Among the Jasmine Trees by Jonathan Shannon

Among the Jasmine Trees is a documentation and immersion in Syrian music and musical culture. It gives personal accounts of music in small restaurants in Aleppo and Damascus, but also analyzes religious singing in Mosques and the personas of the artists that sing the Q’uranic verses, or dhikir’s.
I really loved reading this book and engaging myself in Syrian culture. Not only were the nuances of small restaurants and intimate gatherings relatable to me because of their similarities to Indian culture, the style of writing itself made the depictions more relatable. Small descriptions such as the conversation between you and Sabri Moudallal made me smile and also gave me the impression that great vocalists and religious figures have multiple dimensions. “…We talk about sundry things: how when he traveled to Europe he found it strange that people on buses there are so absorbed in reading newspapers and books that n one talks to anyone else; how the great ‘Umar al-Batsh used to charge his students half a lira for lessons but never charge him because he was his favorite…”(p.188). Descriptions of the different ways of describing one’s singing voice showed to me how important of a part music plays in Syrian culture. The mere poetry in those descriptions showed the amount of importance Syrians place on the effects of music.
Watching the videos of Sabah Fakhri and others in class greatly enhanced my reading of this book.