ABSTRACTS ARE
INVITED.
Proposals of
papers are invited for an international conference looking
at the history and development of the muwashshah
and zajal in the Arabic and Jewish literary and
musical culture of medieval al-Andalus.
This conference
is effectively the sixth in a series looking at the history
and development of Arabic strophic poetry (tawshih).
Previous conferences included the Exeter “Colloquium on
Muwashshah and Kharja” in 1988 and the SOAS “Conference on
Arabic and Hebrew Strophic Poetry and its Romance Parallels”
in 2004 and 2020. We are particularly excited that next
year’s conference will be held in North Africa, in Tunisia,
where we shall be hosted by the Higher Institute for
Music, University of Sousse. [1]
Organised in collaboration with the ICTMD Study Group on
Music in the Arab World.
PROSPECTUS
This two-day
conference will explore all aspects of that culture from its
origins to the present day.
There will also
be a dedicated stream which aims to explore the
relationship between these verse forms and the lyric forms
of Early Europe, a relationship which has long been
acknowledged but where little research is currently being
done.
The 2026
conference is part of a three-year programme developed
together with colleagues in Tunisia, Sicily and Barcelona.
Extending from 2026 to 2028, the project will study the
circulations of music and song in the period c.1100 to 1350
in a geographical territorial space that includes
al-Andalus, Sicily, Southern Italy and North Africa (the
latter with a particular emphasis on Tunisia). Specifically,
we shall be extending researches into the Andalusi poetic
forms and their possible relationship to the Early European
lyric (canso/canzone, virelai, ballata,
sonnet etc). It is expected that such a mapping will offer
new insights into the origins and contextual locations of
the Early European lyric.
The first
colloquium will take place in Tunisia (in the port towns of
Mahdia and Sousse) on 24-29 March 2026. Two
days of conferencing activities at the University of Sousse
will be followed by an optional programme of musical
encounters with local musicians, particularly exploring the
historic Sufi musical traditions of North Africa.
This will be an
IN-PERSON conference. In a few cases, if unavoidable,
it may be possible to organise tele-conferencing for
participants who cannot attend in person.
The conference
languages will be English and French; contributions in
Arabic will be pre-translated.
2. The second
colloquium will take place at the University of
Palermo, in 2027. It will focus on the poetic culture
of Arabs, Jews and Christians in Sicily – both the poetics
of exile / diaspora and the poetics of the Sicilian court of
Federico II, setting them in their historical contexts.
3. The third
colloquium will take place in Barcelona in 2028,
where we shall explore the cross-over relations between the
musical / poetic cultures of al-Andalus (Islamic, Jewish and
Christian) and the trans-border culture of the troubadours.
4. At the
halfway point (in 2027) we shall organise a small
conceptualising workshop, to be held at the School of
Oriental and African Studies [SOAS University of
London], in collaboration with colleagues from the
Mediterranean Music Studies group of the ICTMD, where
we shall seek to draw together the various threads of the
project.
ILLUSTRATIVE
MATERIAL
As a taster of
our proposed concert programme, here is an encounter that we
organised in Mahdia in April 2025, between Southern Italian
traditional musicians from Calabria and Tunisian Sufi
musicians from Mahdia, meeting and playing at the house of
Fadhel Sakka.
And for a view
of Mahdia and its culture, see:
SUBMISSION OF
PROPOSALS
If you wish to
present a paper at the conference, please send an ABSTRACT
of not more than 200 words.
Please include
the TITLE of the paper and your NAME and INSTITUTIONAL
AFFILIATION (if any).
Please also
include a brief BIO / CV of not more than
100 words.
Proposals should
be sent by e-mail to the following address:
PLEASE
NOTE: The DEADLINE
for submissions is 15 November 2025.
Expressions of
interest in advance of that date are also welcome, since
this helps in the general planning process.
REGISTRATION:
The conference
is open to the general public. Admission is free but
registration is required. To register, write to the address
below.
One purpose of
our conference is to consolidate ongoing research networks
on the topic. If you would like to join the mailing list for
this research project, write to the following address:
ed.emery@soas.ac.uk
NOTES:
1. For the
proceedings of the 2004 and 2020 SOAS Conferences, see:
__________
First posted: 20
August 2025