Last year the German researcher Behnam Said published what may be the first monograph devoted specifically to jihadi anashid. It is based on his PhD thesis on the same topic. You may know Behnam’s work from the several excellent articles on anashid he has published in recent years. Behnam works in the German security service

Verfassungsschutz, and he was recently interviewed in the CTC Sentinel’s “View from the CT foxhole series”.

The book is in German, and I haven’t had the chance to read it yet, but Joas Wagemakers recently published a useful review of it in English. Joas writes that Behnam sets out to provide "a comprehensive (and perhaps even the definitive) treatment of the subject, a task in which he has largely succeeded.”

I continue my literature survey with a reading list on music. Jihadis, of course, draw a sharp distinction between instrumental music (musiqa), which they denounce, and a capella hymns (anashid), which they warmly embrace. Still, it is all organized sound, so we can call it music in English. As with the previous reading lists on poetry and dreams, I cast the net wider than just the jihadi universe because it is useful to know what non-jihadi Islamist groups and other religious Muslims are doing. Here again I welcome suggestions and corrections. 

Joseph
Alagha, “Jihad through ‘music’: The Taliban and Hizbullah” 

Farid El
Asri, Rythmes et voix d’islam: Une socioanthropologie d’artistes musulmans
européens

Talal Atrissi,
“Chants de la résistance et libanisation du Hezbollah”

Carin Berg,
“Tunes of religious resistance? Understanding Hamas music in a conflict context”

Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Vom Gangster-Rap zum Jihad-Aufruf – radikalisierende Hymnen
“neugeborener” Salafisten 

Claudia
Dantschke, Ohne Musik geht es nicht: Salafismus und „Nasheeds“ (Anasheed) in
Deutschland

Michaael Frischkopf,
Inshad Dini and Aghani Diniyya in Twentieth Century Egypt: A Review of Styles,
Genres, and Available Recordings

Michael
Frischopf, “‘Islamic Music in Africa’ as a Tool for African Studies”

Miriam
Gazzah, Rhythms and Rhymes of Life: Music and Identification Processes of
Dutch-Moroccan Youth

Jeanette S.
Jouili and Annelies Moors, Islamic Sounds and the Politics of Listening

Moslih
Kanaaneh, Stig-Magnus Thorsén, Heather Bursheh, and David A. McDonald (eds), Palestinian
Music and Song: Expression and Resistance since 1900

Katy Khan, “‘Sonic
Jihad’: Black Popular Music and the Renegotiation of Muslim Identities in
Post 9/11″

Anthony
Lemieux and Robert Nill, “The Role and Impact of Music in Promoting (and
Countering) Violent Extremism”

Rüdiger
Lohlker, “Hip Hop and Islam: An Exploration into Music, Technology, Religion,
and Marginality” 

Peter
Mandaville, “Hip-hop, Nasheeds, and ‘Cool’ Sheikhs”

Joseph
Massad, “Liberating Songs: Palestine Put to Music”

David A.
McDonald, My Voice is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of
Palestinian Resistance

Laudan
Nooshin (ed), Music and the Play of Power: Music, Politics and Ideology in the
Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia

Mikhail
Pelevin and Matthias Weinreich, “The Songs of the Taliban”

Jonathan
Pieslak, Sound Targets

Behnam Said,
“A Brief Look at the History and Power of Anasheed in Jihadist Culture”

Behnam
Said, “Hymns (Nasheeds): A Contribution to the Study of the Jihadist Culture”

Behnam Said,
“Naschid-Gesänge im Salafismus” 

Behnam
Said, “Dschihadistische Hymnen. Begrifflichkeiten, Entstehungsgeschichte und
Relevanz für die deutsche Szene”

Kamal
Salhi, Music, Culture and Identity in the Muslim World: Performance, Politics
and Piety

Tilman
Seidensticker, “Jihad Hymns (Nashīds) as a Means of Self-Motivation in the
Hamburg Group”

Michael Semple,
“Rhetoric of resistance in the Taliban’s rebel ballads” 

Karin van
Nieuw kerk,  Performing Piety: Singers and Actors in Egypt’s Islamic Revival

Karin van
Nieuwkerk (ed), Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Artistic
Developments in the Muslim World 

Earle H. Waugh,
Memory, Music, and Religion: Morocco’s Mystical Chanters

Chuen-Fung
Wong, “Conflicts, Occupation, and Music-Making in Palestine”

Updates

22 May: I just discovered this:

Thomas H. Johnson and Ahmad Waheed, Analyzing Taliban taranas (chants): an effective Afghan propaganda artifact

Soeuf Elbadawi,
“Allah remixé par le rap : le flow de la prédication en France”