An antidote to provincialism

The haunting symbolism of music coming from Baghdad

, the Arabic language calling from the muezzin tower, the rippling masculine vocal tones inciting the believers to prayer. The staccato phrases interceded by poignant silences broken again by another flurry, another entirety,another series of sounds alien to my ear but fascinating as I contemplate their origin whilst sitting in my home fed the normal western, "mass produced" studio compilations that seem worlds away from what this Arabic singer is performing.
One is often guilty of not remembering the age of the civilisations that produced this culture. Whilst we were running around in skins they were devising the science of astronomy and devising algebra to describe ways of expressing their advanced interpretation of the world as they knew it.
The culture of the Egyptians and the settlement around the Euphrates and the Tigress rivers in Mesopotamia 8000 BC were the beginning of what we understand as settled civilised communities. The great Persian Empire 550 BC. The Ottoman Empire, each established a collective view to society whilst we were still extremely primitive.
This plaintive yet powerful sound of the Arabic music telling it's story of historical provenance, is another attempt on my part to expand my mind in an attempt not to be so provincial !!