List
of papers for
THE MUWASHSHAH CONFERENCE 2026
To
be held at the
Higher Institute
of Music, University of Sousse,
RJCP+23Q, Rue
Abou Kacem Echabi, Sousse, Tunisia
Wednesday 25 to Thursday 26 March 2026
CONFERENCE
PROGRAMME
Online
link for the conference:
https://meet.lisa.tn/muwashshah
[Note: Free download of the Jitsi
app is required for access.]
[The programme may be subject to changes.
Please check here for updates.]
______________________________
Wednesday
25 March 2026
Morning
- 10.00 to 13.00
10.00 – WELCOME
10.30 – Tunisian malûf in the context of digital humanities
Anas Ghrab [Higher Institute of Music, University of Sousse] [Click for abstract]
11.00 – The muwashshah and the zajal
in Arabic music: literary and musical structures
Imed Messaoud [Higher Institute of Music, University of Sousse] [Click for abstract]
Coffee Break
11.45 – Musical structure in the muwashshahat of Tunisian ma'luf
قراءة في
البنية
الموسيقية
لموشحات
المالوف
التونسي
Ali Sayari [Independent
researcher] [in Arabic] [Click
for abstract]
12.15 – The muwashshah in the Eastern
Mediterranean from the seventeenth century: Interactions of
stanza, metrical and modal structures, compositional genres.
Dorit M. Klebe [Independent researcher] [Click for abstract]
Lunch – 12.45 – 14.30
Afternoon
– 14.30 to 18.00
14.30 – The muwashshaḥ as Arabic
theory of form
Amal al-Jubouri
[SOAS, University
of London] [Click for abstract]
15.00 – Voices of two shores: the influence of Arabic music on Sicilian folk singing and
flamenco singing
Maria Morena Farina [Conservatory of Maastricht] [Click for abstract]
Coffee Break
16.45 – Muwashshahaat: Not past,
but present
Mez van Slageren [King’s College London] [Click for abstract]
17.15 – Was the author of the Razos de trobar
Jewish?
Ed
Emery [SOAS / The Free University] [Click for abstract]
Thursday
26 March 2026
Morning
- 10.30 to 13.30
10.30 – The
Catalan goigs. An approach to the historical
context and musical form
Bàrbara Duran Bordoy [Universitat de les Illes Balears] [Click for abstract]
11.00 – Reinvigorating the art of muwashahah
in contemporary practice
Ahmad Ali, Albert Agha and Imed Nsiri
[American University of Sharjah]
[Click for abstract]
Coffee Break
11.45 – Beyond transmission: the muwashshah and Early European polyphony considered
in terms of poetic morphology and musical structure
Lorenzo
d’Erasmo [Independent researcher] and Francesco Magaro’ [Conservatorio “L. Perosi” – Campobasso] [Click
for abstract]
12.15 – Sounding the Andalusian ecumene: Transcultural continuities in early Mediterranean music and
performancE
Ronnie
Malley [University
of Chicago] [Click
for abstract]
Brief break
13.00 – The
subversive power of the zajal in the Moroccan
cultural polysystem. Five poems by Nas
El Ghiwane as a case study
Abdelkebir Elalouani
[Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco]
[Click for abstract]
13.30 – The beginnings of the Hebrew muwashshaḥ and the
embrace by the kharja
Micah Newberger [Harvard][Click for abstract]
Ends
______________
CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS
______________
1. The muwashshah as Arabic theory of
form
Amal al-Jubouri
[SOAS, University
of London]
Abstract: This paper reconsiders the
origins of the muwashshah by challenging
dominant literary histories that situate its emergence exclusively within the
cultural milieu of al-Andalus or frame it as a hybrid
form produced through belated intercultural contact. Such narratives, whether
celebratory or comparative, displace theoretical innovation from Arabic
intellectual centers and subtly recast Andalusian
production as legible only in relation to Europe.
Against this historiographical tendency, the study
argues that the muwashshah should be
understood as the culmination of a theory of form articulated within Abbasid
intellectual and musical culture—developed in Baghdad and only later embodied in Córdoba.
Drawing on Abbasid lyrical
fragments, courtly anecdotes, and the literature of akhbār
al-qiyān, the paper demonstrates that
non-linear composition, rhythmic condensation, patterned repetition, and
melodic circulation were already being theorised and practised in Baghdad
through the deliberate entanglement of poetry, music, and performance. Close
readings of selected poetic materials—alongside engagement with musical theory
(al-Fārābī), poetic criticism (Ibn al-Muʿtazz),
and documented court practices associated with figures such as Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī and his
student Ziryāb—reveal a sustained Abbasid
investment in form as a mode of knowledge rather than as decorative
embellishment.
From this perspective, the Andalusi muwashshah does
not mark an origin or rupture, but a sensuous and environmental crystallisation of earlier Abbasid formal experiments. By
re-centering Baghdad
as a rhythmic and theoretical laboratory, this study reclaims the muwashshah as an autochthonous development within
Arabic intellectual history. More broadly, it calls for a decolonial
reassessment of Arabic form theory as theory proper – an epistemological
production in its own right, rather than precursor, influence, or raw material
awaiting European modernity.
CV: Pending
E-mail:
[email protected]
______________
2. The Catalan goigs. An approach to
the historical context and musical form
Bàrbara Duran Bordoy
[Universitat de les Illes Balears]
Abstract:
According to Josep Massot i Muntaner, there are two typical
genres of religious Catalan literature: goigs
and nadales. Since at least the 12th century, medieval Latin literature has offered a wide collection of
verse and prose pieces praising the 'goigs' (gaudia in Latin) of the Virgin Mary. A direct
translation into English might be 'joys'. These so-called 'Gaudia
Beatae Mariae Virginis' were widely translated and imitated in different
countries. In Catalonia,
there have been verse pieces since the 14th century related to the Virgin's
‘earthly’ joys. The most famous of these is the Ballada
dels goigs de nostra Dona
en vulgar catalan a Ball Rodó, included in the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat.
The
‘heavenly’ goigs emerged later and most of
them are derived from a Latin hymn attributed to St Thomas of Canterbury which
begins with the words 'Gaude flore
virginali...'. Early goigs focused on praising the Mother of God, whereas later
ones centred on more specific devotions, such as the Goigs
de la Verge Maria del
Roser. Composed in the 15th century, these pieces
have the typical structure of the dansa provençale with a greater number of stanzas.
This
musical and poetic form has travelled through time and territories and is still
very much a part of some traditional festivities, including those involving a
young generation (see the Sant Antoni
festival in Mallorca,
for example).
This
paper intends to examine the historical context, early beginnings and
development of Catalan goigs, as well as
analysing the first poetic and musical structures in relation to zejel and muwashshah.
CV:
Doctor of Art and Musicology (UAB). Professor in the Department of Musicology
and Pedagogy at the Conservatori Superior de les Illes Balears between 2003 and
2015 and former Secondary School teacher, she is currently dedicated to
performance, research and writing. She has won several awards for her essays on
music: Alexandre Ballester
2018, Ciutat de Manacor
2019, Font i Roig 2020 Castellitx de investigación 2022 and Premi Mallorca d'Assaig 2024. She also
writes the program notes for the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra season and
the Pollença International Festival, as well as music
reviews for national media.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
3. The subversive power of the zajal in
the Moroccan cultural polysystem. Five poems by Nas El Ghiwane as a case study
Abdelkebir Elalouani
[Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco]
Abstract: The
direct long of Arabic, Iberian, Hebraic, Amazigh and
African cultures in Al-Andalus lasted for about eight
centuries and ensued in the emergence and flourishing of novel forms of
literary expression. The acculturating impact of this intercultural contact on
the literary tradiditions involved is still felt more
than five centuries after the fall of Granada
(1492). The inception of zajal or colloquial
poetry in Darija (the Moroccan Arabic dialect) could
be traced to different sources. It bears the traces of the Andalusian
muwashshahat, Almalhun,
Gnawa music, and Sufism (mysticism). Zajal has evolved over centuries and has recently imposed
itself as a fully recognised component of Moroccan
culture.
Prior to
the 1980s, the official cultural establishment and the dominant literay canon had banished non-standard Arabic creativity
to the margin. Despite their contradictory ideologies, the Moroccan nationalist
movement and the postcolonial state converged on consecrating Arabic Fusha (modern standard Arabic) as the norm. In its heyday,
pan-Arabism promoted a monolithic view of an assumedly pure Arabic culture that
disdained vernacular expressions as inferior, which goes counter to the de
facto prevalent multilingualism and multiculturalism, especially in North
Africa (the Maghreb).
The advent of the popular musical group Nas El Ghiwane during the early 1970s constituted a counterculture
that sought to destabilise the Moroccan and regional
canons, asserting the merits of a new aesthetic that expressed the people’s
discontent, disillusionment with the post-independence state, and aspirations.
Furthermore,
the eloquence and ambivalence of the lyrics composed by the lead vocalist, Larbi Batma, appealed to
different tastes and managed to evade censorship. The band’s output was a cry
against tyranny during the Years of Lead, which provided an outlet for the
oppressed masses and reinvented the literary canons in the Moroccan cultural polysystem and beyond. Five vernacular poems by Nas El Ghiwane with their English
translations constitute the corpus of this paper. Its findings will hopefully
benefit policy makers, educators, literary translators, and other culture
producers.
Keywords: zajal, counterculture, reinventing
aesthetics, political dissidence
CV: Abelkebir Elalouani
is a Moroccan lecturer in English studies. He holds a BA in English literature,
a postgraduate degree in secondary teaching, a Master degree in Translation
Technology and Specialised Translation, and a PhD in
literary translation. He contributed to compiling three spcialised
dictionaries : Translation Studies Terms and Terminological Terms of Terminology,
and Linguistic Terms. He has published three
academic articles on translating linguistic terms, rendering humour, and translating conceptual metaphors. He also co-translated a book on the
history of Indian cinema in Morocco.
His main interests are literary translation, literary theory, cultural studies,
linguistics, terminology, history and second language teaching.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
4. Was the author of the Razos de trobar Jewish?
Ed Emery [SOAS / The Free University]
Abstract: Historical veracity requires us
to view the geographic area of the Iberian peninsula
and Southern France (Occitania,
Provence, Languedoc, extending as far as Italy) as a unified area in terms
of medieval lyric production, with specific lyric artefacts
and modes of poetic production held in common and diffused across the region.
This is the “trans-Pyrenees hypothesis”. Verification of the hypothesis can
only be achieved through a detailed historical and geographical mapping, a prosopography, of individual poetic forms and individual
poet-performers (joglars, troubadours,
minstrels etc).
A key area of critical discourse
was the establishment of “the best language” for poetic production, and the
need for grammatical and expressive “correctness” in the writing of poetry. We
find this in the De vulgari eloquentia
of Dante Alighieri, and earlier in the Razos
de trobar of the troubadour poet Ramon Vidal of Besalù. The proposals advanced by Ramon Vidal, both in his
poetry and in the prose of the Razos, bear a
striking similarity to the concerns of the Jewish literary community in al-Andalus in the preceding hundred years. The similarities
are sufficiently pronounced as to suggest that Vidal may have been Jewish. This
paper then goes on to raise the general question of Jewish troubadours in the
medieval period and their possible role in the circulation of lyric forms.
CV: Ed Emery (m. 1966, Peterhouse, Cambridge)
completed his Masters in Ethnomusicology at the School
of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS]
in London in
2011. He has organsed two international conferences
on the muwashshah and zajal
and their relationship to the Early European lyric, and he is now pursuing a
PhD on the same subject (“Re-writing the sonnet: Poetics in an age of nakba and imperial construction”) at the Autonomous
University of Barcelona. For the past ten years he has been a Research
Associate in the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS; he also
directs his own personal academy at www.thefreeuniversity.net.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
5. Voices of two shores: the influence of
Arabic music on Sicilian folk singing and flamenco singing
Maria Morena Farina [Conservatory of Maastricht]
Abstract: The topic that I am presenting is based on
my Master’s thesis, completed in 2024-25 at the Conservatorium Maastricht (Netherlands),
within the Jazz Vocal programme. My research focuses on the musical legacy left
by Arab culture in flamenco singing and in Sicilian folk and work songs, with
particular attention to the Mediterranean as a
space of long-term cultural circulation.
Rather than concentrating on formal musical structures, the proposed
contribution centres on the way of singing, examining vocal characteristics
such as melismatic phrasing, ornamentation, microtonal inflections, vocal timbre, and
expressive intensity. Through a comparative perspective, it explores how these
features appear in Arabic vocal traditions, selected flamenco styles, and
Sicilian traditional repertoires, suggesting a shared aesthetic shaped by
historical Arab presence in both Andalusia and Sicily.
The research combines historical inquiry with ethnomusicological
fieldwork, including research travel, listening and analysis of recordings, and
interviews with musicians and scholars in Sicily
and Andalusia. Rather than proposing linear
models of influence, the contribution highlights processes of oral
transmission, memory, and local adaptation, and considers the human voice as a
living archive through which Arab musical heritage continues to resonate within
Mediterranean vocal traditions.
CV: Maria Morena Farina is an Italian vocalist and researcher with ancestral
roots in Sicily through her grandfather, currently based in Granada, Andalusia.
She completed her Master’s degree in Jazz Vocal Performance at the
Conservatorium Maastricht (Netherlands)
in 2024-2025. Her artistic and academic work focuses on Mediterranean vocal
traditions, with particular interest in the legacy of Arab musical culture in
flamenco singing and in Sicilian folk and work songs. Her research combines
ethnomusicology, historical inquiry, and practice-based artistic research,
including fieldwork, interviews, and vocal training in Arabic and flamenco
singing. Alongside her research activity, she is active as a performer and
vocal teacher.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
6. Tunisian malûf in the context of digital
humanities
Anas Ghrab [Higher Institute
of Music, University of Sousse]
Abstract: This paper
presents the maluf.tn platform, a digital tool
dedicated to collecting, organising, and showcasing
resources related to Tunisian Malûf. Designed to
bring together dispersed materials – text corpora of muwashshahāt
and their draft-critical editions, audio recordings, videos, digitised archives, and scattered online documentation –
the platform, currently under development, provides a structured environment
for research, teaching, and transmission.
The presentation will discuss the technical and methodological choices that
have guided this initiative: managing and indexing heterogeneous sources,
documenting chains of transmission, and consolidating a reliable and searchable
corpus. By situating Malûf within the broader
heritage of Andalusi music, the talk will also show
how maluf.tn, while currently focused on the
Tunisian tradition, lays the groundwork for future comparative investigations
with other Andalusi musical traditions across the Maghreb.
CV: After completing his studies in
music and musicology at the University
of Lyon 2, he earned his
PhD from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He previously served as the director
of the Center for Arab and Mediterranean Music at Ennejma Ezzahra Palace
and currently teaches at the University
of Sousse's Higher Institute of Music. Additionally, he is a
researcher at the L3S laboratory (ENIT) and leads several interdisciplinary
projects in digital arts and humanities. Notably, he was involved in the Musée du Patrimoine
Écrit project, in collaboration with the National
Library of Tunisia and the Tunisian Academy Beït al-Hikma-Carthage and the Digitisation
of of Rashidiyya Maluf-Association archives. He also recently co-founded LiSa-Digit, an initiative aimed at enhancing digital
databases for cultural heritages.
E-mail: [email protected]
_____________
7. The muwashshah
in the Eastern Mediterranean from the seventeenth century: Interactions of
stanza, metrical and modal structures, compositional genres.
Dorit M. Klebe [Independent researcher]
Abstract: At the beginning of the 16th
century, the Islamic Near East underwent a fundamental tranformation,
caused by the Ottomans. In respect to the muwashshah
in Syria and especially in
Aleppo Walter Z. Feldman writes: "The muwashshah
was already in existence in Syria
in the seventeenth century, and spread from here to Egypt (Racy 1983). ... On the other
hand, compositional, usul and modal
structure in the muwashshah items
reveal strong Ottoman influence as well“ (1990/91:
80–81). Later, the Arabian music culture came into interactions with Turkish
and Persian music cultures. In the same geographic area there existed contacts
with Armenians, Jews, Syrians and other residents. They exchanged musical
styles, forms, and lyrics with eachother (see Habib Hassan Touma
1989: 35–36, 39).
In my paper will be demonstrate and compare by means
of selected printed or transcribed as well as audio-video examples of specific
music genres. While the muwashshah uses
Classical Arabic, the zajal are written
in colloquial Arabic (Touma: 105). The muwashshah is contrasted to Ottoman-Turkish vocal genres that
were part of the concert cyclus fasıl
from the beginning of 17th century; to name here beste,
nakş, kâr,
semâ'î. The zajal is contrasted to the vocal
genre şarkı (see Klebe 2013: 70–198);
the şarkı became
part of the fasıl not before the middle
of the 18th century at the Ottoman court (see Feldman 1996: 180–183). The musammat
poetry is quasi a connecting link within the genres above mentioned, and will
be investigated in all the examples being demonstrated.
CV: Dorit Klebe studied Historical and Comparative
Musicology/Ethnomusicology and Turcology in Berlin and Göttingen; received her doctorate in Musicanthropology in Wrocław (Poland). She spezialises in vocal traditions, makâm practice of the Mediterranean and Central Asia; urban
ethnomusicology in Berlin. Teaching activities at the Berlin University
of the Arts. Chair of ICTMD for Germany.
E-mail:
[email protected]
______________
8. Beyond transmission: the muwashshah
and Early European polyphony considered in terms of poetic morphology and musical
structure
Lorenzo
d’Erasmo [Independent researcher] and Francesco Magaro’ [Conservatorio “L. Perosi” – Campobasso]
Abstract: Debates on the origins of the medieval European lyric and its musical
forms have long acknowledged possible links with Arab-Andalusian
song traditions. Early twentieth-century music historiography postulated direct
connections between medieval European polyphony and Arab-Spanish cultures,
largely on the basis of geographical proximity and shared organological
features (Ribera, 1929; Farmer, 1929). This paper
reassesses such assumptions by asking whether formal similarities necessarily
imply processes of transmission, or rather reflect
parallel yet functionally independent developments.
By
combining analytical tools such as “poetic viability” (Emery, 2004) with
criticism of performance praxis (Haines, 2001), and by comparing selected
musical and discographic sources (notably Afif Bulos, 1976), the study
situates poetic and musical structures within their performative
and lyrical contexts. A comparative framework is proposed between the mensural organisation of rhythmic modes in Ars Antiqua polyphony and the
microtonal linearity and rhythmic circularity (īqāʿāt)
described in Arabic and Andalusi theoretical sources,
notably al-Fārābī’s Kitāb al-Mūsīqā
al-Kabīr.
Focusing
on the relationship between Arabic-Andalusian muwashshaḥ and zajal
and early European lyric and polyphonic forms, the paper explores the tension
between morphological osmosis and functional independence from metrical,
melodic and prosodic perspectives, contributing to current debates on the
circulation of song and poetic forms across the medieval Mediterranean.
CV:
Lorenzo D'Erasmo (1993) is a versatile percussionist specialising in contemporary repertoire, early music, and
frame drums. Trained in Milan and Freiburg, he collaborates with
renowned ensembles such as Sentieri Selvaggi, MDI Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, and La Reverdie. He has performed at major international
festivals, including the Venice Biennale and the Monteverdi Festival.
An
expert in historical and Mediterranean percussion, Lorenzo teaches at the
"Tamburi Mundi"
Festival and the Milan Conservatory. He is also active in the electronic and
Arabic music scenes and holds several recording credits (Stradivarius, Arcana), distinguishing himself with a dynamic approach
that bridges classical percussion and historical traditions.
CV:
Francesco Magaro’ is Professor of Traditional Music
at the L. Perosi Conservatory in Campobasso.
With a diploma in Piano and Traditional Music and a degree in Economics specialising in Marketing of Artistic and Cultural
Heritage, he holds master’s degrees in Ethno-Popular Music Analysis and Theory
and in Composition and Improvisation in Educational Contexts. Specialising in frame drums, he has studied repertoires and
techniques from diverse traditions through international academic and artistic
pathways. His research explores creative, performative,
and transmission processes in different musical practices and their
intersections, with a focus on contexts of practice, stylistic and performative dynamics, and audiotactile
music.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
9. Sounding the Andalusian ecumene: Transcultural continuities in early Mediterranean music and performance
Ronnie Malley [University of Chicago]
Abstract: This
paper explores transcultural performance practices emerging from musical traditions that descend
from Al-Andalus, framed through what I term the “Andalusian Ecumene,” a historical
and aesthetic network where early “Western” and “Eastern” repertoires
intersected and continued to inform one another. Focusing on modern
interpretations of muwashahat in Egypt and the Levant, the maluf
and nuba suite traditions in
North Africa, and the Cantigas de Santa
Maria and Sephardic repertoires of medieval Spain, the study examines how
performers today navigate authenticity, adaptation, and exchange across
cultural and historical boundaries. Through an ethnomusicological
lens, it considers how these repertoires’ interwoven poetic and modal languages
rooted in Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish manifest in performance as sites of
cultural negotiation and continuity. By comparing interpretive practices in
diverse contemporary settings, the paper argues that the Andalusian
Ecumene provides a productive framework for understanding
early music as an inherently transcultural phenomenon. It repositions early Western and Eastern art music
traditions not as parallel or oppositional canons but as mutually constitutive
forms of expression whose shared performance legacies continue to resonate
within modern artistic and academic discourses on revival, heritage, and
identity.
CV: Ronnie Malley
is a musician, producer, and educator specialising in performance traditions of
the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and medieval Spain. He is
executive director of Intercultural Music Production and a PhD student in Ethnomusicology at the University of Chicago, where he earned an MA in Arabic
and Hebrew. Malley’s work integrates scholarship and
practice through intercultural collaboration, pedagogy, and performance. He has performed with
ensembles such as Apollo’s Fire, Folger Consort, Lute
Legends Collective, Newberry Consort, and Surabhi and
received the 2023 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee
Visionary Award for his contributions to intercultural music-making.
Keywords: Andalusian Ecumene; transcultural performance; early music; Muwashahat; maluf; nuba; Cantigas de Santa Maria;
Sephardic music; Mediterranean music; cultural exchange
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
10. The muwashshah and the zajal
in Arabic music: literary and musical structures
Imed Messaoud [Higher Institute of Music, University of Sousse]
Abstract: We often approach the muwashshah and the zajal from various perspectives, some historical, others purely literary. The musical approach is often overlooked when discussing the muwashshah and the zajal as a dominant element in the formation of these two forms as literary and musical creations, characterised by a profound historical, artistic, and technical interconnectedness. We believe it is impossible to analyze them from a single perspective or with an approach that separates the literary from the musical.
This presentation falls within this framework, aiming to shed light on the completeness of the muwashshah and the zajal as two forms in which the literary and the musical are inseparable.
Abstract:
الموشح والزجل في الموسيقى العربية/ البنية الأدبية والموسيقية
Le mouwachah et le zajal: fondement et figures/ structures litteraires et musicales
كثيرا ما نتناول الموشح والزجل بمقاربات متنوعة، بعضها تاريخي، وبعضها أدبي صرف. وتُستثنى المقاربة الموسيقية من ولوج مجالات الحديث عن الموشح والزجل كعنصر مهيمن على تشكل هاذين القالبين كإبداع أدبي وموسيقي على غاية من الترابط التاريخي والفني والتقني.ولا يمكن في اعتقادنا تحليله من وجه واحد و بمقاربة تفصل بين الأدبي والموسيقي.
في هذا الإطار تتنزل المداخلة، التي يُفترض أن تسلط الضوء على كلية الموشح والزجل كقالبيين لا ينفصل فيهما الأدبي عن الموسيقي.
CV: Pending
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
11. The beginnings of the Hebrew muwashshaḥ
and the embrace by the kharja
Micah Newberger [Harvard]
Abstract: This paper examines one of the first Hebrew girdle poems that has come
down to us and is complete. Attributed to Shmuel Ha-Nagid (993-1055), it is known to have inspired several mu‘araḍat,
which we possess, although the poem it imitated has not been found. Through
a close reading of the poem and its central motif of the “embrace” of lovers in
the poem and in the kharja, paired with a
review of the classical Arabic rhetorics of the muwashshaḥ
form, I
argue that the poetics of such “embracing” are self-reflective of (a) the
function of the aqfāl in the poem,
and (b) the relationship between the original poem and the mu‘araḍa, and (c)
Hebrew imitations of Arabic poetry in general. It reflects on the possibility
that al-Mulk’s kharja
is a precise term, describing not the “end of the poem,” as Agamben might call it, but the space of exiting or
threshold shared—"encompassed”—between one version and another.
CV: Micah Newberger is a doctoral student at Harvard. He is focused
on the problematic of poetry and philosophy in the medieval period, especially
Hebrew Spain. He is also interested in Jewish Studies, Talmud, psychoanalysis,
Classics, and German-Jewish studies.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
12. Reinvigorating
the art of muwashahah in contemporary practice
Ahmad Ali, Albert Agha and Imed Nsiri
[American University of Sharjah]
Abstract: The muwashshahaat are among the most intricate and
expressive song-poems of the Arabic tradition, born in medieval Andalusia and celebrated for their poetic form and
musical richness. Yet today, this art form is largely confined to heritage
ensembles or academic archives, rather than thriving as a living genre of
contemporary Arab music. This project seeks to research the synchronic and
diachronic aspect of the muwashshahaat in
order to revive the muwashsha? as
a dynamic creative practice. By reimagining its
poetic and musical structures, we will compose and professionally record new
works that honor its traditional essence while embracing modern sounds and
themes. The recordings will be disseminated through public media and
distribution channels, the professional music industry, and academic circles,
positioning the muwashshah once again as a
relevant and evolving form. Ultimately, the project aims to bridge historical
artistry with modern creativity, ensuring the muwashshah
reclaims its place in today’s world of Arab music-making. The project will
focus on the synchronic and diachronic aspect of the muwashshahaat.
This project is a collaboration between three
colleagues, Drs Ahmad Ali, Albert Agha, and Imed Nsiri.
CVs
Ahmed Ali
PhD, Durham
University, United Kingdom
Ahmed Ali is a
Professor of Translation Studies at the Department of Arabic and Translation
Studies, AUS. He is a poet in both Fusha and Ammiya. He is also the current President of Arabic
Translators International (ATI). At the University of
Durham, UK, he taught undergraduate courses in Arabic and translation, and at King Khaled University,
Saudi Arabia,
he was one of the founding members of the Translation Department. He is also
the General Editor of ATI Academic Series, and ATI Literary Series (Arabic
Literature Unveiled).
Albert Agha
PhD, University
of California Los Angeles,
Albert Nasser Agha earned his Ph.D from UCLA
Herb Alpert School of Music, studying under the direction of renowned professor
and composer A.J Racy. As an accomplished performer of the classical Arab
repertoire, Agha has performed at many notable venues
such as the John F.
Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts, Berklee
Music Center
in Boston, Chicago Cultural
Center, and the Montreal
Festival for the Arab world. As a scholar of ethnomusicology, Agha's areas of interest include music and Islam in
contemporary Southeast Asian societies, where he has conducted extensive
fieldwork among Indonesian Muslims in Java. His other areas of interest include
contemporary aesthetics of Arab music, and the music of the Arab diaspora.
Imed Nsiri
PhD, Indiana University, Bloomington,
United States
Dr. Nsiri holds a Double PhD in Arabic and Comparative
Literature. He has published two books and several articles. His most recent
publication is Arabic Heritage in the Post-Abbasid Period (2019). His
research interests include Arabic studies, especially modern Arabic poetry and
music, and comparative literature of the modernists
E-mail: [email protected]
______________
13. Musical structure
in the muwashshahat of Tunisian ma'luf
قراءة في
البنية
الموسيقية
لموشحات
المالوف
التونسي
Ali Sayari [Independent
researcher] [in Arabic]
Abstract: Pending
CV: Ali Sayari is a music professor and independent researcher specialising in the traditions of Tunisian malûf. He is a former member of the working team on sound
archives linked to mâlûf at the Ennejma Ezzahra Center for Arab and Mediterranean Music,
and a member of the working team on the Rachidia
archives. He also teaches malûf, its theory and
practice, at the Maison du Ûd Tunisien.
E-mail: Pending
______________
14. Muwashshahaat: Not past, but
present
Mez van Slageren
[King’s College London]
Abstract:
The history of muwashshah and zajal is assuredly a rich source of developmental
and comparative reflection for music and lyric alike. However, muwashshahat as a tradition are still very much
alive, particularly in the Levant.
Contemporary practice is an equally important (but presently less documented)
window to look through. This paper, based on my ongoing PhD research, therefore
argues that contemporary Syrian muwashshah
practice is subtly refocussing it’s
cultural value from a link with a medieval al-Andalus
‘golden age’ to the much more recent image of Aleppo. Aleppo
as a cultural heavyweight, especially musically, is an image that is gaining
traction through the work of people such as Ibrahim Muslimani and Khaled al-Hafez.
Both musicians from Aleppo,
their migration away from the city and indeed their country was due to the
outbreak of the civil war. While my PhD considers the different roads they have
taken in pursuit of their goal to safeguard this musical heritage, my paper
looks at what binds them together: the fore-fronting of Aleppo as THE cultural image for contemporary
muwashshahat practice. History has been
written, but the present will dictate the future.
CV:
Mez van Slageren is a PhD
candidate working with Martin Stokes at King’s College London. She started her
PhD during the pandemic in 2020. Now part-time, her work focuses on Arabic
music with a specific interest in Syria
and the Levant. Using the song-form muwashshah as a case study, she is
investigating how the valuing, performance, and transmission of heritage music is influenced by migration. This PhD was preceded by a
Master of Arts at the Open University in the UK, where her dissertation
considered Fairouz, her music, and the connection to
listeners' perception of 'peace'.
E-mail:
[email protected]
______________
Ends