Research Catalog

The female voice in Sufi ritual : devotional practices of Pakistan and India / by Shemeem Burney Abbas ; foreword by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea.

Title
The female voice in Sufi ritual : devotional practices of Pakistan and India / by Shemeem Burney Abbas ; foreword by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea.
Author
Abbas, Shemeem Burney.
Publication
Austin : University of Texas Press, 2002.

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Description
xxx, 209 p. : ill., maps; 24 cm.
Summary
"The female voice plays a more central role in Sufi ritual, especially in the singing of devotional poetry, than in almost any other of Muslim culture. Female singers perform sufiana-kalam, or mystical poetry, at Sufi shrines and in concerts, folk festivals, and domestic life, while male singers assume the female voice when singing the myths of heroines in qawwali and sufiana-kalam. Yet, despite the centrality of the female voice in Sufi practice throughout South Asia and the Middle East, it has received little scholarly attention and is largely unknown in the West." "This book presents the first in-depth study of the female voice in Sufi practice in the subcontinent of Pakistan and India. Shemeem Burney Abbas investigates the rituals at the Sufi shrines and looks at women's participation in them, as well as male performers' use of the female voice. The strengths of the book are her use of interviews with both prominent and grassroots female and male musicians and her transliteration of audio- and videotaped performances. Through them, she draws vital connections between oral culture and the written Sufi poetry that the musicians sing for their audiences. This research clarifies why the female voice is so important in Sufi practice and underscores the many contributions of women to Sufism and its rituals."--BOOK JACKET.
Uniform Title
Project Muse UPCC books
Subject
  • Music > Islam
  • Muslim women > India > Religious life
  • Muslim women > Pakistan > Religious life
  • Sufi music > India
  • Sufi music > Pakistan
  • Sufism > Rituals
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-204) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
Foreword / Elizabeth Warnock Fernea -- Preface: Woman's Place in Sufism -- History and Economy of Women in Sufi Ritual -- Ethnographies of Communication -- Female Myths in Sufism -- The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual -- Closing the Circle of the Mystic Journey.
ISBN
0292705158 (cloth : alk. paper)
LCCN
^^2002008288
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library