Traditional Arts in Southern Arabia
Music and Society in Sohar, Sultanate of Oman

Christensen, Dieter & Castelo-Branco, Salwa El-Shawan

• 2009
• 248 p.
• Book and 2 CDs + 1 DVD
• 118 full color photos
• illustrations, figures, musical examples, index, bibliography, appendices
• Hc
• 17 x 24 cm
• (UVP): EUR 86,00
• ISBN 978-3-86135-644-8

The Arabian Peninsula, and in particular, the coastal areas of the Arab Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arab Sea, boast since times immemorial a wealth of cultural forms to which the people of the desert and those of the sea and from across the seas have amply contributed. The arts—music, dance, poetry in performance—not only testify to a deep history and express diverse ethnic identities; as an integral part of daily life they are also instrumental in balancing multicultural society and adapting local communities to the effects of national and global modernization.
The authors have studied, during several residences between 1985 and 2006, the state and evolution of performance practices and the social roles of performed arts in Sohar, an ancient and still important coastal town of the Sultanate of Oman. The book situates and describes the arts (al-fun¯un) and their practitioners in the province and town of Sohar, studies the underlying concepts and the social networks through which the arts exist, and analyses the forces of change that have affected the arts as part of society in Sohar.

Content

    Preface
1.     Sohar in Oman
2.     Sohari Concepts and Terminologies of the Arts
2.1     The Sohari Concept of fann (pl. funun)--Art/Arts
2.2     Categories of the Arts
2.3     Categories of Performance Groups
2.4     Group Terminologies
3.     The Celebrations--Al-ihtifalat
3.1     Weddings--A'ras
3.1.1     Arab Weddings
3.1.2     Belush Weddings
3.2     Circumcisions--Khitan
3.3     Votivic Rituals--Nadher
3.4     Religious Feasts--A'yad
3.5     National Day--'Id al-watani
4.     Performing Groups and their Arts
4.1     Groups that Verse (tushill)--Firaq al-razif
4.1.1     Firaq al-razif (al-badawiyah)
4.1.2     Firaq al-wahhabiyah/al-'ayyalah
4.1.3     Firaq al-razhah
4.1.4     Al-'azi
4.2     Groups that Sing or "Have ghunnah"
4.2.1     Firaq al-dan/ghunnah al-nisaf
4.2.2     Firaq al-kwasah/al-wayliyah
4.2.3     Helaq al-lewah
4.2.4     Helaq al-qurbah
4.2.5     Firaq al-zar
4.2.6     Firaq al-'ud
4.3     Groups that Read
4.3.1     Helaq al-malid
4.4     Circle for Pakit-Theatre--Halqat al-pakit
4.5     Baluch Performance Groups--Firaq al-Belush
4.6     The Performance Group Sohar for Folk Arts--Firqat Suhar li al-funun al-sha'biyah
4.7     Webs of Arts and Artists in Sohar
5.     Artists in Sohar
5.1     Talib bin Gharib
5.2     Ta'bu bint Mubarak
5.3     Halima bint 'Amir
5.4     Yusif bin Khamis al-Maqbali
5.5     Muhammad bin 'Ali bin Yusif al-Sidrani
6.     Changes in the Traditional Arts, 1992-2006
7.     Glossary of Music and Related Terms from Sohar
8.     Bibliography
9.     Index
10.     Content of CDs and DVD