Music as a Gateway to Islamic Culture in "Ziryab, the Songbird of Andalusia"
By R.A. Sheth
One of the most unique aspects of America is how its diverse population enriches its culture. ven the current state of the world, where news of violence and terrorism emphasizes conflicts, it’s difficult to remember a time when people from different cultures co-existed. Yet for seven centuries, Christians, Jews, and Muslims co-existed in Islamic Spain. Inspired by this history, Muslim American playwright and musician Ronnie Malley, who grew up in Oak Lawn has resided in Orland Park, has written his upcoming play, "Ziryab, the Songbird of Andalusia," as an alternative to negative portrayals. The play will perform at Chicago's Silk Road Rising from February 18 through February 28, 2016.
A theatrical performer, producer and multi-talented musician who plays guitar, oud, keyboard and drums, Ronnie Malley is well-known in Chicago’s music community. He is a Chicago native whose family was part of the community that built the Bridgeview Mosque and whose father was part of the first immigrant wave of musicians who came to Chicago in the 1960s. Ronnie first started performing with his family’s band as a teenager, playing at private events like bar mitzvahs and weddings. From his father, Ronnie learned to view music as a community activity as well as a way to highlight and showcase one’s culture.
When people learned of Ronnie’s Middle Eastern heritage, they would often respond with comments like “Oh, those people have been fighting for thousands of years” or “There’s just never going to be any end in sight.” Ronnie disagreed. He knew there was much more to the Middle East than conflict. Music, an integral part of Middle Eastern culture as well as Ronnie’s life, had taught him otherwise. Now, with “Ziryab, the Songbird of Andalusia,” feels compelled to share a story unknown to most people.
In school, Ronnie was aware that there was music before Bach, but he simply wasn’t learning about it. That is, until one of his father’s friends, a Tunisian musician, told him the story of u l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi' (better known as Ziryab) former slave who became a well-known court musician and polymath in Al-Andalus (Arabic for Andalusia). Ronnie notes: “Ziryab was not only a wonderful musician who made great progress and innovation in Andalusia and for the Middle East but also on the oud itself.” In fact, Ziryab’s addition of the fifth string on the oud, an instrument similar to the lute, eventually led to the modern guitar.
From the start, Ronnie was fascinated with Ziryab, feeling a connection to this figure from the 9th century: “Here was the missing link I had been looking for all my life.” While Ronnie found few sources on Ziryab in a pre-Internet era, he nevertheless learned that he, like Ziryab himself, inhabited an environment where people had “a kinship to the culture and music.” For Ronnie, music became a gateway to learning about his own culture as well as the diversity of the Middle East and North Africa. “Through music and through the arts, I was able to create an amateur form of ethnography that allowed me to really learn deeply about cultures through the music that comes from those cultures.”
The Al-Andalus of Ziryab’s day was an epicenter of learning and knowledge. Throughout 700 years of Islamic rule, Christians, Jews and Muslims co-existed in peace: “The contribution of Islamic society was more than just religion. Just because it was under Islamic rule doesn’t mean other cultures didn’t have a say. In essence it became a place with a confluence of cultures from East and West.” Al-Andalus, a model of tolerance, enabled a pluralistic society to flourish--in the areas of astronomy, pharmacology and gastronomy to name a few--ushering Europe out of the Dark Ages. This era of cultural riches gave birth to many things we enjoy today in the Western world, like classical music.”
Ronnie’s personal immersion in the local music community recalled the Al-Andalus he had heard about: “It was a melding of different people with different backgrounds to share and contribute to one culture.” Ronnie gives a lot of credit to Chicago’s diverse, bustling and vibrant music scene, where he learned to play Arabic, African, Indian, Greek and even Blues music. “I probably wouldn’t have learned all the music that I did if I had been elsewhere.” He has been fortunate enough to apprentice, collaborate and perform with a lot of well-known visiting international musicians he’s idolized, like the Lebanese singer Tony Hanna. This abundance of opportunities instilled in Ronnie a great sense of responsibility--a desire to give back to the community that shaped him as a musician. This led him to teach guitar and oud at The Old Town School of Folk Music.
Through live Arabic music, poetry and storytelling, “Ziryab, the Songbird of Andalusia” enriches and builds upon the Eurocentric history that Ronnie, and many Americans, have grown up with. As an American and a Muslim who grew up playing both Guns N’ Roses and Simon Shaheen, Ronnie says he aims to “unveil or reveal some truth that exists, especially in the era we live in today, where we hear a lot of vitriol and political rhetoric that may sway public opinion.” Ronnie has played on many stages locally and around the globe but he especially looks forward to sharing Ziryab’s story here, in his hometown. “The theatre to me is a temple. It’s a place where people come for healing, they come looking for answers or discovering new questions."