Musical intimacy, model citizenship, and Sufism in the life of Niyazi Sayın

Banu Senay*, Christopher Houston

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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    Abstract

    Niyazi Sayın is an Istanbul-born ney (reed flute) virtuoso, and the most acclaimed musician of a musical tradition controversially called “Ottoman-Turkish classical music.” Now 94 years old, Sayın has been called insan-i kamil (a perfect human), kutb-ı nayi, (the musical spiritual axis of his age), and hezarfen (master of a thousand arts). What do such titles mean? Building upon the work of Martin Stokes on popular music and its fashioning of intimate publics, this paper explores Sayın's musical life. We argue that it provides an exemplary expression of cultural intimacy for listeners and students, one that (as reflected in his titles) demonstrates a particular way of becoming a person, a Muslim, and a model citizen. In contrast with more official constructions of citizenship, as well as with the political neo-Ottomanism of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Sayın's life and music open up alternative possibilities of self-alteration for those who engage with it.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)225-242
    Number of pages18
    JournalInternational Journal of Middle East Studies
    Volume54
    Issue number2
    Early online date21 Mar 2022
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - May 2022

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright the Author(s) 2022. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

    Keywords

    • citizenship
    • music
    • Turkey
    • Istanbul
    • ney
    • Sufism
    • Niyazi Sayın

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