Music-Culture VII

For my musical ethnography, I am researching the musical aspects of the Muslim holy book of Qur'an. These aspects are seen in the recitation of the Qur'an, called qira'ah. There is also another important aspect of Qur'an recitation called maqam which is the mode in Arabic music. However, there are many different maqams in non-Arabic countries such as Turkey. Although some may not consider Qur'an recitation as a music culture, many would argue that its musical aspects make it a music culture. Some of this music culture's biggest fans are Egyptians and some of the best Qur'an reciters, called qaris, come from Egypt. Because I am not familiar with any Egyptian masjids in Dallas, I'm researching this music culture within the Turkish community because I am Turkish. Turkish people also enjoy the qira'ah and the Qur'an is always recited in the Turkish community center. The Qur'an is very important to me as well as all other Muslim Turks, which us why I decided to do my project on the music culture of Qur'an recitation. To give you an idea of beautiful qira'ah, here is a video of Mustafa Ismail, a qari from Egypt who is perhaps the best and most famous qari of the 20th century.