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Paper short abstract:

The focus of this paper is on two important Islamic art practices that have experienced a major recent revival in Turkey: Sufi music and calligraphy. The paper examines the transformative power of Islamic art pedagogies to cultivate both new creative and ethical perceptions in practitioners.

Paper long abstract:

The teaching and learning of Islamic art practices have experienced a major global revival over the last two decades, as part of a more general interest in Islamic cultural politics by Muslims (Roy and Boubekeur 2012; Göle 2002). This paper discusses the two most important and popular art forms in this revival: the musical tradition of ney playing (the Sufi flute) and calligraphy (literally 'beautiful writing'). In Sufism, widely circulating knowledge about it often describes it as 'the breath of God', an instrument with a natural ability to express the inner soul and to reveal the secrets of human kind. The art of hat (calligraphy) on the other hand involves the skilled practice of writing the words of the Qur'an. For calligraphers, dedication to the perfection of their art is an act of prayer. Based on two years of fieldwork in Istanbul, the paper investigates the ethical and perceptual modifications effected through the learning and mastering of these Islamic art practices. This involves examining the transformative power of the core methods of Islamic art pedagogy rooted in the complex learning relationship between master and apprentice(s).