Overview

Performing al-Andalus explores three musical cultures that claim a connection to the music of medieval Iberia, the Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus, known for its complex mix of Arab, North African, Christian, and Jewish influences. Jonathan Holt Shannon shows that the idea of a shared Andalusian heritage animates performers and aficionados in modern-day Syria, Morocco, and Spain, but with varying and sometimes contradictory meanings in different social and political contexts. As he traces the movements of musicians, songs, histories, and memories circulating around the Mediterranean, he argues that attention to such flows offers new insights into the complexities of culture and the nuances of selfhood.

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9780253017567

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Reviews

A sizeable body of literature has emerged in recent years that explores the musical legacies of al-Andalus from both a historical and a contemporary perspective. Jonathan Shannon's book is a crucial addition to this scholarship. * Music and Letters * Shannon has proven once again his deep knowledge of the cultural and intellectual landscape of the region.... Through its comparative and cross-cultural perspective, Performing al-Andalus is accessible to a wide audience, addressing particularly those interested in how music interacts with memory cultures, ideologies of belonging and their circulation within a transnational context. * Ethnomusicology Forum * [This] study is well-written, engaging, and supported by a substantial bibliography.... Recommended. * Choice * Jonathan Holt Shannon's Performing al-Andalus is evocative, accessible, compact, and innovative in its methodological and expository approach. These qualities make it an attractive text for undergraduate students, as well as for graduate seminars focused on Mediterranean studies, the ethnomusicology of the Middle East and North Africa, and the politics of culture and memory. * Review of Middle East Studies *

[A] major intervention into the emergent field of Andalusian music studies: it is amongst the first full-blown anthropological studies of these traditions, and the first to attempt a cross-cultural comparative perspective.... [A] thought-provoking and illuminating study of the role played by the image and memory of al-Andalus in the modern Mediterranean world. Carl Davila, SUNY College at Brockport

Author Information

Jonathan Holt Shannon is Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College, CUNY. He is author of Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria and A Wintry Day in Damascus: Syrian Stories.

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