Entertainment in the Islamic Culture

Entertainment in the Islamic Culture

Since the birth of Islam the permissibility of melodies and vocalising has been debated. Not only was the lawfulness of the entertainer but furthermore of the assembly discussed. Advocates and adversaries alike traced the legitimacy of their place back to the Quran and the hadiths, the sayings of the Prophet. As in present day Egypt, these arguments on the lawfulness of melodies did not avert the art from flourishing in castles and personal homes.

The seventeenth-century Muslim scholar Chelebi distinguishes three classes of music: that approaching from birds, from the human throat and from ...