<Special Feature “The Encounter with Religious Others through Music and Musician in the Islamic World”>Islamic and Sufi Soundscape in Central Asia: Genres, Rituals, and Laments

Abstract

In Central Asia, music is interwoven with every aspect of life. This study draws on 30 years of my ethnographic fieldwork examining Islamic and Sufi music forms in the region --specifically, the flow of local indigenous mystical knowledge within the rarely researched female communities' practices. Furthermore, it combines methods of identifying musical features found in the mystical chanting and ceremonies of female communities in Central Asia that continue to survive despite the interdictions of the Soviet regime. The second part of the study discusses Sufi elements in contemporary pop music genres.