Inside the Syrian capital’s Umayyad Mosque, six muezzins sit before a loudspeaker, collectively reciting the call to prayer that can be heard across the ancient quarters of Damascus.
They are among 25 muezzins who take shifts intoning the azan, or call to prayer, in groups, using a technique of collective recital that is unique to the centuries-old mosque.
The place of worship was closed in the middle of last month as part of measures to stem the COVID-19 pandemic, but its calls to prayer live on.
Photo: AFP
Mohammad Ali al-Sheikh, the eldest of the muezzins, said that the tradition runs in his blood.
“I come from a long line of muezzins,” the man in his 80s said. “I have been a muezzin for 68 years, as was my father until he died.”
Muezzins may have day jobs or be retirees, but are all selected for their extraordinary voices.
Sheikh was drawn to the role as a child, encouraged by his father’s colleagues who complimented him on his voice, which he cherishes as a gift from God.
“God prepares the muezzin with a voice, one that is gifted to him, to elevate god’s word,” he said.
In a room inside the mosque, a picture of the sacred Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, hangs near framed verses of the Koran.
Sheikh raises the call to prayer, with five other muezzins chanting along in unison, using a technique known as al-Jawq, which yields a unique sound when it rises from three minarets that tower over the city.
Built in the eighth century, the Umayyad Mosque has long drawn in worshipers near the Damascus center’s Hamidiyah souk, or bazaar.
Before loudspeakers were installed in the 1980s, groups of muezzins used to recite the call to prayer directly from the minarets, Sheikh among them.
Amplifying their voices so that they could be heard across Damascus, they also raised a red ball to alert other muezzins in the city to join the call to prayer, Sheikh said.
There are many accounts of how the group call to prayer started at the Umayyad Mosque, but its muezzins say that it was born out of a need to reach as many worshipers as possible.
In his book, titled The Great Mosque of Damascus, architect and writer Talal Akili said that the technique began in the late 15th century as a way to inform Muslim pilgrims converging on the city en route for Mecca that it was time to pray.
With decades of experience, Sheikh is among the muezzins qualified to grant certificates to pupils training to recite the azan.
“The muezzin’s voice must first be beautiful and loud, and after that, he must learn to recite and intonate,” Sheikh said, adding that a certificate is granted when a pupil masters the “rhythm and rules of the call to prayer.”
A nephew of Sheikh, Abu Anas, is also a seasoned muezzin, having recited the call to prayer every day for 10 years — the tradition “has been passed on from father to son, for at least five generations”, he said. “It’s not a hobby, it runs in our blood.”
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