Niggun Shamil/Niggun Ga'aguim

[Abbi Wood <acw24...>]

I'm forwarding this message on behalf of a colleague - if you can help
him, please reply to me or directly to him.
Thank you,
Abbi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 13:04:08 +0000 (GMT)
From: G.R. Wilkes <grw1000 (at) cus(dot)cam(dot)ac(dot)uk>
To: Abbi Wood <acw24 (at) hermes(dot)cam(dot)ac(dot)uk>
Subject: Re: message


I am looking for material on the origins of the Niggun Shamil/Niggun
Ga'aguim, sung by the last Lubavitcher Rebbe for the first time on Simchat
Torah, 5719 (1958), and now a regular fixture in the Chabad Shabbat
morning service. 

I have read biographies of Shamil, a 19th century Caucasian Muslim hero,
by Blanche and Gammer, the Blanche book suggesting Shamil was famed for
his 'Psalm' or 'Death Song', and that songs and dances inspired by Shamil
spread across Europe in the mid-nineteenth century. Some pieces I have
seen written on the Niggun suggest the song was learnt by Chassidim who
lived near Kaluga where he was kept under house arrest by the Russians in
the 1860s. I have also heard the speculation that it was learnt by
Chassidim when the previous Rebbe was (briefly) imprisoned by the Soviets
in Kazakhstan in the 1920s, though his memoirs do not touch on this. 

I would really welcome suggestions, including suggestions as to where to
look further, or who to approach that might have further information... 

Many thanks indeed,
George Wilkes
Lecturer
Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations
Cambridge, England.
<grw1000 (at) cam(dot)ac(dot)uk>


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