Arabic Music Arabic music () is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse List of music styles, music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many linguistic Varieties of Arabic, dialects, with each countr ...

, the ''mawwāl'' (; plural: ''mawāwīl'', ) is a traditional and popular Arabic genre of

vocal music Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but ...

that is very slow in

beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

and sentimental in nature, and is characterised by prolonging vowel syllables, emotional vocals, and is usually presented before the actual song begins. The singer performing a mawwal would usually

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

and long for something, such as a past lover, a departed family member or a place, in a wailing manner.

Etymology

Mawwal is an Arabic word that means "affiliated with", "associated with," or "connected to". The verb is ''waala'' (). It is measure 3 of the root verb "Walia" (), which means to follow, ''be affiliated with'', ''support'', or ''sponsor''. Originally the verbal noun has a ''Yaa'' in the definite form but it loses it when the word is indefinite.

History

There are many preferences regarding the origin of the mawwal, one of these is the one

al-Suyuti Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (; 1445–1505), or al-Suyuti, was an Egyptians, Egyptian Sunni Muslims, Muslim polymath of Persians, Persian descent. Considered the mujtahid and mujaddid of the Islamic 10th century, he was a leading Hadith studies, muh ...

attributes it in the book Sharh al-Muwashah to the era of

Harun al-Rashid Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ar-Rāshīd (), or simply Hārūn ibn al-Mahdī (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Hārūn al-Rāshīd (), was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 unti ...

. When he insisted on his concubines to eulogize his minister, Jaafar al-Barmaki, after his brutality against him, then a concubine named al-Mawlia, from which "mawwal" is derived, was the one who eulogized him. Another preference is Safi al-Din al-Hilli in his book al-Mawwal al-Baghdadi in which he attribute it to the people of Wasit in Iraq. Also, Safi al-Din al-Hilli says that the mawal is from the simple sea sounding on the base of the wide sea, and the mawal continued in this way until the eighth century AH, when the mawwal appeared using the Iraqi dialect of the vernacular and the subsequent branching of the mawal in the eleventh century into three other types, namely The quatrain and The lame and Numani.

Egypt

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, which is considered one of the traditional homes Mawwawel ("plural of Mawwal") the musicians of Mawawil play the rabab (a double-stringed spike

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

made from half of a coconut shell covered with fish skin and a bow strung with horse hair), the

kawala The ''kāwālā'' ( or ; also called ''salamiya'', ) is an end-blown cane flute used in Arabic music. It is similar to the '' ney'' but has six finger holes, while the ''ney'' has seven (including one in the back). The ''kawala'' comes in up t ...

(an end-blown, oblique

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

with six holes) and the arghoul (an ancient double

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

characterized by two pipes of unequal length. The second pipe serves as a drone and can be lengthened by adding pieces. The player uses the technique of circular breathing to produce an uninterrupted sound). The arghoul can be traced back to Pharaonic times as it is exactly depicted on wall paintings of the temples of the third dynasty. Amin Shahin is one of the few remaining arghoul players in Egypt, since the death of arghoul master, Moustafa Abd al Aziz in 2001.

Mesopotamia

The mawwal musicians in Iraq use mainly

santur The santur ( ; ) is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origin.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻUmmāl al-Markazīyya. History The santur was invented ...

, which is a hammered dulcimer of Mesopotamian origin, (trapezoid box zither with a walnut body and 92 steel r bronzestrings. The strings, tuned to the same pitch in groups of four, are struck with two wooden mallets called "midhrab"), joza, and oud, as the country' oud playing tradition have become an own school and a reference. It is illustrated specially by the figure of the acclaimed Munir Bashir. Due to geographical proximity to the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

, Assyrian musicians may also implement Mawwal in their work. Albert Rowel Tamras and Adwar Mousa, who are from Iraq and Syria, respectively, are such examples who use this art form in their music. In many forms of Assyrian music, Mawwal is performed as an intro for an upbeat song, such as those in the rhythm of bagiyeh/peda.

Lebanon

Mawwal is sung by powerful singers who are able to demonstrate strong vocal capabilities. The most famous singers come from Lebanon in specific,

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

, Wadih El Safi and Fairouz. Nowadays, some of the most famous and strongest singers that can sing mawaweels are

Najwa Karam Najwa Karam (; ; born 26 February 1966) is a Lebanon, Lebanese singer, songwriter, producer, fashion icon, and television personality. She has sold over 60 million records worldwide and was recognized as the highest-selling Lebanese people, Leba ...

and

Wael Kfoury Michel Émile Kfoury (; born 14 September 1974), known by his stage name Wael Kfoury (), is a Lebanese singer, musician, songwriter, and actor. Career Wael studied solfège at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik. Commercial deals Kfoury signed ...

.Shiloah, Amnon. Music in the World of Islam. A Socio-Cultural Study 2001.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Fi Lina Ya Hub''
– A mawwal by Fairuz
Hossaum Al Rassam—Mawwal
Culture of Egypt Music of Egypt Arabic music Vocal music Classical and art music traditions Laments