User:Khadidja Belghoul/Ibn Arabi (band)

Ibn Arabi (band)

Ibn Arabi is a Moroccan Sufi chants’ band it is considered one of the oldest bands it was formed in 1988 in Tangier in Morocco and they are still active until present time. They are specialised in Sufi instrumental music and Sufi chants. The band is trying to revive the popular historical Sufi melodies.

Formation:

The band started from the Darqawiyya order in Tangier in the north of Morocco and it is one of the most popular Moroccan Sufi order and it is famous for Sama. Ahmed Khalia formed a Sufi chanting band and its goal was « To raise the doctrine of Sufism high. » and the result was Ibn Arabi band which started in 1988

The name:

The band was named after Ibn Arabi who was renowned by the honorific title Shaykh al-Akbar. He was a Sufi philosopher,and he is the one to whom Akbarism branch of Sufi metaphysics attributed.

Band’s members:

-         Abd Allah AL-Mansour  Tambourine player  and vocalist.

-         Ahmed Khalia Maestro and the founder. He has a PHD in Sufism and spiritual music from the French Sorbonne university.

-         Haroun Taboul Oud player.

-         Abd Wahid Al-Sanhadji Flutist.

-         Kifan Shmirani.

-         Oussama Khalia.

The band's style:

The band chooses their songs’ words from the famous Sufi poems  for well-known Sufi figures like Ibn Arabi, Ibn al-Farid, Rabia of Basra, Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habasha Suhrawardi and others the band also tries to picture how Sufism was in AL-Andalus through reviving the original Sufi music that was known there. Abd Al-Mansor said:

“”The band tries to combine the concept of spirit and musical tone in its performance. They try to combine the spirituals that are  in the poems of Sheikh Al-Akbar who the band is named after and the musical tone extracted from Zawiyah in general and from Imad Al-Maghrabi’s Zawiyah in particular.”