Mohamed Salah
Many African Muslims managed to retain their religious roots, and they were well educated and knew the Arabic language and the Qur'an, according to African Diaspora researcher Sylvan Diouf, who sparked controversy in her 1998 book, "Worshipers of God," published by New York University.
In her book, the author sheds light on the Islamic heritage in the culture of the Americas, noting that Muslims have devised ways to express their culture, despite the pressure exerted on them to abandon them, and they have been chanting a mixture of mourners, prayers, and field songs that have evolved over long decades until they have resulted in Today it is known as "blues music" which has become a landmark of American culture.
In 2017, the Library of Congress released a rare manuscript over two centuries old, written in his handwriting and in clear Arabic, an African American called Omar bin Saeed, who opened it with a Quranic verse and started broadcasting his sorrows and recounted the tragedy of his kidnapping from his homeland and his enslavement after he was a wealthy educated dear In his homeland.
Historical accounts indicate that Omar bin Saeed embraced Christianity under pressure, but contemporary researchers pointed out that he remained a Muslim, as he found supplications and prophetic praises of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, in addition to praising the descriptions of Christ as a prophet without his deification, where litigations remained a way to express His belief and roots.
Maghreb roots
Austrian music researcher Gerhard Kubik speaks in his book "Africa and Blues" that was published in 1999 about similar wavy intonations in blues and calligraphy, due to "the bonding of enslaved people from West Africa with the Islamic lyric heritage in the Arab Maghreb, North Africa, and the Arab oud instrument of origin" From which I developed several string instruments, such as guitar, violin, and banjo, which African-Americans have been known to play. "
Quebec concludes that "the blues are a fully Arab Islamic component", and this opinion is shared by many researchers, including John Storm Roberts in his book "Black Music in Two Worlds" issued in 1998.
The researcher Samuel Charters also affirms that "Afro-American music has its roots in a region between the Senegal River and southern Guinea, a region subjected to Maghreb influences, where the cities of Kairouan, Tlemcen and Fez were the starting point for the spread of Arab-Islamic civilization in Africa."
This is confirmed by the Brazilian musician and blues researcher Adriano Greenberg, who says that "Blues are at the heart of Middle Eastern music, as North African culture and the Eastern and Sufi musical influences there have a very tangible effect in the rhythmic form of blues, as well as its impact on Bayon music popular in the northern regions. From Brazil too, which makes her very similar to blues. ”
Applause
in a study published in the American newspaper "San Francisco Chronicle" on the Arab and Islamic roots of blues, the author Sylvan Diouf indicated that Muslims made up about 30% of Africans who were forcibly brought to the Americas 400 years ago.
She adds that blues music and the style of her songs are very similar to "call to prayer" in terms of calling to prayer, speaking of a glorious deity, trembling of words, undulation of vocal layers, movement between musical denominations, and nasal intonations that control vocal performance.
Sylvian surprised her students at Harvard University for the first time, by offering an audio recording of the Islamic call to prayer with his African melody, and was followed by a recording of the famous blues song "Levee Camp Holler", which is one of the oldest and most famous blues songs that first appeared in the Mississippi Delta more than 100 General, as a style of singing melodic slow melodic rhythm, which is interrupted by breaks of sighs or whining, and depends on the vocal motifs and the lengthening of the letters of the words similar to the movement of the tide in the call to prayer.
Sylvian was thus assuring students of the clear link between the song whose words seek help from God in the face of the harsh conditions of life, and the call to prayer for Muslims to pray, to cheer the hall with applause.
From blues to jazz,
according to Columbia University researcher Dr. Hisham Aydi in his 2015 American Book Award-winning book Rebel Music, the blues' influence has extended to jazz, one of the most popular forms of American music that is clearly evident by a group of its stars influenced by the rhythm of Tawach Religious.
The saxophone player, one of the most prominent and important jazz musicians John Cultrin, comes at the forefront of them, as his immortal music album "Supreme Love", which he launched in 1964, is one of the flags of jazz and achieved the highest sales at the time.
Composer Yusef Latif affirms that two cultures who chanted in the verses accompanying his piece, "All Praise Belongs to God" more than once, were meant by "Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds," from Surat Al-Fatihah, who has long heard his wife recite in her prayers.
The semantics of the verse as a whole are similar to those of Surat Al-Fatihah, in addition to the way in which the orchestra begins to sing closely resembles the way the Sufi chants seek in the episodes of Sufi dhikr that end with repeated saying "God is alive .. God is alive."
Many jazz artists have embraced Islam, and their works have been influenced to a great extent by Islamic tunes and spirituality, according to the famous American jazz player Daisy Gillespie in his book "To Be or Not to Be."