Fuqara of Salè in Annual Gathering in Melilla, 2005

This is a recording of the Fuqara of Salè, Morocco, at the annual festival of the Tariqa in Melilla, summer 2005. The dhikr is being led by Hajj Siddiq and Sidi Mustafa, who is the son of Shaykh Sa'id al-Alawi, and was only around fourteen when this was recorded. Hajj Siddiq is in his late fifties; depite the age difference, I don't think I have ever heard any singers blend so well together. They were really in the zone this day, too. It was between Asar and Maghrib on a warm afternoon, and we were sitting in the street outside a mosque, around fifty of us (the Mosque was already full). I had a friend visiting from the UK; it was his first time at a gathering in Morocco. He told me later that by the time Hajj Siddiq and Si Mustafa had finished, he was just staring at them, mouth gaping!

Mellila.mp3

Khalid