The purpose of the conference is to examine how music has moved religion in regions linked by seafaring trade networks and coastal mainland migrations in the Indian Ocean. It will concentrate primarily on religious, cultural and aesthetic ideas arising out of musical performance genres invented or influenced by Islamic societies.

Since its inception in the 7th century, the "spatial rhythm, the mobile trajectory of Islam" (Cooke & Lawrence: 2005) from Arabia to Indonesia, North Africa to Central Asia, and South Asia to South East Asia, has fostered a transnational Muslim identity. This identity is expressed by the concept of "ummah" – a frontierless community of Muslims who are bound together by their common faith in the Qur"an and teachings of prophet Muhammad.

At the same time, the multilateral and reciprocal direction of this "spatial rhythm" of Islam, and the global contact of Muslims with other cultures has resulted in an extraordinary diversity of interpretations and expressions of this faith. Musical performance traditions, in their voyage back and forth from the East coast of Africa to the far reaches of the Indonesian archipelago, offer an excellent avenue by which to appreciate the complexity of unity and diversity in Islam.

Conference participants will address a number of issues: How music is involved in the transfer and transformation of religious ideas, practices and sentiments; how musical traditions effect and reflect religious, cultural, and social change; how race, patronage, and politics condition the social uses of music; which social and political contexts encourage creativity and innovation, or inversely, draw sharper boundaries when distinct traditions of musical performances come into contact.

The conference will feature performances of both classical and popular genres of music of Indian Ocean cultures, and include those that are performed in public settings as well as those circumscribed by religious ritual.