The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia (And Queens, New York)

Abstract

Preface Acknowledgments Key to Selections on Compact Disc Guide to Pronunciation and Transliteration 1. Tashkent Moscow to Tashkent An Uzbek Fellow Plan of the City The Conservatory A Russian Composer Finds the East The Last of the Jadids Neofeudalism with a Human Face The Singing Mullah Frozen Music A Traditional Innovator The Avatar of a Master A Contralto and a Pop Queen 2. Bukhara The Imaginal City A Drive to Bukhara A Bukharan Jewish Musical Dynasty The Cupola of Islam Redux More Frozen Music Two Wedding Entertainers Going West 3. The South: Surxandarya and Qashqadarya Karshi A Traveler in Baysun Baxhi Chic in Shirabad (last a with circumflex) Xaja Mahmun (first a in Xaja with circumflex) 4. Khorezm Across the Kara-Kum Khorezm Reimagined Two Evenings of Classical Music A Baxshi and His Pupil Searching for a Zhirau Xalfas 5. The Upper Zaravshan and Yagnab (final a on Yagnab with a circumflex) A Mysterious Valley The Yagnab Affair (Yagnab with circumflex on final a) Trekking for Music A Wedding in Dargh Wedding Songs Poetry in the Afternoon Strange Polyphony The Zarb 6. Shahristan A Forbidden Vocation Calling Spirits The Baxshi's Dance More Syncretisms 7. Queens An Apartment in Forest Hills Growing Up Jewish in Kattakurgan A Fool of God in Queens Glossary Notes Bibliographic and Discographic Guide Index