Namık Sinan Turan- Dear Bilen, you are known as the most important authority on Şerif Muhiddin Targan in Turkey today due to your musical performance and academic research on the oud. Before talking about your…
It’s been over a year since the cold winter morning when I picked up my phone to the buzz of a WhatsApp call from an unfamiliar number. It was Brother Ismail Hachim, originally from the…
Some ten years ago, in the summer of 2009, I heard a striking phrase. At the end of a lengthy conversation, after a long pause, my informal teacher, named Bilal, said, “You know, I was…
Does Palestine Need a Tarab Icon? A Short History of Mohammad ‘Assaf If the Palestinian people were to sit down to pick an anthem, a contender would certainly be Fairuz’s 1967 song Zahrat al-Mada’in, translated…
[Ahmet Köroğlu] First off, how about we get to know you briefly? [Namık Sinan Turan] I was born in Tarabya, Istanbul in 1972. My entire life of learning happened in Istanbul. After studying Political Science and…
This fascinating, timely, and important book on the connection between music and political activism among Muslim youth around the world looks at how hip-hop, jazz, and reggae, along with Andalusian and Gnawa music, have become…