur'anic prohibition against music, most severe Islamic theologians nevertheless enforce a nearly complete prohibition of musical performance. They then allow "exceptions" based on special conditions occasioned by various hadith or traditions of the Prophet. More modern interpreters of Islamic law have extended these views to modern situations such as the use of electronic instruments and activities
involving music as a secondary concomitant, such as the music accompanying films or television programs. More liberal theologians not only allow musical performance, they encourage it in many situations.
Because the religious suitability of music is an ambiguous matter, the performance and consumption of music itself has often been in the forefront of conflict between
traditional religionists and secular modernists who are trying to establish broader parameters for living for citizens in a religious world. Music becomes symbolic of the divide between liberal and conservative, and is thus a true "battleground issue."
In the most stringent periods of time, when conservative religious authorities have been in the ascendancy, music has been prohibited absolutely. For example, in Iran after the Revolution of 1978-79, homes where secular popular music was
being played or performed were raided by members of the Revolutionary Guard. In Afghanistan under the Taliban in the late 1990's similar prohibitions were in effect.
It goes without saying that despite these restrictions on music, elaborate "classical" and popular music traditions have arisen throughout the Islamic world. They have been a part of Islamic traditional civilization for centuries, and are likewise a concurrent fact of life in the Islamic world alongside the religious prohibitions. While, as stated, the most conservative Muslims enforce the general prohibition against music, there is no Islamic society in the world that lacks a musical tradition,
or where musical performance can not be heard. These simultaneous strains of cultural practice are fascinating, since they show the tension between generalized Islamic law and local cultural practice.
Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the Persianate world-particularly the area of the world influenced by Shi'a cultural traditions. This is the world dominated by historically Persian cultural traditions spreading from Baghdad to China and extending in part to present day Iran, Afghanistan, the Tajik areas of Uzbekistan and Tajikististan, and also to the Shi'a areas of Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Of all these traditions Persian classical music and particularly the epic
musical-dramatic form, ta'ziyeh, constitute the greatest challenge to conservative Islamic opinions about the suitability of musical performance in general society.
Persian historical musical practices (along with the musical traditions of Islamic Southeast Asia) constitute the most liberal musical performance conventions in the Muslim world. Nevertheless, to frame the following discussion, it is necessary
to look at commentary on music deriving more generally from the Islamic world. The Persianate world is particularly interesting as a way to frame the conservative/liberal conflict in the Islamic world because of the rich and ancient musical
traditions that exist among Persian speaking peoples. Music is, in fact, such an essential part of greater Persianate civilization, that outright prohibition is nearly unthinkable. Therefore the conflict revolves around the boundary between acceptability and non-acceptability. The question of acceptability becomes
particularly acute when considering ta'ziyeh practice.
