an introductory note from the author, Samoora (El Amiraat)
Arab/Muslim countries:
The difference between an Arab, Middle-Eastern, and Muslim people has absolutely nothing to with their ethnicity, it’s all about the language, geography, and religion.
Arab Countries are those with official language ‘Arabic’. So the Arabic is their first language taught in schools, and used to conduct interior governmental business. Middle Eastern Countries are those countries that are geographically located in the Middle East. The Middle Eastern region is on the right side of the Red Sea, between Africa and the Far East.
Muslim Countries are the countries whose official religion is Islam where the Koran is integrated into the Constitution. Generally, the majority of the population of those countries are Muslim.
Arabic language:
Arabic: ‘Al Arabīyyah’, or, ‘Arabī’ spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language since approximately 6th century.
Quite a few English words are ultimately derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, like Spanish. Words like “sugar” (sukkar), "cotton” (quoṭn) or "algebra" (Al gabr), "alcohol" (Al kohool) etc…
Who is an Arab?
According to Habib Hassan Touma (1996), "An 'Arab', in the modern sense of the word, is one who is a national of an Arab state, has command of the Arabic language, and possesses a fundamental knowledge of Arabian tradition, that is, of the manners, customs, and political and social systems of the culture." On its formation in 1946, the Arab league defined an "Arab" as follows:
"An Arab is a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arabic speaking country, who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arabic speaking peoples."
A definition based on sociological variables is widely used since medieval times Ibn Khaldun, for example, does not use the word Arab to refer to the Arab people as defined by any of those definition, but only to those who are still living a bedouin life; i.e. a nomadic life, which he - Ibn Khaldoun - contrasts with urbanized life at the cities), this definition is still used by many Arabs.
Dialects and descendants:
The main dialectal division is between the North African dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. Speakers of some of these dialects are unable to converse with speakers of another dialect of Arabic; in particular, while Middle Easterners can generally understand one another, they often have trouble understanding North Africans (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern—especially Egyptian—films and other media).
One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine fīh, and North African kayən all mean "there is", and all come from Arabic (yakūn, fīhi, kā'in respectively), but now sound very different.
The major groups are:
- Egyptian Arabic
- Maghreb Arabic (Algerian Arabic, Morrocan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, Maltese and western Libyan)
- Levantine Arabic (Western Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and western Jordanian, Cypriote Maronise Arabic)
- Iraqi Arabic (and Khuzestani Arabic) - with significant differences between the more Arabian-like gilit-dialects of the south and the more conservative qeltu-dialects of the northern cities
- Gulf Arabic (Saudi Arabian, Western Iraq, Eastern Syrian , Jordanian and parts of Oman)
- East Arabian Arabic (Bahrain, Saudi Eastern Province, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, and Oman)
Other varieties include:
Let’s talk Arabic culture!
Learning Arab Dance in general is getting the dance skills yes but without having gained a bit of the Arab cultural dance experience, you do feel something is actually missing in the way you perform.
It’s very important to try as much as you can to put all the moves, techniques and practices back into their cultural contexts. Lots of different styles and practices are all regrouped in one language: Arabic. Understanding the Arab dance is being aware of the Arab culture too to help you adding the cultural understanding of the Arab dance and music in your knowledge.
How can dancers focus on that very important bit, the relationship between melody, rhythm, lyrics, moves, mannerisms, gestures, emotion etc, etc… if they don’t particularly make a strong connection between both Arab dance and music?
Even if you get the songs translated for you, you still need to be aware of those specific dance styles and music of the four Arab zones. This helps the dancers to understand and learn the core of the Arab music and get the correct expression while dancing. It also facilitates a better knowledge of what to do at this or that lyrical meaning
We all have notice the amazing Belly Dance explosion around the world these few last years, it is a nice enthusiasm everywhere in the non-Arab world BUT is the origin of this Art mentioned in each class, workshop, seminar so that everyone gets the dance skills completed with the right information as the origin of the dance, the culture etc…? Does really every dancer know about the ethnic origin, cultural context, social implications or national varieties of the dances they are performing? Several ‘feeding with information Seminars’ could be a good idea as this will help dancers to gain that important knowledge with correct information. The idea is to think soul, brain and body all in one jar in order to create the exact authentic dance.
The Arab culture has always been a nice, original, rich and colourful picture for Westerners. In the mid 90's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page decided to play together and rearranged some songs from Led Zeppelin and invited Hossam Ramzy and his band to their big concert in Paris. Nowadays, modern singers like Beyonce, Sting, Jay-Z and Shakira use the melodies and rhythms on their CDs and dance moves in their videos.
Getting the correct information on the Arab culture makes the knowledge of the Arab dance and music much easier to understand. |
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