1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910808894103321

Autore

Abbas Shemeem Burney

Titolo

The female voice in Sufi ritual : devotional practices of Pakistan and India / / Shemeem Burney Abbas ; foreword by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, Tex. : , : University of Texas Press, , 2002

©2002

ISBN

0-292-79239-5

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxx, 209 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

297.4/38/0820954

Soggetti

Music - Religious aspects - Sufism

Sufi music - Pakistan

Sufi music - India

Sufism - Rituals

Muslim women - Religious life - Pakistan

Muslim women - Religious life - India

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-204) and index.

Nota di contenuto

""Contents""; ""Author's Note: Translations, Transliterations, and Conversation Analysis Transcript Notation""; ""Foreword""; ""Preface""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Chapter One. History and Economy of Women in Sufi Ritual""; ""Chapter Two. Ethnographies of Communication""; ""Chapter Three. Female Myths in Sufism""; ""Chapter Four. The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual""; ""Chapter Five. Closing the Circle of the Mystic Journey""; ""Glossary""; ""Notes""; ""Author's Note""; ""Preface""; ""Chapter One""; ""Chapter Two""; ""Chapter Three""; ""Chapter Four""; ""Chapter Five""; ""Glossary""; ""Primary Sources""""Index""

Sommario/riassunto

The female voice plays a more central role in Sufi ritual, especially in the singing of devotional poetry, than in almost any other area of Muslim culture. Female singers perform sufiana-kalam, or mystical poetry, at Sufi shrines and in concerts, folk festivals, and domestic life, while male singers assume the female voice when singing the myths of heroines in qawwali and sufiana-kalam. Yet, despite the centrality of the female voice in Sufi practice throughout South Asia and the Middle



East, it has received little scholarly attention and is largely unknown in the West. This book presents the first in-depth study of the female voice in Sufi practice in the subcontinent of Pakistan and India. Shemeem Burney Abbas investigates the rituals at the Sufi shrines and looks at women's participation in them, as well as male performers' use of the female voice. The strengths of the book are her use of interviews with both prominent and grassroots female and male musicians and her transliteration of audio- and videotaped performances. Through them, she draws vital connections between oral culture and the written Sufi poetry that the musicians sing for their audiences. This research clarifies why the female voice is so important in Sufi practice and underscores the many contributions of women to Sufism and its rituals.