The Quran as Recited Word

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The Quran as Recited Word
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Orality vs. Written Word

• Plato and the bastard brother
• Oral essence of the Islamic tradition books,
  hadith and Quran
• Quran as simultaneously oral and written in its
  vision of itself
• Kitab
• Lawh al-mahfuz
• But its not a book!

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The Quran as Recitation for Non-Arabs

• Ubiquitous in the Arab world
• Shops, cars and street
• TV shows
• For non-Arabs?
• Touchstone of religious identify
• Ex. Boatman in Mali in city of Mopti
• The Word manifest in this world

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• Yes, sir, please, I wont make another
  mistake. Listen One more time, trembling and
  panting, he repeated the sparkling words. His
  eyes imploring, his voice faint, his small body
  moist with fever, he heart beating madly. Those
  words that he did not understand, for which he
  suffered like a martyr, he loved them for their
  mystery and somber beauty. That speech was
  unlike any other. It was speech that marked
  suffering, it was speech come from God, it was a
  miracle, as if God himself had pronounced the
  words. The teacher was right. The word that
  comes from God must be recited exactly, in the
  way that God had willed it fashioned. Whoever
  obliterates it deserves death The teacher let
  go of the childs ear, bleeding. Not a tear had
  run down the childs fine face. His voice was
  calm and his delivery measured. The Word of God
  flowed, pure and supple, from his ardent lips.
  His aching head pulsed with the sound. It
  contained within it the totality of the world,
  all that is visible and all that is invisible,
  its future and its past. That Word that he gave
  birth to in his pain, it was the very
  architecture of the world, it was the world
  itself.
• -Hamidou Kane, lAventure ambigue

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Quran Reciters (qari)

• Different styles 3 standard modes of reciting
• hadr rapid mode like normal talking speed
• tadwir medium
• tartil slow and musical
• Quran reciter in wait for it
• As opposed to ulama
• Boy reciters?
• Saudi boy reciting
• Senegalese woman reciting
• Recitation in prayer