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Iraqi musicians fight to revive ancient art of maqam

April 20, 2018 By administrator

Iraqi ancient art of maqam

Rooted in classical and colloquial Arab poetry and embracing a wide repertoire of melodies, the Iraqi maqam is considered a symbol of the musical history of Iraq and the Middle East. Inscribed in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008, the Iraqi maqam is still alive, whereas many Arab musical styles in the region have either disappeared or become Westernized over time.

Yet the future does not look too bright for maqam either, particularly if the Iraqi government does not adopt policies to revive and strengthen this musical style played with traditional Iraqi instruments and strong vocals.

“The government authorities have neglected this ancient art, and all the activities that are being held today are based on individual efforts,” Ismael Fadel, an Iraqi maqam singer residing in Australia, told Al-Monitor. Fadel established a musical band to perform maqam in Australia, and it has performed in Britain and Israel as well.

Fadel said there are still many maqam experts — singers, musicians and researchers — in Iraq and abroad who try to maintain this traditional music, as well as an audience who wants to attend maqam concerts. The younger generation in Iraq is not exposed to maqam music, as few maqam concerts are broadcast on Iraqi TV. “The younger generation is unaware and does not listen to maqam music … because satellite channels have neglected it, [choosing instead] to broadcast mediocre songs associated with commercial rather than cultural projects.”

The Smithsonian on Armenia’s ancient winemaking tradition, its rebirth “Video Karas Monument”

October 31, 2016 By administrator

The Smithsonian Magazine has published an article about Armenia as a cradle of winemaking, suggesting that the eighth-century BC kings of Urartu referred to ancient Armenia as “the land of the vineyards” and Assyrian armies marveled at its vast quantities of fruit trees and vines. According to Genesis, it is in the mountains of Ararat that Noah plants the first vineyard and becomes drunk on wine.

“Centuries later, however, the Soviet rule nearly erased traditional winemaking from Armenia’s culture. From the 1930s through the early 90s, Armenian winemakers received instruction to mass-produce fortified wines and brandy rather than traditional Armenian table wines. Needing constant attention and supervision, many vineyards fell into disrepair, and it wasn’t until the late 1990s that winemakers started to breathe life back into the industry,” the article says.

The Smithsonian reminds that in 2010, researchers with the University of California, Los Angeles and the Armenian Institute of Archeology and Ethnography unearthed archeological evidence of the world’s oldest known winery in the village of Areni in southeastern Armenia.

“Beneath a layer of sheep manure inside a cave, the remains of crushed grapes and vessels for collecting and fermenting grape juice dating to 6,100 years ago were recovered, proving that humans produced wine systematically one thousand years earlier than thought. Additionally, traces of a grape used in red wine production today were found on pot shards at the excavation site, forging a new link between ancient and modern wine production,” it says.

“Fueled by the recent discovery, a new generation of post-communism vintners has set out to reclaim Armenia’s winemaking heritage, identifying and reintroducing historic grape varietals.

“Part of what distinguishes Armenian wine is its exceptional terroir, or the collection of environmental factors that influences grape growth – some of the highest wine-growing elevations in the northern hemisphere, diverse microclimates and rich, volcanic soils lend distinct flavors to an array of indigenous grape varietals.”

The publication goes on to suggest several destinations to experience the best of Armenia’s wine renaissance, which include Rind, Areni and Yeghegnadzor in Vayots Dzor province, as well as Ashtarak in Aragatsotn province.

The Smithsonian has covered the ancient Armenian winemaking and its rebirth time and time again. It unveiled an article about therenaissance of Armenian wine back in spring.

Ancient Greek citadel discovered in Jerusalem under a car park

November 4, 2015 By administrator

Acra, the legendary fortress built by Antiochus over 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, has been unearthed under a parking lot. The lost citadel was considered one of the world’s great unsolved archaeological mysteries.

Those familiar with Jewish traditions will know the name Antiochus, as he was the Greek King who tried to ban Jewish religious rites – and that sparked the Maccabean rebellion. The rebels defeated the Greeks, who starved after a long siege of their stronghold. The victory is remembered with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

This Greek fortress built by Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes (215-164 BC), called Acra, is mentioned in at least two ancient texts – the Book of Maccabees, which tells of the rebellion, and a written record by historian Josephus Flavius.

Yet archaeologists have puzzled for over a century as to the exact location of this legendary citadel. Many thought it stood in what is now Jerusalem’s walled Old City, a site considered sacred for both the Jews who know it as Temple Mount and the Muslims who hold two holy sites there, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Now “one of Jerusalem’s greatest archaeological mysteries” could be solved, said the Israel Antiquities Authority on Tuesday (03.11.2015). They claimed that this ancient Greek citadel had finally been found – buried under a car park.

The former Givati parking lot is outside the Old City, in a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied east Jerusalem, on what used to be known as the City of David in 168 BC.

“This sensational discovery allows us for the first time to reconstruct the layout of the settlement in the city, on the eve of the Maccabean uprising in 167 BC,” said Doron Ben-Ami, who led the excavation.

A massive wall which could have been the base of a tower was discovered – over 20 meters long (65 feet) and 4 meters wide (12 feet).

Lead sling stones and bronze arrowheads from the period were also found on the site around it. Archaeologists believe they were left over from battles between pro-Greek forces and Jewish rebels trying to take over the fortress.

“This is a rare example of how rocks, coins and dirt can come together in a single archaeological story that addresses specific historical realities from the city of Jerusalem,” Ben-Ami said.

eg/kbm (AFP, Reuters)

Symposium on ancient Armenia

October 21, 2015 By administrator

Distance of more than a quarter century of publishing the thesis of James Russell, Zoroastrianism in Armenia, this conference allows to make a first focus on religious interactions in ancient Armenia (seventh century BC. – fifth century. AD).

The advancing research, discovery and new interdisciplinary perspectives allow to understand the Armenian case in a more global framework.

In the presence of James Russell, a professor at Harvard University, this conference will bring together many Armenian specialists, French and Italian.

Scientific Committee: Samra Azarnouche Patrick Donabédian, Frantz Grenet, Charles Lamberterie, Giusto Traina.

Monday 26 and Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Collège de France (Room Levi-Strauss), 52 rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 75005 Paris

Schedules and full program on: http://www.labex-resmed.fr/interactions-religieuses-dans-l

Wednesday, October 21, 2015,
Claire © armenews.com

Syria troops drive ISIL out of ancient city of Palmyra

May 17, 2015 By administrator

Syrian government troops have pushed the ISIL terrorists back from the remains of Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra in the western province of Homs.

Homs provincial governor, Talal Barazi, said on Sunday that the Syrian army units have recaptured the northern districts of Palmyra, known as Tadmor in Arabic, one day after they fell to Takfiri terrorists.

The Takfiri group’s “attack was foiled, and we ousted them from the northern parts of Tadmur,” Barazi said, adding, “The army is still… combing the streets for bombs.”

The Syrian governor added that the government forces managed to kill “more than 130” Takfiri terrorists in the process of flushing them out of the area.

He said the ISIL terrorist group’s attack on Tadmor has forced a large group of people to flee the area.

“We are taking all necessary precautions, and we are working on securing humanitarian aid quickly in fear of mass fleeing from the city,” he added.

Syria’s antiquities chief, Mamoun Abdulkarim, also said on Sunday that the ancient site has not suffered any damage from the Takfiri’s attacks.

“We have good news today, we feel much better,” Mamoun Abdulkarim said, adding, “There was no damage to the ruins, but this does not mean we should not be afraid.”

On Thursday, the UN cultural agency expressed grave concern over the threats posed by the Takfiri ISIL group to Palmyra.

“The site has already suffered four years of conflict, it suffered from looting and represents an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people and for the world,” Irina Bokova, the director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said.

The Takfiri terrorists have razed to the ground a number of mosques in Syria and Iraq, many of them dating back to the early years of the Islamic civilization. The terrorists have also destroyed tombs belonging to revered Shia and Sunni figures.

In April, the ISIL terrorist group released a video showing its members destroying artifacts at Iraq’s northern ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud before blowing up the site.

Also in February, the terrorists smashed ancient statues at the Ninawa museum in Mosul, using sledgehammers and drills.

Source: Presstv

Taking a leaf from the Armenians’ book – The Telegraph

February 28, 2015 By administrator

Pope Francis, named a great Armenian saint, Gregory of Narek (pictured above), as a Doctor of the Church

Sacred Mysteries: the ancient civilisation of Armenia remains exotic and unknown in the West, but a holy monk from lake Van has just been declared a Doctor of the Church

By Christopher Howse

There’s a little book on my shelf that I can’t read. It is in Armenian, and I cannot even make out the attractive curly alphabet. Byron, by all accounts, did rather better, taking lessons in the language, from 1816, at the monastery where my book was printed.

This is at San Lazzaro, an island in Venice, between San Giorgio and the Lido. It was granted to the Armenian monks in 1717. The little community was brought there in that year by their first abbot Mechitar of Sebaste, after whom the monks are called Mechitarists.

This monastery was of Armenian Catholics, in other words, Armenians who recognised the primacy of the Pope. The majority of Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Armenians are fond of telling you that theirs was the first country to adopt Christianity, in 301, thanks to St Gregory the Illuminator. Armenia, with its Indo-European language unrecognisably related to ours, has a proud civilisation, but to say that its history in recent centuries has been difficult is an understatement.

I was thinking about the Armenians because, in the bright winter sun on Tuesday, I stumbled across the Armenian church in Kensington, St Sarkis, its white Portland stone shining exotically amid the red-brick mansion flats around it. It was built in 1922 in memory of the philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian’s parents.

The Prince of Wales visited the Armenians in London a few weeks ago at their nearby church of St Yeghiche as part of his efforts to draw attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East. He mentioned the destruction last November (by Islamists of the al-Nusra Front) of the Armenian church at Deir ez-Zor in Syria. It had been built as a memorial to the thousands of Armenian refugees from Turkey who died there in the second decade of the 20th century.

With these thoughts in mind, I discovered that Pope Francis had last Saturday named a great Armenian saint, Gregory of Narek (pictured above), as a Doctor of the Church. That is a rare title, there having been only another 35 in the history of the Church – people like St Jerome or St Athanasius.

St Gregory (950-1003) lived as a monk at Narek, near lake Van in what is now Turkey. A little more than 1,000 years later, the great monastery with its conical domes in the Armenian style was destroyed and the Armenians living around it killed.

St Gregory of Narek’s best-known work, the Book of Prayer, also called the Lamentations, might have been written as a meditation on that disaster and the episodess of martyrdom that have punctuated Armenia’s history. The saint’s aim is to bring God’s mercy to bear on mankind so that it might share in God’s nature. “This book will cry out in my place, with my voice, as if it were me,” he wrote. “May unspeakable faults be confronted and the traces of evil wrung out.”
Last year Pope Francis met the Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Karekin II, and spoke about martyrdom as a way of reuniting the Church. He had sketched out his thoughts before by remarking: “In some countries they kill Christians for wearing a cross or having a Bible; and before they kill them they do not ask them whether they are Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, or Orthodox.”

In St Gregory of Narek’s day, the Armenian Church, having followed its own path after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, was presumed by the Orthodox and by Western Catholics to be monophysite in teaching, with false beliefs about the nature of Jesus as God and man. It could hardly have been the case in practice, and the Catholic recognition of St Gregory and other Armenian saints demonstrated a shared faith. The proclamation of him as a doctor sets the seal on that unity of belief. In these murderous times, Christians in the East need all the unity of spirit they can muster.

The Ancient Ghost City of Ani

January 24, 2015 By administrator

The Monastery of the Hripsimian Virgins, in the ruins of the city of Ani, Turkey, on April 19, 2011. The monastery is thought to have been built between 1000 and 1200 AD, near the height of Ani’s importance and strength. The Akhurian River below acts as the modern border between Turkey and Armenia.

Situated on the eastern border of Turkey, across the Akhurian River from Armenia, lies the empty, crumbling site of the once-great metropolis of Ani, known as “the city of a thousand and one churches.” Founded more than 1,600 years ago, Ani was situated on several trade routes, and grew to become a walled city of more than 100,000 residents by the 11th century. In the centuries that followed, Ani and the surrounding region were conquered hundreds of times — Byzantine emperors, Ottoman Turks, Armenians, nomadic Kurds, Georgians, and Russians claimed and reclaimed the area, repeatedly attacking and chasing out residents. By the 1300s, Ani was in steep decline, and it was completely abandoned by the 1700s. Rediscovered and romanticized in the 19th century, the city had a brief moment of fame, only to be closed off by World War I and the later events of the Armenian Genocide that left the region an empty, militarized no-man’s land. The ruins crumbled at the hands of many: looters, vandals, Turks who tried to eliminate Armenian history from the area, clumsy archaeological digs, well-intentioned people who made poor attempts at restoration, and Mother Nature herself. Restrictions on travel to Ani have eased in the past decade, allowing the following photos to be taken. [27 photos]

Source: the atlantic

Ancient Armenian New Year, Navasard, marked on August 11

August 11, 2014 By administrator

In pagan Armenia the New Year was celebrated on August 11. The feast was called Navasard.

Ancient sources bear out that Navasard – New Year was adorned with solemn and splendid festivities, which lasted several days. There were carnivals, cavalcades, various games with participation of the king, noblemen and plain folk. Various open-air celebrations were often held at night around the fire at holy shrines.

Many legends have been told about this most beloved feast; it is said that on this very day our forefather Hayk had a stunning victory over his enemy Bel and gave start to the history of Armenians. It was also believed that this day Noah’s Arc landed on the peak of Mount Ararat, and so the yearly celebrations of Navasard-New Year were to reconfirm the beginning of the new era of humanity.

After the adoption of Christianity in Armenia this feast, along with many others, was officially reformed. The pagan temples were destroyed, the known celebrations and pilgrimages were forbidden. Navasard found its place neither in the church nor in civic calendar, but the people didn’t forget their tradition and they kept celebrating it for many centuries.

Armenia-India Exhibition of ancient Armenian books in Calcutta (India)

April 12, 2014 By administrator

Calcutta (India) was inaugurated there a few days ago by Ara Hagopian Armenian Ambassador in India, an exhibition devoted to ancient Armenian books lent mostly by the Armenian National Library. The exhibition today ending April 12. Among the works exhibited note the “Ourpatakirk” (The Book of Friday) published in Venice in 1512 which is the first Armenian printed book. Other parts are also presented such as the “Asdvadzachounch” (The Bible in Armenian) published in Amsterdam between 1666 and 1668. The first Armenian newspaper, published in Madras (India), the “Aztarar” is also exposed. During the inauguration were also present Dikran Zarkarian the Director of National Library of Armenia, many Indian officials including Radjindra Koumar the director of the National Library of India.

Krikor Amirzayan