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Popularizing Islam or Islamizing popular music: new developments in Egypt’s wedding scene

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Abstract

This article discusses the influence of the Islamic Revival on the field of popular art, as well as the influence of market forces on the field of religious art productions, by taking the Egyptian wedding scene from the 1980s onward as a case study. The decline of popular weddings and the emergence of the Islamic alternative, as well as the different styles of weddings, etiquette, and taste cultures of the audiences involved in the substitute wedding scenes, are analyzed. In particular, the latest developmentin which the two scenes, which developed in contradistinction to one another, have come to resemble each other and the rise of respectable, or “clean,” formats, rather than overtly religious ones, are investigated. It is argued that the religious–clean market can be an asset for the Islamist project, whose aim is to provide an alternative to secular taste cultures, because it is able to cater to diverse pious taste cultures, from strict Islamist to pleasant post-Islamist. Despite the different trends, aims, and content, the various forms of clean–pious entertainment sustain or, at least, affirm the general pious taste culture In Egypt.

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Notes

  1. See also below for a discussion on “fann al-hadif,” purposeful art, or art with a mission, which is meant as an alternative for “fann al-habit,” “vulgar” or “low-brow” art (see also Alagha 2011; Van Nieuwkerk 2011b; Winegar 2008). Whereas “low-brow” versus “high-brow” culture or “low” versus “high” art has a class dimension, the opposition in Islamist discourse between “haram” and “halal”—or more specifically with regard to art, “fann al-habit” versus “fann al-hadif”—stretches the meaning of “low” toward “vulgar” in the sense of “corrupt” or ”immoral.”

  2. The importance of culture, art, and media is addressed in an episode of his program “Life Makers,” a lecture that was also sold on tape. It was quite popular and sold out at the time of my research. I received it as a gift from the bandleader of Al-Andalus, because he greatly admired `Amr Khalid‘s approach to art. `Amr Khalid also wrote a short essay in TBS 2005 (1): 30–33.

  3. Interview, January 22, 2005.

  4. Islam Online, June 10, 2004. Available online at http:Islamonline.com (accessed February 15, 2006).

  5. Interview, February 12, 2006.

  6. In this article, I will discuss only the transformations in the Islamic wedding songs, and not the religious-political anashid outside the wedding context (see al-Kafawin 2001; Sa`id 2001; Tammam 2004; Tammam and Haenni 2005).

  7. Interview, February 11, 2006.

  8. Interview, February 12, 2006.

  9. Common expression used by performers at all kinds of weddings (Van Nieuwkerk 1995).

  10. Interview, bandleader Basmit Andalus, February 12, 2006.

  11. Although there has been quite some controversy and difference of opinion on the permissibility of art and music among scholars and artists in the 1990s (see Van Nieuwkerk 2008c, 2011b), most of my interlocutors in wedding bands interviewed in 2005 and 2006 preferred al-Qaradawi’s (1998) view on the (conditions for the) permissibility of music and art.

  12. Asking high prices for religious weddings is not undisputed, though, among Islamist circles (interview with the bandleader of Sondos, February 11. 2006). For further discussion, see Van Nieuwkerk 2011b; see also Sa`fan 2004 and Tammam and Haenni 2005.

  13. It is a common idea that the mother of the bride and groom should dance to show their happiness (Van Nieuwkerk 1995).

  14. Interview with Tamir `Abd al-Shafi’, November 7, 2010.

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  1. Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Karin van Nieuwkerk

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van Nieuwkerk, K. Popularizing Islam or Islamizing popular music: new developments in Egypt’s wedding scene. Cont Islam 6, 235–254 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-012-0217-8

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