Ambient Sufism: Ritual Niches and the Social Work of Musical Form by Richard C. Jankowsky

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ambient Sufism: Ritual Niches and the Social Work of Musical Form by Richard C. Jankowsky Rachel Colwell Ambient Sufism: Ritual Niches and the Social Work of Musical Form. Richard C. Jankowsky. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2021. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology. xix + 244 pp., 9 figures, 10 tables, 20 musical examples, glossary, bibliography, index. ISBN: 9780226723334 (hardcover), $95.00; ISBN: 9780226723471 (paperback), $27.50; ISBN: 9780226723501 (e-book), $26.99. Accompanying website: https://sites.tufts.edu/ambientsufism/. Richard Jankowsky’s much-anticipated monograph, Ambient Sufism: Ritual Niches and the Social Work of Musical Form, delivers an impressive, in-depth examination of an array of Tunisian ritual musics considered from within a framework of musical ecology. It constitutes the first substantial literature on several of the genres described, especially in the English language. It is the first book of its kind to critically address complex political subjects like race and musical timbre in Tunisia and to discuss the place of music in contemporary conflict between Sufis, Islamic extremists, and the state. This book is at once a valuable resource for scholars specializing in Tunisian or Sufi musics and an approachable introduction for novices interested in learning about Tunisia’s sacred musical traditions and the religious, social, historical, and political elements with which they are intertwined. The central unifying concept of the text is “ambient Sufism,” Jankowsky’s term for the sacred topography of Sufi saints—remarkable historical figures whose shrines punctuate Tunisian cities and countryside—that resonates, however differently, in the musical practices of many Tunisian ritual communities. Ambient Sufism speaks to the palpable ways that this sacred-sonic complex serves as a shared resource and common structure that undergirds the interconnected sounds, practices, and ideas of various groups. Each religious ritual community uses these resources in their own way, applying aesthetics, timbres, and textures particular to their practice. Jankowsky shows how musical form and sonic mechanisms such as intensification do social work negotiating tensions around similarity and difference among neighboring religious communities. Ambitious not only in musical scope but also in its range of theoretical inquiry, the book also provides analyses of reflexivity, hospitality, alterity, and convergence in Tunisian ritual musics. [End Page 151] In a gesture toward poetics, the book’s organization mirrors the formal structures described in its text, the large-scale musical forms of the silsila and ḥaḍra. Each chapter examines a single case study, allowing for focus on the musics of each community, comparisons among the practices, and a cumulative effect across the book as a whole. The ritual musics discussed are (1) the ḥaḍra of the ‘Īsāwiyya, a widely known Sufi order, (2) the silsilas of the Mannūbiyya, a women’s Sufi healing troupe, (3) sṭambeli, a trance healing music developed by Tunisians of sub-Saharan descent, and (4) rebaybiyya, a healing music practiced by Tunisian Jews. Following the introduction and four case-study chapters, Jankowsky explores the recontextualization of Tunisian ritual musics today—the remnants of Jewish rebaybiyya in the mezwid genre and the staging of Sufi ḥaḍra in concert-like settings. The careful arrangement of the book’s chapters also affords synthesis across two important themes: the ritual and social work undertaken through the musical forms of the ḥaḍra and silsila and contemporary Tunisians’ concerns regarding major contextual shifts in performance. Jankowsky provides ample evidence for the importance of sonic intensification, foregrounding and attending to musical phenomena that have previously been overlooked as trivial and mundane (for example, repetition, consistency, and gradually increasing tempo and volume). He demonstrates the value, complexity, nuance, and potential that are alive in these sonic elements, how they influence each other, and how they enhance the ritual at hand. Ambient Sufism supplies a veritable toolbox of useful terms for the ethnomusicologist’s study of intensification including discrete, sequential, and global forms that operate through tempo, texture, density, timbre, and volume. The text is complemented by high-quality audio, video, and photographic materials, which are available online on the accompanying website. Its rich multimedia resources lend the text well to teaching, whether for an area-studies course or one focused on Sufism, sacred musics, musics and healing, or musics and...