Performing Al-Andalus

Jonathan Holt Shannon is Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College, CUNY. He is author of Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria and A Wintry Day in Damascus: Syrian Stories.

Shannon has proven once again his deep knowledge of the cultural and intellectual landscape of the region. . . . Through its comparative and cross-cultural perspective, Performing al-Andalus is accessible to a wide audience, addressing particularly those interested in how music interacts with memory cultures, ideologies of belonging and their circulation within a transnational context.(Ethnomusicology Forum) [This] study is well-written, engaging, and supported by a substantial bibliography. . . . Recommended.(Choice) A sizeable body of literature has emerged in recent years that explores the musical legacies of al-Andalus from both a historical and a contemporary perspective. Jonathan Shannon's book is a crucial addition to this scholarship.(Music and Letters) Jonathan Holt Shannon's Performing al-Andalus is evocative, accessible, compact, and innovative in its methodological and expository approach. These qualities make it an attractive text for undergraduate students, as well as for graduate seminars focused on Mediterranean studies, the ethnomusicology of the Middle East and North Africa, and the politics of culture and memory.(Review of Middle East Studies)

• PreludeAcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationOverture Performance, Nostalgia, and the Rhetoric of al-Andalus: Mediterranean Soundings 1. In the Shadows of Ziryab: Narratives of al-Andalus and Andalusian Music2. The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Modern Syria, or, There and Back Again3. The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Morocco: Genealogical Imagination and Authenticity4. The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Spain: Nostalgic Dwelling among the Children of ZiryabFinalis The Project of al-Andalus and Nostalgic Dwelling in the 21st CenturyGlossaryNotesReferencesIndex