Spiritual Chanting: Spiritual Music Festival Celebrates Um Kalthum, Fairuz and Ahmad Shawqi
By Ruba Hattar
October
21st, 2020\
Calling it
as an exceptional one, the forthcoming International Spiritual Music Chanting
Festival Samaa’ kicks off from October 22nd and continues until 29th of October
at Salah Eldin Citadel in Cairo, announced the festival director Intisar Abdel
Fattah. Samaa’ 13th version is set to
witness the participation of 20 Egyptian musical groups in addition to many
foreign groups. The groups come from Russia, Armenia, Sudan, Palestine, Egypt
and Syria; mostly from the expat communities affiliated with the diplomatic
missions of these countries in Egypt due to travel restrictions imposed due to
COVID-19. Lebanon is chosen as the guest of honor and Um Kalthoum is the icon
of the event.
Shutterstock
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Adapting a
call of peace to the whole world is the main theme of the festival; moreover,
it honours spiritual music icons such as Fairuz and renowned poet Ahmed Shawqi.
The events
of the festival take place at different venues such as Sultan Al Ghuri complex,
Coptic Museum, and the Complex of Religions.
In the same
context, a massive exhibition of cultural and folk productions is organized to
support folk and cultural heritage.
The
festival is organized under the supervision of the Egyptian Ministry of
Culture, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiques, and Hewar Foundation
for Peoples Arts and Cultures.
Portrait
of Ahmed Shawqi.
Born
October 17, 1870
Cairo,
Khedivate of Egypt
Died\
October 14, 1932 (aged 63)
Cairo,
Kingdom of Egypt
----
Since its
inception, the festival has targeted reviving the forgotten traditions of
Spiritual music and chanting especially Muslim and Christian spiritual
heritage, sending out a call for peace, hope, and accepting all people.
Hosting
Lebanon as a guest of honor this year
comes in view of the great development that spiritual music of different
religions is experiencing in the country; as spiritual music in Lebanon has
long developed to present renewed bands that roamed many countries of the world
on applying modern rhythms that express the spirit of youth in Arabic and foreign
languages, which is considered exceptional.
These bands
offer great musical diversity, using fast rhythms that resemble modern songs to
communicate with youth of all orientations in the eastern and western worlds.
Furthermore, "their new religious songs and chants help portray a
transparent and true picture of the Islamic religion, far from the image of
extremism and terrorism that has been attached to it in the past few
years," the festival organizers added.
According
to Egyptian religious scholars, the real emergence of the Dhikr rings and Sufi
chanting councils was after the era of Sultan Saladin, to whom the resurrection
of the first Khanqah (Zawiya) is
attributed. It was known as the Sufi circle in Cairo, and it was visited by
Sufis who came to Egypt and conducted endowments on it in 569 AH / 1173 AD. At
the same time, the issue of angles, Sufi orders, and bonds that harbour
asceticism and worshipers, has spread in various countries of the Arab Islamic
world, especially in the Levant, Iraq and North Africa.
"Fairuz
is honoured in the festival for her great record of singing numerous religious
chants and hymns," Festival organizers stressed.
----
Religious
chanting "Enshad" in Islam has been closely associated with the
Sufis, given that they developed it in terms of quantity or innovation in
texts, melodies, performance, dances and musical instruments. Sufi orders, by
means of collective and continuous chanting, contributed to the formation and
reshaping of the common Sunni memory and the Islamic imagination collective.
Spiritual
chanting is a journey of a spiritual art, and it has gone through many stages
of development until it has become a strong competitor to other art forms. Sufi
chanting emerged from its mantle of chanting templates created by young people
to keep pace with the era of modern technology, like in the case of the
Egyptian “Al-Hadara” band.
----
Ruba holds a MSc. in public relations and a
B.A. in English Literature and Italian Language and has a long experience in
communications, international and cultural affairs.
Original Headline: Egypt’s Samaa’ Spiritual
Music Festival Celebrates Um Kalthum, Fairuz and Ahmad Shawqi
Source: The Albwaba
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/spiritual-chanting-spiritual-music-festival/d/123227
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