Al Qasid issue 01: The real and imagined histories of sung poetry

Publication 

Al Qasid's pilot issue, The real and imagined histories of sung poetry, brings together contributions from scholars, artists, and composers, exploring the politics of archiving sung poetry, and the mediation and transmission of memories and folkloric traditions. Taking zajal poetry – a form of half-sung, half-improvised poetry dating back to the 1200s – as a starting point, the project is a broader reflection on the relationship between performance, oral history, institutional history, and the archive. The texts presented in this volume range from formal studies on the poetics of zajal to more speculative fictions and histories around sung poetry, in an attempt to explore zajal through scholarly and artistic prisms.

︎ Edited by Muriel N. Kahwagi
︎ Contributions by Shakeeb Abu Hamdan, Haig Aivazian, Adnan Haydar, Paula Haydar, Nadim Mishlawi, Mhamad Safa, Veda Thozhur Kolleri, and Muriel N. Kahwagi
︎ Supported by AFAC
︎ Photos by Christopher Baaklini