The Mu’azzin’s Song: Islam and the African Diaspora of the Indian Ocean

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Omar H. Ali, Professor & Dean, Lloyd International Honors College (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Among my earliest memories as a child living in North Africa during the mid-l970s was listening to the azan, the melodic call to prayer heard daily across much of the Muslim world. Each morning, just before sunrise, I would hear the "song" as it gently filtered through my dreams. In the distance, the mu'azzin -the person making the call -would slowly fill the morning air with the opening words, Allah-u-akbar (God is great), stretching and then soulfully bending each vowel. Like a grain of sand, each rendition of the azan is slightly different from the next, each mu'azzin expressing his own unique sensibility.

Additional Information

Publication
North Carolina Conversations, Winter/Spring 2012, 14-15
Language: English
Date: 2012
Keywords
azan, mu'azzin, Islam, African Diaspora

Email this document to