(back row) Dwight Reynolds (Professor, UCSB Religious Studies and Chair, UCSB Islamic and Near Eastern Studies Program), Scott Marcus (group leader and Professor, UCSB Music), Phillip Schuyler (Professor, Music at University of Washington); (front row) Sue Rudnicki (community member), Shirley Force Wood (community member), Ghairat Rakhmonberdiev (our Uzbek translator from Tashkent), Darryn Songbird (community member), and Temmo Korisheli (UCSB Arts Library staff). Not pictured: James Ismail (community member), who took the picture.
All delegates, with the exception of Prof. Schuyler, are members of the UCSB Middle Eastern Music Ensemble.
Delegates
from the 29 participating countries were greeted by giant trumpets (karnay-s)
and local traditional musicians at the Samarkand airport.
A view from my room at the Hotel Afrosiyob toward the
Gur-Emir mausoleum (far blue dome, built 1405) of the Emperor Tamerlane
(1336-1405). Samarkand was the capital of Tamerlane's empire, which stretched
from Egypt, Turkey, and Moscow to India and China.
Interior
of the mausoleum's main chamber. Our guide told us that "Allah" is inscribed
33,000 times on these walls
The
base of a minaret at the Bibi Khonim mosque, built by Tamerlane for his
favorite Chinese wife (1399-1404) and intended to be the largest mosque
in the world. Ambition exceeded engineering, however, and the building
began to fall apart shortly after its completion (in one story, the first
sign of trouble was when bricks from the dome began to fall on worshippers'
heads as they prayed).
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. . . the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies.
Jamming
with the Saudi delegation while we wait for our sound check.
The
Ukrainian delegation enjoying their sound check in the 100-degree sun.
Temmo
at the top of the mosque, having climbed up the minaret (first 40 feet
pitch black and no stairs, just crumbling bricks).
Goodbye,
Uzbekistan! Thanks for a wonderful trip!