Tabula Lacrimarum | لَوْحُ الدُّمُوع | سرشکنبشت
from the cycle "Listen" “Tabula Lacrimarum” (“Tablet of Tears”) is a narrative musical piece from an ongoing cycle that reimagines Iblis — the figure attributed in Islamic tradition as the originator of music Text & Video: Barbad Golshiri Music: Pouya Pour-Amin Vocal: Delhath About the project: This project is a cycle of narrative musical pieces woven from what Islamic tradition has attributed to Iblis, the Islamic Satan. In this tradition, music is demonised, often banned outright, and even imagined as the creation of Iblis themselves. It is recorded that the Prophet explicitly said that Satan invented three types of vocal expression: ghināʾ (lyrical song), ḥidāʾ (the chanting of caravans), and nawāḥ (the lament of mourners). In some accounts, they are also remembered as the hidden teacher of musical modes. In classical literature, there are stories in which Iblis appears as a minstrel who sits with musicians and teaches them modal systems (maqām) or melodic subdivisions (gushé). Legend has it that Iblis, the primordial musician, was the secret teacher of such modes, imparting melodies that continue to haunt repertoires. Musical instruments (mazaʿif) themselves were branded as inventions of Iblis, their very sounds likened to the voices of jinn. As the hadith says, al-jarasu mazāmīru ʾl-shayṭān, meaning the bell is the flute of Satan. But Iblis is not alone. The Qur’an portrays Iblis as being of the jinn (Surah Al-Kahf 18:50). The jinn, long believed to be inspirers of poets, walk beside them. Accounts describe how poets claimed their verses came from a personal jinn companion who inspired them. Qur’anic discourse echoes this by demonising poets who are aligned with liars upon whom the devils descend ( Surah Ash-Shu'ara 26:221–222). Poetry itself was thus seen as deception, a demonic lie, just as art could be regarded as fabrication. These supernatural tutors were believed not only to give words but also to guide poets in the rhythms and awzān ʿarūḍī, the intricate metrical patterns of classical poetry. In this way, even prosody could be imagined as a transmission from satanic hidden voices. Enchanted by the visceral shock of poetry and music, believers could not attribute the way sound seizes the body to human sources and thus clung to the hidden. Iblis and the jinn were needed for the same reason that gods of the gaps were needed. They were called upon to account for the involuntary tremor and the hair standing on end, occupying the voids where the body is moved by sound before the mind can find its footing. The seductive aspect of the arts and their consequent banishment form the core idea of this project. The musical pieces present poetry as if authored by Iblis themselves in defence of what they have created and cherish, specifically music, poetry and the art of sound.
© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved. | Daniyal Mazhari