Cultural Studies: Entertainment in Islam

Cultural Studies: Entertainment in Islam

Since the birth of Islam the permissibility of melodies and vocalising has been debated. Not only the lawfulness of the entertainer but furthermore of the assembly was discussed. Advocates and adversaries alike traced the legitimacy of their place back to the Quran and the hadiths, the sayings of the Prophet. [1] As in present day Egypt, these arguments on the lawfulness of melodies did not avert the art from flourishing in castles and personal dwellings.[1]

The seventeenth-century Muslim scholar Chelebi distinguishes three classes of music: that approaching from birds, from the human throat and ...