Mosul Maqam is made possible with the generous support of the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund in partnership with the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport. We are grateful for their commitment to preserving and promoting Mosul and Iraq’s cultural heritage
The project is run in collaboration with Kashkul, the centre for arts and culture at the American University of Iraq and Sulaimani (AUIS), the University of Mosul and the “Volunteer With Us” organisation in Mosul. The archive will become a vital digital resource for future scholarship in an accessible format linked and co-hosted at home country institutions like the American University of Iraq Sulaimani and the University of Mosul, encouraging international exchange, partnerships and collaborations.
Maqam
Maqam is the system of melodic modes in the traditional shared musical culture of the MENA region and Central Asia. Iraqi Maqam is one of the oldest and most celebrated forms of Maqam culture, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. The people of Mosul (Iraq) share a special connection with Maqam due to the city’s geographic location as a cultural crossroads, as well as their remarkable capacity to preserve and transmit centuries-old social values, customs, and artistic expressions.
Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent events that led to the occupation of the city by ISIS, the melodic sounds of Maqam filled the streets ranging from vendors promoting their products, in kitchens, coffeehouses, at weddings, and when visiting the public baths. Unfortunately, these sounds are disappearing today as Maqam is an oral tradition and is only taught through a direct contact between the Maqam master and their students. During years of war and difficulty in meeting each other, and the older generation loss who were more vulnerable to war.
Music production and musicians in Mosul have been targeted through terrorist attacks since 2003. ISIS killed and imprisoned musicians. Performers began clipping their nails to play the guitar quieter and burying their musical instruments in their gardens to hide them. Khalid al-Rawwi, one of the talented musicians who participated in our workshops and will be featured in our upcoming album alongside young 13 Mosuli artists and Amir El-Saffar, had to conceal his oud in a rice bag to avoid kidnapping and potential death just for carrying a musical instrument. ISIS turned the Spring Theatre in Mosul into a prison and place of execution, while the Maqam house was left in ruins.
Mosul Maqam is a research project set up to safeguard vibrant Iraqi maqam music and protect it for future generations. The project is designed to preserve a record of the musical and lyrical heritage of forms of Maqam in Mosul, Iraq. Preserving Maqam means preserving stories of daily life: ramblings in the old city, slipping secret letters to future wives, and picnics at monasteries in spring. Maqam is significant beyond social heritage and material significance (i.e., the physical creation of the musical tradition). It has spiritual importance, having been used for years in calls to prayer and church choirs. Further, it can be understood as a spiritual framework which can ground the process of healing after years of war. For example, the most loved Maqam singer in Mosul, Malla Othman al-Mosuli, requested in his last will to be buried with a specific Maqam entitled, ‘Ya Elahi qad Raja Minka al-Huda’ asking for the mercy of God. Maqam helps people to remember those who were lost in the war and commemorate the memory of those yet to be found in mass graves. It brings back the soapy clean scent of the orange blossom on summer nights and propels the Tigris River into the tents of refugee camps and the cold living rooms of the diaspora. This is to say, Maqam is uniquely precious to the local population, as well as to Mosul’s former locals in the diaspora; its value is acknowledged by Iraqi society beyond Mosul. It is also important in many other Middle East contexts, where musical traditions trace their origins to Mosul Maqams, including the famous songs of Sayed Darwish, one of Egypt’s greatest musicians. Even the limited recordings of Mosuli Maqam music on YouTube bear witness to the importance of this heritage as a symbol of hope for those who have entered Mosul’s walls. Ultimately, Maqam explains itself best, for ‘Maqam’ in Arabic means Sanctuary.
Project Milestones and Upcoming Archive Content:
Sound Archive: Mosul Maqam archive comprises both living experts of Maqam and the various data surrounding it. It compiles and archive the traditional Maqams of the city on digital and social media platforms easily accessible to people in Mosul and internationally. The archive includes digitized collections of Maqam recordings that has rare vinyls, reel to reel, tape cassettes, and documents on Mosuli Maqam that are digitised for the first time and made available with both Arabic and English description.
Oral History Interviews: To date, we have gathered 31 hours of interviews with Maqam reciters, collectors of Maqam in the city, and musicians who were trained by the late Maqam reciters recounting their memories of specific Maqam recordings from their collections and their cultural life with Maqam.
Educational Workshops:
Oral History Training: The project provided research training in oral history and professional community research and media techniques, including co-created knowledge and sensitive archival practices. This training equipped a Mosuli fieldworkers and local volunteers as they curated their heritage for the Maqam festival, supporting their long-term goals of becoming cultural ambassadors and scholars.
Mosul Maqam Lessons: Eleven lessons on Mosulawi Maqam were held at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Mosul, providing knowledge of Maqam art to 40 participants in Mosul. All classes are now accessible online, and we explored 15 Maqams in detail with Maqam master Ramiz al-Rawi.
Innovation in Maqam Workshops: A two-week training and musical workshop were conducted for a diverse group of 14 young artists by composer Amir El-Saffar at the Volunteer with Us headquarter in Mosul. These workshops support innovative ways to create new art forms; speak to younger audiences and open up multiple realities, narratives and futures grounded in authentic practices.
Album and Festival:
We recorded the innovative musical pieces created during the workshop in an album set to be released later this year. Additionally, we hosted a festival that attracted over 600 attendees, making it a joyful and impactful experience for everyone involved. The Maqam Festival took place in Mosul Forest on September 27, 2024, featuring Maqam masters Ramiz al-Rawi and Fakhri Fadhil, along with workshop students and Maqam lesson participants who incorporated Maqam into their contemporary works.
Mosul Forest is home to beloved recreational spaces on the city’s left bank. Once used by ISIS to train fighters and recruit children, it celebrated Mosul’s resilience and Mosulis’ commitment to bringing the city back to life. A special highlight at the festival was the attendance of the renowned Iraqi Maqam reader and Iraq Idol, Mohammed Sajad.
Comic Book: Later this year, Kashkul at the American University of Iraq Sulaimani will publish a comic book that was prepared by an all women team who have received training, access to the necessary archives, and support to interview their family members. Both young artists have limited memories of Mosul before the war and are reconnecting with their heritage, city and families through this project. The comic book which covers stories of Maqam in an inclusive way with a specific focus female Maqam practitioners who are less visible in the Maqam scene.
Mosul’s Witness: retrospective of Muḥammad Jawad Kaḍim’s photography: The first retrospective and indeed the first curated show of Jawad Kaḍim’s work, that features a selection of the photographer’s most iconic images of historic Mosul, from photos of ordinary Moslawi children playing to rare images of the city’s 1963 flood. The exhibition ran from 12 February to 31 March 2024 at the Street Gallery in the IAIS at the University of Exeter.
The Memory Collective Film Description:
Maqam is an artisanal art form, with many Maqam reciters also being skilled weavers, jewellery makers, carpenters, and more. Ramiz Al-Rawwi, one of the few Maqam reciters left in the city, and a skilled jewellery maker himself, said, “There were Maqams recited during work. In Mosul, we have specific Maqams performed during various tasks. For example, the Nari Maqam is traditionally recited while weaving fabric on the Jummah. I mean, the wooden loom where threads are placed for weaving.” Sadly, many shops and livelihoods have permanently shut down post-war, resulting in the loss not only of these spaces but also their distinctive soundscapes. This film attempts to revive Maqam and reconstruct the memories and the sonic footprint of the city, extending beyond mere structures. It features music created by talented musicians from Mosul during two weeks of workshops mentored by Amir El-Saffar. We believe cultural preservation must accompany creation. As crafts are being made, so too is the music; the film itself is going into a process of creation that mirrors the ongoing rebuilding of the city, where the musicians put their vision on what rebuilding means to them in music.
Explore the Mosul Maqam website in English, in Arabic and in Kurdish.
In recognition of our shared commitment to the preservation of cultural heritage in the region, DAME provided financial and technical assistance to the Mosul Maqam project as well as the Mosul’s Witness exhibition at IAIS.