The tapl, braced only against some cushions, not secured in the wooden frame the men have, needs periodic readjustment by the player. She braces it, at times, with one stick, while striking it with the other.
At this distance, it’s easy to see the repair work that has been done on the daff with tape, the turquoise prayer beads strung around one woman’s wrist, the clear rhythm the tapl player provides as she sings and how she balances the tapl against cushions. The woman sings, “The children of the Prophet, my life, and my religion.”
Inside the arrangement of seated women, the woman draped in green claps along with the tapl and daff. It is unusual to see a religious woman in a religious setting have painted nails. The paint cannot be considered clean even after an ablution, so it is general forgone. Not only is she wearing nail polish, but it is pink.
Clapping can be energetic, but also a simple motion of time keeping, as seen here. The clap this woman makes is not so much a noise as a movement to stay in time with the daff and tapl. The prayer repeats, “Oh, my beautiful sheikh, it is not in my hands. I miss you greatly.”
Cushions and fabric balance the tapl. The skin of the tapl is actually a little punctured, but still it booms with each tap of the sticks. This prayer describes a beauty dressed in various types of Kurdish clothes.
One daff, with transparent plastic where traditionally a stretched animal skin would be, allows the viewer to see the singers and other prayer-leaders through the instrument itself. Below the daff is the prayer notebook, open.
The daff one woman holds here has been patched with duct tape and shows that each player has held the instrument in the same place, wearing a clear patch the size of approximately four fingers in the opaque plastic covering.
Today’s filming coincided with a mawlood, a celebration in honor of the Prophet. Someone in the congregation, in honor of a desire or prayer he or she has, buys the mawlood for the gathered worshippers. The mawlood includes special celebratory food that is dispersed at the conclusion of worship in a particular order: nougat, cookies, juice. Here, we see the nougat being passed out.
The prayer leaders help to lead the worship to its close by naming the well water of the tekiye the water of life, a water specific to Heaven and Mecca.
Though the women’s room for worship is a simple long rectangle with no alcove for the daff and tapl players, the percussionists tend to congregate at the far side of the worship circle. The tapl is played sitting down, the drum braced against some cushions. The daff can be played standing or sitting as the worshipper desires. While the speech is not entirely clear, the language shifts from Kurdish to Arabic.
The Sheikha begins to call on God, again falling into a loose call and response pattern. Even though there is a clear call (Allah!) and a clear response (Hey!), many women call on God with the Sheikha, using her same hand motions. This ritual is not common among all Muslims and may have developed over time as particular either to Qadiri Sufis or to the Talabani Tekiye.
The Sheikha moves from calling on God to the sung prayers. The daff and tapl begin to sound. The song here differs from that in the male worship: it is communally sung, not individually. All women sing; they share the song.
Another woman takes the leadership of the prayer. She sings a verse, others respond in chorus. The verse: “Sheikhs and sons of sheikhs, none of them have remained in the house.”
The Sheikha is not the only woman with prayer beads. Many women in the assembly who aren’t accompanying the prayers with the tapl or the daff have their prayer beads in their hands, moving each bead with each prayer, similar to how a rosary might be used. Too, children continue to move around the worship. A young girl has moved to the couch. The boy continues to sit on his mother’s lap, though he began the worship over on that couch. Though the prayer is incomplete, this snippet goes, “…of this Kurdistan. Oh, my beautiful sheikh, it is not in my hands. I miss you greatly.”
The joy of these prayers is paramount. Joy is part of the worship. Here, that can be clearly seen. This prayer is a prayer of praise for the Sheikha, for her beauty.
As the calling on God continues, it evolves to include swaying and gentle bending: each movement corresponds to an emphatic exhale of breath. Again, the women remain in loose unison. Each woman has her personal approach to the phrasing or the movement, but the general articulation is unified.
The prayers become led by a female mullah, of which the tekiye has three. The prayer becomes more a call and response as the mullah prays for individuals (the founder of the Order, Sheikh Abdul-QadirGaylani, for example) and the congregated women respond by, once more lifting their voices up to God.
