A study of the folk songs accompanying the Coobi dance in the Upper Euphrates area in Iraq

• Main Author: Al-Haditi, Sa'di 'Abdul Majid
• Published: SOAS, University of London 1984
• Subjects: 782.42162
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.531016

This thesis is a sociological and textual study of the folk songs accompanying the Coobi dances performed on festive occasions in the Arab-inhabited areas along the upper parts of the twin rivers of the Tigris and the T1iphrates, within the Iraqi borders. The texts studied are mainly collected from the Euphrates region between Hiit and `Anna and, more precisely, from Hadiita town and its suburbs. The study falls into three parts and a conclusion: the first part is an introduction, which gives a brief account of the geographical/ historical, economic and cultural background. In the second part, the core of the thesis, the songs are studied as individual units. The Moolayya is the longest song form. Thirty stanzas of this type are studied. Ten stanzas of each of another four forms are examined, and this part ends with consideration of five stanzas from each of a further five song forms . The treatment of the songs' units progresses from the smaller to the larger: title, first line of refrain, second line of refrain, and the stanzas. Extra texts are included in the appendix. The third part deals with the factors unifying the Coobi songs and discusses their form and content as a whole. In this section the Coobi dance is described and a stepping diagram is dram for the first time. However the musical technicalities of the songs are not examined, as they stand outside the scope of our study. This thesis is a record of original material which nobody has treated elsewhere. It offers not only a literary treatment, but also a folkloric one, which makes it useful for students of the anthropology of folk poetry and folk song. It is also a record of a particular way of social life before it is destroyed by the progress of modern times.