Tabla "Tijania" (drum) Antelope skin, wood, string Diam : 45 cm Arab and Mediterranean Music Centre, Tunisia

It is a fine thing to be Tunisian and a music student at the Institute of Music in Tunis but I never had an opportunity to learn about the tabla "Tijania" in the past. It took a workshop that I attended (where the aim was to create a virtual museum of musical instruments for a project on the music of the Francophonie) for me to discover it. Better late than never. But along with my friends from far away (Canadian students), I actually discovered an instrument that belongs to Tunisian religious groups which is quickly being lost today. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the instrument in the exhibition case (in the Erlanger Palace). I had to find out more about this membranophone whose appearance is so similar to its black African and other cousins.

Having to plunge into the documentation provided by the Arab and Mediterranean Music Centre revived my memory and I remembered my grandmother's stories. While her memory has certainly faded, she can still recall the essential facts.

The "Tijania" are the followers of a mystic congregation in Tunisia whose patron saint is Sidi -Ahmed Tijani. Women's groups in this congregation have a special partiality for this instrument of theirs. It is played in a very special way. Four women sit on the ground around the tabla and play it together using their cupped hands.

Feu Manoubi Snoussi (1910-1967) a Tunisian musicologist, confirmed that no other mystic or secular musical groups use an instrument similar to the tabla.

Because of its exclusive use by the "Tijani", the tabla has become a kind of symbol of their order. It is used to accompany the singing of the "Tijania" and set the cadence and rhythm. Will my quest and my desire to know more about this instrument and the repertoire of the "Tijania" stop here? I do not think so. On the contrary, the desire to learn even more is so strong that it is becoming irresistible.