Here we present a cassette from Morocco with a Dhikr ceremony of the Darqawiyah, a well-known Tariqa in Morocco, a branch of the Shadhiliyah.
The title of the cassette means: "The Zawiya (convent, place in which Dhikr ceremonies take place) of the Darqawa in Praise of the Best of Creation." This hints at the singing of poems of praises of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS). But this cassette also contains Dhikr.
As our blogger friend Tim Abdellah who runs the wonderful blog
moroccantapestash.blogspot.com/ wrote in response to our request for help with the title of this cassette:
"Sometimes poems bearing this phrase ("في مدح خير البرية" (fi madh khayr albaria)) in the title are short, and contain a series of verses beginning or ending successively with each letter of the alphabet, like this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/390546598921590345/
and this
https://archive.org/download/sar.alhrof-1/sar.alhrof-1.jpg
Some of them, however are much, much longer. It turns out that the famous poem known as Qasidat al-Burda is actually called al-Kawākib ad-Durrīya fī Madḥ Khayr al-Barīya (الكواكب الدرية في مدح خير البرية) "The Celestial Lights in Praise of the Best of Creation". (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Burda)
I wonder whether your tape contains a poem that is specifically Darqawi in origin, or one that is in general circulation and performed here by some Darqawi brothers. In any case, I'm looking forward to hearing it!
The j-card does read juz' 4 (part 4) الجزء:4 (that means it is volume 4 of a series)
Also, the very fine print reads: تنسيق: عبد الرحيم العمراني which means something like "arranged by Abderrahim Amrani". Amrani is a moqaddem of the Fez Hamadcha, and the musical director of their group as well. So it appears that he has his hand in more than just Hamadcha music in Fez - the contact email listed on the j-card for this Darqawa tape looks like: amranifolklor@caramail.com."
Many many thanks for your very generous and very appreciated help, Tim.
We had posted in 2011 a Dhikr accompanied by Arabo-Andalusian music from a branch of the Darqawiyah. See
here.
Last year we posted a cassette of Sama' (Sufi singing) of the Alawiyah, a well-known Tariqa in Algeria, which branched off of the Darqawiyah at the beginning of last century. See
here.
Over the years we also posted a good number of other cassettes of Sufi singing from Morocco. See under the label Morocco here on the right side.
For infos on the Darqawiyah see:
The letters (Rasail) of Shaikh ad-Darqawi exist in several English and especially French translations.
Our dear friend Danny brought this cassette from a trip to Morocco last year. Many thanks for sharing so generously.
Sidi Ali ibn Mawlay Tayyeb ibn Mawlay al-Arabi Darqawi, a grandson of Shaikh ad-Darqawi, who apparently was a follower of Shaikh al-Alawi.
