Music In Mourning Ceremonies Among The Ismaili Muslims in Tajik Badakhshan

The paper discusses musical performances used at mourning ceremonies by the Ismaili Muslims in the mountainous Gorno–Badakhshan province of Tajikistan (hereafter GBAO). The Shī’a Ismailis make up most of the population in this province, compared to a majority Sunni Muslim population in the rest of Tajikistan. These Ismailis have lived in this remote mountainous province for centuries and therefore have evolved their own unique culture that is different from the rest of Tajikistan. The objective of the article is to contextualize the mediatory role of unique forms of local musical performances and their integration in the mourning ceremonies in GBAO. The data for the research presented here was obtained partly through a field study, involving tours of certain major areas in Wakhan and other regions of the GBAO to carry out qualitative research interviews, either in private with individuals, or at social or religious events. The interviews were not in a standardized format with one set of questions but were open-ended interviews where the interviewees could recount their knowledge on the subject of death, their own experiences of attending funerals, and provide personal anecdotes. Among the interviewees were local religious leaders (khalīfas), musical performers, lamenters and elders of the community who render important services at mourning ceremonies, and members of the community who had personal experiences of family bereavements to narrate. The data garnered from these extensive interviews, and other published sources were used to compile and contextualize the musical performances at mourning ceremonies in this region of Tajikistan.

Music In Mourning Ceremonies Among The Ismaili Muslims in Tajik Badakhshan

The paper discusses musical performances used at mourning ceremonies by the Ismaili Muslims in the mountainous Gorno–Badakhshan province of Tajikistan (hereafter GBAO). The Shī’a Ismailis make up most of the population in this province, compared to a majority Sunni Muslim population in the rest of Tajikistan. These Ismailis have lived in this remote mountainous province for centuries and therefore have evolved their own unique culture that is different from the rest of Tajikistan. The objective of the article is to contextualize the mediatory role of unique forms of local musical performances and their integration in the mourning ceremonies in GBAO. The data for the research presented here was obtained partly through a field study, involving tours of certain major areas in Wakhan and other regions of the GBAO to carry out qualitative research interviews, either in private with individuals, or at social or religious events. The interviews were not in a standardized format with one set of questions but were open-ended interviews where the interviewees could recount their knowledge on the subject of death, their own experiences of attending funerals, and provide personal anecdotes. Among the interviewees were local religious leaders (khalīfas), musical performers, lamenters and elders of the community who render important services at mourning ceremonies, and members of the community who had personal experiences of family bereavements to narrate. The data garnered from these extensive interviews, and other published sources were used to compile and contextualize the musical performances at mourning ceremonies in this region of Tajikistan.

___

  • Abdeljelil, J. B. 2009. “Ways of the Intellect: Forms of Discourse and Rationalisation Processes in the Arabic-Islamic Context.” In Worldviews and Cultures: Philosophical Reflections from an Intercultural Perspective, eds. Nicole Note, R. Fornet-Betancourt, Estermann J., Aerts D., 11-29. Netherlands: Springer.
  • Alexander, J. C. 2011. Performance and Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Andreev, M.S. 1953. Tadjiki dolini Khuf. Vip. 1 [Tajiks of the Khuf Valley, Vol.1]. Stalinabad: Izdatelstvo Akademii nauk Tadjikskoy SSR.
  • Bar-Yosef Mayer D. E., Vandermeersch, B. and Bar-Yosef, O. 2009. “Shells and ochre in Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh Cave, Israel: indications for modern behaviour.” Journal of Human Evolution, 56 (3): 307-314. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.10.005
  • Beben, D. 2018. “The Ismaili in of Central Asia,” in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, ed. David Ludden. New York: Oxford University Press. Published online at: http://asianhistory.oxfordre.com. Retrieved 30 Apr. 2019. From: http://oxfordre.com/asianhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-316.
  • Becka, J. 2011. “Tajik Literature from the 16th Century to the Present,” in History of Iranian Literature, eds. Jan Rypka and Karl Jahn, 483-605. Dordrecht – Holland: Springer Netherlands.
  • Bertels, A.E. 1959. Nasir-i Khosrov i Ismailism [Nasir Khisraw and Ismailism]. Moscow: Izdatelstvo vostochnoi literature.
  • Boyce, Mary, 1996. “The Zoroastrian Funeral Rites,” in A History of Zoroastrianism: Early Period, 325-330, Brill.
  • Calmard, Jean, 2004. “ḤOSAYN B. ʿALI ii. IN POPULAR SHIʿISM,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, available at https://iranicaonline.org/articles/hosayn-b-ali-ii (accessed on March 28, 2022).
  • Crubézy, E., Ricaut, F., Martin, H., Erdenebaatar, S., Coqueugnot, H., Maureille, B., & Giscard, P. 2006. “Inhumation and cremation in medieval Mongolia: Analysis and analogy” Antiquity, 80 (310), 894-905. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00094497.
  • Daftary, Farhad, 1990. The Ismāʻı̄lı̄s : their history and doctrines, Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press,
  • Dawe, K. 2003. “The Cultural Study of Musical Instruments.” Chapter 17 in The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction, eds. Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton, 274-283. New York: Routledge.
  • Elnazarov, H. 2015. “Chiragh-i Rawshan.” Encyclopaedia Islamica, eds. Wilferd Madelung and Farhad Daftary. Brill Online. Accessed online on September 17, 2015. http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-islamica/chiragh-i-rawshan-COM_05000087.
  • Goibnazarov, Ch. 2016. “Qasoid-khonī in the Wakhan Valley of Badakhshan.” Chapter 29 in Music of Central Asia: An Introduction, eds. Theodore Levin, Elmira Kuchumkulova, and Saida Daukayeva, 485-503. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Hasanzoda, G.K., Sh., Shokirzoda and A.P., Asoev. 2015. Shumora-yi aholi-yi Jumhuri-yi Tojikiston to 1 Janvar-i sol-i 2015 [Counting of Population of the Republic of Tajikistan until 1st January, 2015], Agenti-yi Omor-i Nazd-i Prezident-i Jumhuri-yi Tojikiston, [Statistic Agency under the President of Republic of Tajikistan]. Dushanbe.
  • Iloliev, A. 2008a. The Ismaili –Sufi Sage of Pamir, Amherst, NY : Cambria Press.
  • Iloliev, A. 2008b. “Popular culture and religious metaphor: saints and shrines in Wakhan region of Tajikistan.” Central Asian Survey, 27 (1): 59-73. DOI:10.1080/02634930802213924
  • "Islam: Islam in Central Asia." Encyclopedia of Religion. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved on 25/04/2019. At: https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/islam-islam-central-asia
  • Ismaili Muslims. 2011. Ismaili Muslims in the remote Pamir Mountains. Retrieved on 19/04/2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20110303042803/http://www.30-days.net/muslims/muslims-in/asia-south-central/badakshan-ismaili/
  • Kalandarov, T.S. and A.A. Shoinbekov. 2008. “Some Historical aspects of Funeral Rites among People of Western Pamir,” Anthropology of Middle East, 3 (1): 67-81. doi: 10.3167/ame.2008.03.01.07.
  • Kalandarov,T.S. 2004. Shugnanci: Istoriko-etnograficheskoe issledovanie [Shugnanies: Historical and Ethnographic Research]. Moscow: Stariy Sad.
  • Karmali, A. 2011. “Transmission: A portrait of an Ismaili Muslim family in Tajik Badakhshan” The Introduction to a documentary film by Aleem Karmali, presented at a Conference hosted by the Centre for Ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta on April 30, 2011 entitled “Sounds and Spaces of Muslim Piety: Tradition and Transformation.” A PDF file downloaded from this link below on 23/04/2019. https://iis.academia.edu/AleemKarmali
  • Mamadsherzodshoev, U. 2009. Manobei sunnati Charoghrawshan [The Basis of Lighting the Lamp Tradition]. Dushanbe: Merosi.
  • Mark, J., J. "Burial." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Last modified September 02, 2009. https://www.ancient.eu/burial/. Mastibekov, O. 2014. Leadership and Authority in Central Asia: The Ismaili Community in Tajikistan. London: Routledge.
  • Niyozov, S. 2002. Evolution of the Shi‘a Ismaili Tradition in Central Asia. The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Retrieved on 19/04/2019. https://iis.ac.uk/evolution-shi-ismaili-tradition-central-asia
  • Nurjanov, N., and F. Karomatov. [1978], 2010. Muzikal’noye Iskusstvo Pamira [Musical Arts of the Pamirs]. Moscow: Sovetskiy Kompozitor.
  • Poy-i Amal [Dance of Death], DVD. Directed by Aga Khan Humanities Project for Central Asia. Dushanbe: Kinoservice, 2004.
  • Pritchett, F. W. 1994. Nets of Awareness: Urdu Poetry and Its Critics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Rasmussen, A. 2010. Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia. Oakland: University of California Press.
  • Rendu, W., Beauval, C., Crevecoeur, I., Bayle, P., Balzeau, A., Bismuth, T., Bourguignon, L., Delfour, G., Faivre, J-P., Lacrampe-Cuyaubère, F., Tavormina, C., Todisco, D., Turq, A. and Maureille, B. 2013. “Evidence supporting an intentional Neanderthal burial at La Chapelle-aux-Saints.” PNAS 111 (1) 81-86. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316780110 PDF file downloaded on 30/04/2019 at: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/111/1/81.full.pdf
  • Rotar, I. 2003. “China: Xinjiang's Ismailis cut off from the international Ismaili community.” Forum 18 News Service. Retrieved a PDF file online on 19/04/2019. http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=141&pdf=Y
  • Saidula, A. 201). “The Nizari Ismailis of China in Modern Times.” In A Modern History of the Ismailis: Continuity and Change in a Muslim Community. Ed., Daftary, F., 77-94. US: I. B. Tauris/Bloomsbury Publishers, Bloomsbury.
  • Sells, M. A. 1989. Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes by ‘Alqama, Shánfara, Labíd, ‘Antara, Al-A‘sha, and Dhu Al-Rúmma. Translated and Introduced by Michael A Sells. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, US. PDF file downloaded from this Brown university website on 24/04/2019 at: https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/arabiaandarabs/files/1062810.pdf
  • Shahzade-Mohammad, Omed. 2006. “Sunnat-i ‘charogh-rawshan-kuni”-yi Ismoiliyon-i Osiyo-yi Markazi [The Custom of Lighting the Lamp of the Ismailis of Central Eurasia], Rudaki, 7 (10): 43-52.
  • Shakarmamadov, N. 2002. “Falak- az surudhoy-i mardumi” [Falak is people’s song], Payam-i Donishgoh-i Khorugh 2 (4): 75-85.
  • Shohkhumorov, Abusaid. 2005. “Svyashenaya Lampada.” [The Sacred Lamp], in Nāsir-i Khusraw: dīrūz, imrūz, fardā, [Nasir-i Khusraw: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow] edited by. S. Niyozov and R. Nazariev, 656-670. Khujand: Noshir.
  • Shohkhumorov, Abusaid. 2003. “Charoghrawshan – sunnat-i oriyoyī va Ismoilī-i mardum-i Badakhshān.” [Luminous lamp is the tradition of the Ariyans and the Ismaili people of Badakhshan] Mas’alahā-yi Pāmīrshināsī, 5 (1): 141-162. Dushanbe: Donish.
  • Sontag, Susan. 1972. On Photography. New York and London: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
  • Spinetti, Federico. 2005. “Open Borders, Tradition and Tajik Popular Music: Questions of Aesthetics, Identity and Political Economy.” Ethnomusicology Forum 14, (2) 185-211. DOI: 10.1080/17411910500329971
  • Sultanova, R. 2001. From Shamanism to Sufism: Women, Islam and Culture in Central Asia. London/New York: I.B. Tauris.
  • Tajddin, S. A, and Mumtaz, A. (In press). Chiragh-I-Rawshan - An Ismaili Tradition in Central Asia. Encyclopedia Topic life after death Salvation. Full pre-publication text is available at: http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/10261
  • Van den Berg, Gabrielle Rachel. 2004. Minstrel Poetry from the Pamir Mountains. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
  • Zimmermann, B. (2008). A Society in Transition: Ismailis in the Tajik Pamirs. Diploma thesis, University of Bern, Switzerland. PDF file downloaded 30/04/2019 at: http://www.ndr.ch/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Society_in_Transition_2008.pdf