Islamic music

Common card · No. 462247

Islamic music collectively refers to the musical traditions among various Muslim populations throughout history. It implies both religious music, as performed in public or private devotional services, and generally secular music associated with any culture historically dominated or heavily influenced by Islam, including those of West Asia and North Africa, parts of the Horn of Africa and West Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Balkans. The pre-existing indigenous musical styles (Arabic, Iranian, Roman/Byzantine, Indian, etc.) of regions where the spread of Islam took place contributed greatly to the development of Islamic music as an art of fusion. The word for "music" in Arabic (موسيقى mūsīqā) is defined more narrowly than it is in English and other languages, and "its concept" was at least originally "reserved for secular art music; separate names and concepts belonged to folk songs and to religious chants". At least one scholar (Jacob M. Landau) observed that Islamic music "is...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain