Festival brings Sufi bands from region and beyond to Palestine
This year's Al-Kamandjati festival has brought Sufi music to Palestinians despite some technical difficulties and entry permit denials for musicians.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Around 65 artists from 15 countries have performed in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the last month for the Al-Kamandjati Music Festival — an annual organization dedicated to spiritual and traditional music of the region.
This year’s edition, titled “The Journey of the Souls,” focuses on Sufi music, with bands from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Tunisia, Turkey, Oman, Morocco, Tanzania, Iran, India, China, France, Spain and Palestine.
In a move to combine spirituality with Palestinian historical heritage, most of the events were organized at ancient sites, such as Hisham’s Palace and Nabi Musa in Jericho and the Barquq Castle in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. The final performance is scheduled for May 15 with a huge concert of Sufi music in Gaza City at the Great Omari Mosque — a seventh-century building that takes its name from Caliph Omar. Heavily damaged in the 2000s, the mosque was rebuilt to become one of the major venues for Ramadan prayers in Gaza City.
This year’s edition, which started in mid-April, coincides with the designation of Jerusalem as a 2019 capital of Islamic culture by the Morocco-based Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. “The Al-Kamandjati Association’s festival has a rich and diverse program, which is in line with the Palestinian Ministry of Culture’s celebration of Jerusalem as capital of Islamic culture 2019,” the Ministry of Culture's representative in Ramallah, Jad al-Ghazzawi, told Al-Monitor.
