Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa
Outside Azov (Azāq)
Title
Musical performance during the Sultan's meal
Short description
Musical performance during the Sultan's meal, with qurʾānic cantillation and songs in Arabic, Persian and Turkish.
Text on source
وبعد الفراغ من الطعام قرأ القرآن بالأصوات الحسان، ثم نُصِبَ منبر وصعده الواعظ وجلس القراء بين يديه وخطب خطبة بليغة ودعا للسلطان وللأمير وللحاضرين يقول ذلك بالعربي ثم يفسره لهم بالتركي، وفي أثناء ذلك يكرر القراء آيات من القرآن بترجيع عجيب، ثم أخذوا في الغناء يغنون بالعربي ويسمونه القول ثم بالفارسي والتركي ويسمونه الملمع [ص. ٢٣١]
English translation
When the meal was finished the Qurʿān-readers recited with beautiful voices. A pulpit was then set up and the preacher mounted it, the Qurʾān-readers sitting in front of him, and he delivered an eloquent address and prayed for blessings on the sultan, the amīr, and all those present, saying that [first] in Arabic and then translating it for them in Turkish. During the intervals of this [ceremony], the Qurʾān-readers would start again to recite verses from the Qurʾān in a wonderful harmony [tarjīʿ] then they began to sing [ġināʾ], singing [first] in Arabic (this they call qawl) and then in Persian and Turkish (this they call mulammaʿ)
Folios/Pages
477
Date
1332 circa
Observations on the events description
Gibb, Vol. II, n. 238: Qawl in Arabic means 'speech', but is glossed in Persian dictionaries as "a kind of song". Mulammaʿ, meaning a brindled or piebald horse, was applied to poetry composed of alternate verses or strophes in Persian and Turkish.
The dots on the map indicate the places where sound and music events were described. They don't represent travel stages.
Participants
No other participants in this event description.
How to quote
Pintimalli A., "Musical performance during the Sultan's meal" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 07 24.doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.130
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
