Songs of the Jews on the Island of Djerba, Tunisia

R. Davis

In 1978, I spent three months in the village of Hara Kebira on the island ofDjerba, just off Tunisia's southeastern coastline. I was a graduate student inethnomusicology at the University of Amsterdam, and my supervisor, dr.Leo Plenckers, had arranged for me to join a fieldwork training programmeorganised by the Free University of Amsterdam in collaboration with theTunisian government. Hara Kebira just happened to be one of several loca-tions where a research agreement had been negotiated between the FreeUniversity and the local authorities.

Djerba is said to be the land of the lotus-eaters in Homer's Odyssey, andits paradisic reputation in myth has some reflection in reality. Its fertileterrain is inhabited by a Berder majority belonging to the Kharajite Moslemsect, Arabs, black Africans, and an ancient Jewish community whoselegendary origins date back to the first diaspora, i.e. the exile following thedestruction of the first Jeruslem Temple in 586 BCE. Until the radical socialand political upheavals of recent decades, these disparate peoples livedtogether peacefully and relatively prosperously, in an economy based onfishing, farming, various forms of craft (e.g. weaving and pottery makingamong the Moslems; jewellery making among the Jews) and trade.

The Jews are concentrated in two villages: Hara Kebira (big Jewish quarter)lies on the outskirts of Houmt Souk, the island's main port and market town,while Hara Sghira (little Jewish quarter) nestles among olive groves in theopen countryside, some seven kilometers inland. Hara Kebira is the youngercommunity, associated with migrations following the expulsion of the Jewsfrom Spain in 1492. Hara Sghira, in contrast, is linked directly with theoriginal migrations from Jerusalem; its inhabitants are traditionally all called'Cohen', marking them as descendants of the priestly caste. On the hilloutside Hara Sghira stands the miraculous synagogue known as the Ghriba

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(Arabic: 'lonely one' or 'stranger') whose foundations are believed to containrelics from King Solomon's Temple. The Ghriba is venerated by Moslems aswell as Jews, and it attracts pilgrims from the Tunisian mainland, Libya andbeyond, most spectacularly for the Jewish festival of Lag Ba'omer in the earlysummer.'

The music of the Jews of Djerba was first documented by the linguist andcomparative musicoligist Robert Lachmann, who visited the island with anEdsion phonograph in the spring of 1929. Lachmann's twenty-two recor-dings from Hara Sghira form the basis of his classic study Jewish Cantillationand Song in the Isle of Djerba, published posthumously in 1940 in an incom-plete English translation; in 1978, the complete text appeared in the originalGerman, edited by Edith Gerson-Kiwi. Lachmann's original wax cylinderrecordings are held in the Sound Archive of the Jewish National and Uni-versity Library, Jerusalem; in 1995 they were transferred onto tape, therebybecoming newly accessible to scholars. In 1960, the Swiss ethnomusicologistWolgang Laade recorderd a circumcision ceremony in Hara Kebira whichappears with a photograph and notes in the second of his three volumeanthology of Tunisian music (Tunisia Vol. II: Religious Songs and Cantillationsfrom Tunisia. 1962. Folkways FW 8862). To my knowledge, my own researchin Hara Kebira, in the spring of 1978, represents the only largescale surveyof Jewish music on Djerba since Lachmann.

Lachmann's original purpose was to discover whether the alleged age of theJewish community was reflected in its music, and he based his research inHara Sghira on the assumption that its relatively isolated position wouldhave served as a buffer against external influences. His results, however,confirmed that Jewish music on Djerba was no older than Jewish music onthe mainland (1979: 28). Typically for the Near East, the music of HaraSghira was an oral tradition. Exceptionally, it was entirely vocal: in mostother orthodox Jewish communities, the use of musical instruments is forbid-den only in the synagogue and on religious holidays, but in Hara Sghira, therabbis forbade their mere presence in the village. This extreme position atfirst threatened to jeopardise Lachmann's research: the community mistookhis Edison phonograph with its horn for a musical instrument, and specialprayers had to be offered before the machine was finally accepted (1978: 28).

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Lachmann recorded three types of vocal repertory: liturgical cantillation,festival songs, or piyyutim (s. piyyut, literally; poem) and women' songs.Liturgical cantillation, the non-metered chanting of the Hebrew liturgy, wasperformed exclusively by men. So too were the festival songs, settings ofHebrew rhymed poetry sung on religious and family holidays. Both the can-tillation and festival songs were based on written texts; Lachmann relatedtheir melodies, and in the case of the songs, their rhythms too, to the tradi-tional forms and styles of Tunisian urban music. The women' songs, incontrast, were in the Judeo-Arabic vernacular, and focus on biblical andother themes specially related to Jewish women. They were accompanied byhand-clapping, and Lachmann notes that their melodies and rhythms belongto the sphere of rural music.

By the time I arrived in Hara Kebira, nearly fifty years after Lachmann,certain radical changes had occured, both socially and musically. The crea-tion of the State of Israel in 1948 and Tunisian Independence in 1956 hadprovoked waves of mass emigration to Israel and France, while social hosti-lities in the wake of successive Arab-Israeli wars had persuaded others tofollow. In 1929, according to Lachmann, there were 3.500 Jews in HaraKebira and 1.500 in Hara Sghira; by the late seventies the figures had drop-ped to around 800 and 300. Moslem immigrants from the mainland wereoccupying the former Jewish homes, and a mosque stood at the entrance ofHara Kebira, its minaret towering above all the other buildings in the flatlandscape. A crackling recording of the azan (call to prayer) penetrated thedry atmosphere five times a day, and the historic name Hara Kebira,. mar-king the Jewish settlement, had officially been changed to the ethinicallyneutral As-Sawani (the gardens).

The songs I recorded in Hara Kebira extended beyond the bounds ofTunisian traditions to embrace pan-Arabic and European repertories andstyles. Both men and women sang sacred Hebrew songs, as well as secularsongs in Arabic and modern Hebrew: liturgical cantillation was the onlygenre that remained exclusive to men. There was no specific repertory ofwomen's songs, nor was there any repertory representing rural traditions.Musical instruments were used, and mixed bands of Jewish and Moslemmale professional musicians were hired to perform at Jewish wedding cele-brations.

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Some of these musical differences may have existed at the time ofLachmann's visit. Apparantly, the rabbis of Hara Kebira had never bannedmusical instruments, but merely prohibited their use in the synagogues andon religious holidays. Historically, Hara Kebira's more exposed position nextto the island's main port and capital may have made it more receptive thanHara Sghira to new secular musical currents (including foreign Arab music)from the mainland, where Jews have traditionally played a prominent role inurban musical life. As for Lachmann's 'women songs', not even the olderwomen of Hara Kebira had any recollection of such a genre; they insistedthat they had always sung the same Arabic songs as their Molsem neigh-bours, which were also sung by Moslem and Jewish men.

Nevertheless, other aspects of the musical culture of Hara Kebira in 1978may be attributed to specific social changes that had occured sinceLachmann's visit. In the 1940s, Zionist emissaries from Palestine establishedmodern, secular, Hebrew schools on the island for both girls and boys, tosupplement the traditional education of the yeshivot (religious Hebrewschools) from which girls were excluded. The emissaries introduced secularsongs, often with Zionist themes, composed by Jews of European origins,and piyyut melodies belonging to Ashkenaz and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)traditions. After 1948, these new repertoires were boosted through contactswith relatives abroad, and some of the new piyyut melodies entered syna-gogue and domestic worship, supplementing the traditional Djerban tunes.

At the time of my visit, 1 erban women were still barred from synagogueworship, and a devout group held services in the school instead. They readrather than chanted the liturgy, and on Sabbath and other holidays, theirservices were interspersed with piyyutim sung to the imported melodieslearnt at school. On festive afternoons, the firls gathered in the school to cele-brate with readings, modern Hebrew songs and games, while their brothersplayed football outside. The songs were typically performed in unison,without instruments, but sometimes accompanied by hand-clapping.

Since the late 1960s, the development of a coastal zone touristique had spaw-ned a string of luxury hotels and discoteques playing mostly French popularmusic, providing new business outlets for the Jewish jewellers of HaraKebira and opening fresh musical horizons. In 1972, an international airport

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opened on Djerba, facilitating travel to and from relatives abroad. By 1978,the annual Lag Ba'omer celebrations at the Ghriba, traditionally an oppor-tunity for the exchange of musical repertory, had become the focal point forfamily reunions, and a touristic bonanza as the 'pilgrims' arrived on charterflights via Paris to patronise the island's luxury hotels.

Transistor radios appeared in the 1960s and television followed close at heel,bringing contemporary European lifestyles and values directly into thehome; reinforced by commercial records and cassettes, they were also pro-viding continuous exposure to an ever-changing spectrum of popularTunisian, Middle Eastern and European musical styles. Many Jewish fami-lies boasted substantial record and cassette collections of French popularmusic and modern Hebrew songs imported from abroad. While the Frenchsongs were conspicuously absent from live performances, many of theTunisian and foreign Arabic media songs were sung by both men andwomen at weddings and other domestic celebrations. 'Particularly well-likedwere songs recorded by famous Tunisian Jewish singers of the 1930s and1940s such as Sheikh el-Efriat and Habiba Msika, including some in thefranco-arabe dialect.

Arab songs were typically performed at wedding celebrations by ad hocbands of male musicians hired specially for the occasion. Mass emigrationhad depleted the Jewish community of instrumentalists, and the middle-aged merchant Jacob Bsiri was the only remaining 'ud player to perform inpublic. To compensate for the loss, Moslems - invaiably Djerbans fromoutside the village - were hired to make up the band. The standard line-upfor wedding celebrations comprised Jacob Bsiri as solo singer and 'ud playerwith fellow Jews on darbuka and tar, and Moslems playing violins and accor-dion. The entire band doubled as chorus, and it was usually amplified.

Arab songs accompanied by the darbuka and hand-clapping, were sung atall-female gatherings marking the various ritual preparations of the bride;the most important of these were the blanching of her skin with a paste offlour and water and the dying of her skin with henna. The various ritualstook place on separate evenings in the bride's home where they werefollowed by celebrations with music making. On the occasions I attendedthere were no hired musicians: instead a cluster of guests, ranging from

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small children to old women, sang a continuous stream of Arab songs, clap-ping their hands and beating the darbuka, apparently ignored by the otherguests who sat chatting, consuming Fanta (sparkling orange juice) andsweetmeats: the singing was part of the general ambience, like the Frenchpopular songs simultaneously blasting out from a record player.

Secular melodies and sacred songs

Just as for centuries, Moslem musicians have adapted tunes of secular songsto sacred texts for performance in Sufi gatherings, so too have Jews tradi-tionally adapted Arab songs melodies to Hebrew texts for use in synagogueworship and at home. Indeed, both Sufis and Jews have played vital roles inpreserving the unwritten melodies of the Tunisian art music repertory, al-ma'luf, by setting them to sacred words. Among the Jews, the Arab lyricshave sometimes inspired new Hebrew texts, often with correspondingrhyme schemes and parallels in meaning.

Many of the Hebrew songs, or piyyutim, I recorded in Hara Kebira were setto melodies unknown to Tunisian Moslem musicians. Some were in tradi-tional Tunisian urban styles, thus mirorring the situtation Lachnmann foundin Hara Sghira. But a few Hebrew songs used melodies common to specificsecular songs and, as the examples below reveal, these borrowed melodiescross a wide range of national and temporal boundaries.

Some piyyutim were identified with songs from the ma'luf, the repertoryallegedly imported by Moslem and Jewish refugees from Spain from thetwelfth century onwards. I recorded two versions of the liturgical piyyut'Tsur mishelo achalnu', a prayer of thanksgiving sung in Jewish householdsthroughout the world, after the sabbath meal. The traditional Djerban tune,sung by a rabbi, was identified by a Moslem musician as the tune of 'Rayitual-riyadha' ['I saw gardens'] from the ma'luf. On another occasion, I recordedthe same piyyut sung by a young jeweller to the tune of the traditionalLadino (Judeo-Spanish) love song 'Los bilbilicos cantan' ['The birds aresinging'] - a setting known to both Sephardic and Ashkenaz communitieselsewhere.

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Moving to the opposite extreme of the historical spectrum, a song performedby Jacob Bsiri at the Ghriba celebrations, 'Shalom nasim be'eretz' ['Let therebe peace in the land'] has the same tune as the popular media song 'Andikbahriya ya rais' ['You have good sailors, O Captain'] performed by theLebanese singer Wadi Essafi on a recent visit to Tunisia (see Davis 1986: 139-42); Essafi's recording was widely available on cassette and frequently heardon the radio. Some Moslem musicians attriibuted the original version of songto the celebrated Egyptian singer/composer Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab;however, Jacob Bsiri, chief musician of Hara Kebira, insisted that 'Andikbahriya, yarais' was a genuinely Tunisian song, originally performed inTunis by the Jewish female singer Habiba Msika in the 1930s.Finally, I recorded both the Arabic and Hebrew versions of a song importedby Jewish refugees from the Fazzan region of Tripolitania in the early yearsof the twentieth century (see musical example; also, Davis 1986: 137-39). TheArabic song 'Ya ma ya ghaliyya' ['O mamma, my dearest'] in which a youngwoman vows to remain faithful to her husband, was taken up by Tunisianmusicians, Moslems as well as Jews, and popularised by the media. Mytranscription is taken from a recording of a Jewish woman accompanied byher daughter and a Moslem friend on a darbuka3; later, I recorded the samesong performed by Jacob Bsiri with his band at a wedding. The Hebrewversion 'Go'eliya' ['Lord my redeemer'] expressing trust in God's faith-fulness, was sung by Jacob Bsiri to the accompaniment of the 'ud in thecourtyard of his home. In this case, the Arabic song not only provided themelody of the piyyut, but also a structural model and theme (i.e.'faithfulness) for the text.

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Arabic song

Piyyut

°_\ "f.^2-iL.rA 010.- A

r7

L

Ja

li & -si - big Kha-via. - n wa . ma

ao - `O

a

A Ja

J

CL -'a - Ma; Gli- Lnn CL - ,- - - n

Ja Snrna- C2 - .C'. as - Wa - a fi - R

30 '_-li a 9a `al (fin

Arabic songRefrain

a ma ya ghaliya

ii --aATjbik khawan ya eilaliva

1 aahsibik khawan

ya ma ya ghaiiya

ya shmarac el 'adwan fik u fiya

apsibik klrawan

PiyyutVerse

o'eli yaClmelekh ne'eman eo'eli ya

el melekh ne'eman

Eo'eii ya

ca al ben haevirah havefihfivah

Refrainmc:exl ne' ernan

+7KI:

+7Kll ;=K: j?n 7K

jDK: .l 7Kc+ +7Kt:

li nay si - i - Kn4'ua - n

me - g kin AC - - fn [l - v

-.:.Na j7u

a - -vi - ran ko, 4e-F1 - Fi

B

Rhyme scheme

ABA

B

A

A

B

106

-.,; Yn4 bl0. an0. : JL. rA?,-s--viii

Songs of the Jews on the Island of Djerba, Tunisia

Notes

1. For a detailed description of the Ghriba festivities see UDOVITCH ANDVALENSI 1984:125-31).

2. Where appropriate, I give references to the transcriptions of both Hebrewand Arabic songs in my article in The Maghreb Review (Davis 1986). The melo-dies and texts of all the songs cited below are included in my forthcomingarticle in Musica Judaica.

3. The women I recorded requested not to be identified.

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Literature

Davis, Ruth 'Songs of the Jews on the Island of Djerba: A Comparison betweenTwo Surveys', Musica Judiaca. 1985. 7:23-33.

Davis, Ruth. Some Relations between Three Piyyutim from Djerba and ThreeArab Sdongs', The Magreb Review. 1986. 11: 134-44.

Davis, Ruth. In press. 'Piyyut melodies as Mirrors of Social Change in Djerba,Tunisia', Musica Judaica. p. 14.

Lachmann, Robert. Jewish Cantillation and Song in the Isle of Djerba. Archives ofOriental Music, The Hebrew University, Azriel Press, Jerusalem. 1940.

Lachmann, Robert. Edith Gerson-Kiwi ed. Gesange der Juden auf der Inset Djerba.Yuval Monograph Series 7. The Hebrew University, Magnus Press, Jerusalem.1978.

Udovitch, Abraham L. and Valensi, Lucette. The Last Arab Jews: The Communitiesof Jerba, Tunisia. Harwood Academic Press, Chur, London, Paris, New York.1984.

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