Rabat - The fragrance of oud incense fills the stage of the Allal El Fassi Hall in Rabat moments before the start of an art workshop to teach Sufi listening and Andalusian music.
"Tayeb councils do not begin only with Tayeb," says the artist supervising the workshop Said Belkadi, for Al Jazeera Net, carrying an incense burner and wandering between the chairs.
Belkadi believes that the delication of the place is part of the rituals of Sufi listening, as these councils are not like others and oblige the preparation of the attendees by creating a spiritual atmosphere commensurate with the remembrance and refined speech that will be in them.
The workshop begins with a review of the archived poems and muwashahat, Saeed intervenes at every mistake, to correct the balance and performance, and from time to time he moves them to mystical meanings that urge them to respond to the spirit of this original art and imbibe its words and balances, not only memorize and perform them.
Belkadi does not tolerate mistakes, no matter how simple, as he does not want to lower the level of this artistic style for the beneficiaries to perform easily and easily, but believes that they must exert their efforts to raise their performance to the high level.
Amal Bey, one of the beneficiaries of this workshop, which is supervised by the Nour Al-Aseel Association, has been attending regularly for 4 months to learn from Belkadi's experience and experience in the worlds of Sufi listening and Andalusian music.
Do not miss the hopes of attending concerts for this art in Rabat, as she is a fan of Sufi listening, and found in this workshop an opportunity to learn its origins and rules from an artist who is passionate about it.
She tells Al Jazeera Net that Said Belkadi transferred to them the passion and desire to probe the secrets of this heritage and master its performance and dive into its spirit, and is now excited to participate in a large ceremony that the Assembly intends to organize soon, in which the members of the workshop will present the fruits of their efforts and what they learned.
Spirit and art
Since his childhood, the artist Said Belkadi was associated with the art of Sufi listening, as he accompanied his grandfather to Zawiya Dergaouia in Tangier, where he learned the basics of listening and Andalusian music, memorizing poems and muwashahat, and is now a well-known and well-known artist for his efficiency.
Andalusian tarab or instrumental music entered Morocco with the delegations of Andalusian immigrants, and is subject to the Nubian system, which is based on a sequence of pieces, which maintains a general principle of acceleration within known rhythmic periods.
At the end of the 17th century, the number of spells settled on 11 shifts using the same five rhythms, according to the book "The Teacher of Morocco" for this musical style.
"The Teacher of Morocco" is a dictionary of knowledge related to the various historical, geographical, human and cultural aspects of the Far Maghreb, created by the Moroccan Association for Authorship, Translation and Publishing.
As for listening, it is one of the styles of Moroccan music and is intended to sing Sufi religious poems and poems, according to certain types and melodies and relying on sounds only.
Listening is based on Sufi poetry with its various purposes of remembrance, invocation, begging and praise of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the emergence of the art of listening dates back to the period of the monotheists, and it has arisen and developed in the corners and competed with its followers in Sufi poetry systems and performance.
Belkadi seeks to bring his passion for this authentic artistic heritage to everywhere in the country, and workshops are held in the cities of Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca and El Jadida, where lovers of these artistic styles from different age groups are willing to learn it.
Belkadi says to Al Jazeera Net, "Our goal is to bring out this heritage in an academic manner based on sound foundations from the boundaries of the corner and elite councils to all people and their endearment to it."
The turnout for these workshops "is proof that fine art always has listeners and lovers, no matter how loud the new musical waves spread", he said.
Said Belkadi heads the Riad Tarab Association for Sufi Music and Listening in Tangier, and in his workshop about 200 people interested in Sufi and Andalusian musical heritage from different age groups attend.
In Rabat, the workshop – organized by the Nour Al-Aseel Association for Music – is attended by about 80 individuals, says Secretary-General Hassan El Gendy of the Assembly to Al Jazeera Net that these are the members of the Said Belkadi artistic band in Rabat, and will live after completing their training concerts in the technician of hearing and instrument.
Those who are fond of learning the art of listening and traditional music are originally the audience of this art, they used to fill theaters to enjoy the performance of professional artistic groups and taste poems and muwashahat, and today they have become practitioners and professionals after learning its scientific and academic principles and rules.
Said does not overlook the spiritual aspect of this artistic heritage, as in his view he cannot learn to hear in isolation from the origin and the origin, which is the angles with all the meanings they represent associated with spirituality and self-discipline and purification.
Women in the lead
Despite the diversity of age groups attending Said Belkadi's workshops, most of them are women, housewives and employees, young and old. Belkadi explains that women are always looking for family blocs to belong, so in listening workshops they find a large artistic family to which they spontaneously belong.
He adds that "when these artistic styles were confined to the walls of the corners, women did not have a presence, and if they attended, they were in the background of the scene, and after it came out of the corners, women came to learn this art, and moved from the position of the listener from afar to the position of the practitioner and the world with the principles of performance."
Artist Said Belkadi believes that teaching this art according to the rules and rules in these workshops is part of his duty, so he moves between different cities tirelessly to frame workshops and hold art concerts.
"As artists, we have to work hard to reach lovers of this art without paying attention to obstacles, and work to spread this heritage, so that every city has workshops like this," he said.