A Musical Night in the Coffeehouse: Ottoman Melodies, Hebrew Poetry, and Mystical Histories

Please join us for A Musical Night in the Coffeehouse: Ottoman Melodies, Hebrew Poetry, and Mystical Histories 

The Ottoman world witnessed the unstoppable proliferation of an infectious novelty in the sixteenth century: coffee as a social beverage, introduced by Sufi circles already ca.1400 and slowly spreading since then. Urban populations of the early modern era –Muslim, Christian or Jewish-- took to it like fish to water. Coffeehouses were quick to follow, after the earliest establishments by enterprising Arab merchants in populous cities like Cairo and Istanbul. By the 1570s, even smaller towns could boast of several coffeehouses. Safed (now, Sfad) was one of those when the town was also the home of Lurianism, a new Kabbalist movement distinguished by its focus on nighttime practices. The Jewish communities in Safed were captivated not only by coffee and mysticism, however, but also by amorous songs sung publicly and in Turkish. The star-poet of Hebrew literature at that time, Israel Najara, himself brought up in that town, stepped in to encourage the public to “veer aside from their foreign ways.” Thus he wrote Hebrew lyrics for those songs which he evidently knew too well as one can surmise from his sensitivity to the tone and tune of the originals.

Three scholars will introduce the setting, tell the tale, and perform some of the poetic and musical examples of that fascinating exchange.

Bilen Işıktaş: Dr. Işıktaş holds a Ph.D. in Musicology and Music Theory, is an oudist and musicologist at the Istanbul University State Conservatory, and is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Music at Harvard University.

Cemal Kafadar: Prof. Kafadar is the Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies in the Department of History at Harvard University. He is interested in the social and cultural history of the Middle East and southeastern Europe in the late medieval/early modern era.

Avinoam Joseph Stillman: Dr. Stillman is a historian of early modern Jewish culture. A native Bostonian, he received his doctoral degree at Freie Universität Berlin and is currently a Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University.

Light refreshments will be served.

Contact: jhowell@fas.harvard.edu