The History Of Sufism

By Ed Lake, *Cultural calendar: Sufi history lesson through music* - The National - Abu Dhabi, UAE
Saturday, June 19, 2010

The strangest of this week’s art events comes to the Mall of the Emirates on Friday.

I read the press release about it and was, I admit, perplexed. Not that it was badly written, not at all. Merely, the things it described were quite hard to imagine.

So I phoned up the event organiser and asked him what was going on. He spoke almost uninterruptedly for 15 minutes, clarifying certain details, sketching the history of his group and enlarging on the attractions laid out in the press release. The more I heard, the less I understood. I thanked him and hung up, and then fretted about how to write these next few paragraphs.

Allow me to attempt a description of the “unique Asian musical” Rooh-e-Ishq.

It arose out of rehearsals held by Malhaar, which claims to be the UAE’s first Indian music choir. The show will relate the history of Sufism, both in song and in theatrical interludes recounting the lives of four Sufi saints, Jalalud’din Rumi, Amir Khusro, Bulleh Shah and Kabir. There will also be poetry and paintings, the latter of which will have been created especially.

In all, 45 artists and performers will contribute to the show.

The choir employs western harmonies but, according to its director Jogiraj Sikidar, “Indian texture”.

The choir’s repertoire touches on both qawwali and Bollywood styles. There will also be an oudist and a player of an Indian instrument whose name I missed but which, I understand, is heard quite rarely these days.

The performance will last for three hours. Patience is clearly a prerequisite.

[Picture: Shams of Tabriz as portrayed in a 1500 painting in a page of a copy of Rumi's poem dedicated to Shams. BNF Paris. Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi]