Madih nabawi
Madih nabawi, one of the principle religious genres of Arab music, a song form devoted to eulogizing or rather praising the Prophet Muhammad and his family. The genre dates from 632 CE, immediately after the death of Muhammad, but the performers address Muhammad as if he were still alive. It is also Sufi genre of belletristic Arab literature. (Touma 1996, p.161)
Musical genres or subgenres in the madih repetoire include tanzilah ("revelation"), ibtihal ("supplication"), tawassul ("beseechment"), tawshih, and muwashshah. A typical peformance includes a solo singer accompied by a chorus of men with frame drums, the chorus singing a refrain which the soloist improvisationally answers through variation, paraphrasing, or transformation of the refrain, emphasising the characeristics of the respective maqam row or scale. (ibid, p.162)
Source
- Habib Hassan Touma (1996). The Music fo the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0931340888.