Morocco’s Sufi Issawa Music Reaches a Casablanca Concert Stage at US$21 a Ticket

MOROCCO · LIVE MUSIC

Issawa began as the ritual music of a Sufi brotherhood in Meknès, and it now turns up on hotel concert bills, which tells you something about how Morocco handles its traditions.

The Concert

Haj Saïd Berrada and Abir El Abed perform together at the Barceló Anfa in Casablanca, Morocco, on Saturday, 17 October 2026, at 8.30 p.m. The evening is billed as La Grande Rencontre des Voix Marocaines, or the great meeting of Moroccan voices.

Berrada leads one of the better-known Issawa troupes from Fez and is a regular presence on the Moroccan circuit, from Ramadan evenings to festival stages. His register is the deep, sustained singing that the brotherhood repertoire asks for.

Abir El Abed comes from a different part of the same broad landscape. She has appeared at the Gnaoua World Music Festival in Essaouira, which is the principal international window onto Morocco’s trance and brotherhood traditions.

Tickets were listed at 200 dirhams on Guichet.com when this article was written. That is a modest figure by the standards of Casablanca’s hotel-venue circuit, and no price appeared in the original announcement.

What Issawa Is

The Issawa are a Sufi brotherhood founded in Meknès in the sixteenth century around the figure of Sheikh al-Kamil, Muhammad ibn Isa. Their music is liturgical in origin, built for ceremonies rather than for an audience.

The sound is percussion and voice: large frame drums, the ghaita oboe, and layered choral singing that builds through long repeated cycles. The purpose of the repetition is trance, and in the ceremonial context it works on the participants rather than on listeners.

Morocco has several such traditions and they are frequently confused from outside. Gnaoua, the best-known abroad, comes from sub-Saharan West Africa and uses the guembri lute and metal qraqeb castanets. Issawa and Hamadcha are separate brotherhoods with their own repertoires.

What they share is the movement from private ceremony to public stage over the past half-century. The Essaouira festival did that for Gnaoua from 1998, and Issawa has followed the same route at a slower pace.

Meknès still holds the annual moussem that is the brotherhood’s own occasion, timed to the Prophet’s birthday. That remains a religious gathering rather than a cultural event, and it is a different thing from an evening like this one.

The Question a Concert Bill Raises

Moving ritual music onto a ticketed stage changes it, and Moroccan musicians discuss this openly rather than pretending otherwise. A ceremony has no audience and no running time; a concert has both.

The argument for it is straightforward. Performance fees keep troupes working and younger musicians learn repertoire that would otherwise thin out. A national audience hears traditions that were previously confined to particular cities and occasions.

The argument against is equally clear. What reaches the stage is an edited version, shorter and shaped for applause, and over time the edited version can become what people think the tradition is.

Neither position is the whole answer. The honest thing is to say that a concert of this kind performs a repertoire rather than being the thing itself. That is worth knowing before buying a ticket, not as a discouragement but as a description.

Practical Notes for Foreign Residents

The Barceló Anfa is a hotel in the Anfa district, west of the city centre and close to the coast. Hotel venues are a substantial part of Casablanca’s concert infrastructure, and the practical consequence is a seated room with a bar rather than a standing hall.

Casablanca has taxis in quantity and ride apps operate across the city. Anfa is straightforward to reach from the centre, from Maârif and from the corniche, and the return after a 10 p.m. finish is not a problem.

No Arabic is needed to follow the evening. The singing is in Arabic and the texts are devotional. The music works on rhythm and on the build of the vocal lines rather than on the words.

Many foreign residents have heard this repertoire only as background, at a wedding or across a festival ground. A seated concert is the version where you can actually listen to it, and that is the case for going.

It is also a reasonable first step into a part of Moroccan culture that can otherwise feel closed. The brotherhoods are religious organisations with their own membership, and a ticketed evening asks nothing of an outsider beyond attention.

Sources

• Guichet.com — concerts listing, Casablanca, 17 October 2026
• Festival Gnaoua et Musiques du Monde d’Essaouira — Abir El Abed
• Events.ma — La soirée Issawa avec Haj Said Berrada

FAQ

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Frequently Asked Questions

When and where is the concert?

At the Barceló Anfa Casablanca on Saturday, 17 October 2026, at 8.30 p.m. The evening is billed as La Grande Rencontre des Voix Marocaines.

How much are tickets?

They were listed at 200 dirhams on Guichet.com, the Moroccan ticketing platform, when this article was written on 23 September 2026. No price appeared in the original announcement.

What is the difference between Issawa and Gnaoua?

They are separate traditions. Issawa is a Sufi brotherhood founded in Meknès in the sixteenth century, using frame drums, the ghaita oboe and choral singing. Gnaoua has sub-Saharan West African roots and uses the guembri lute and qraqeb castanets.

Do I need Arabic to enjoy it?

No. The singing is in Arabic and the texts are devotional, but the music works through rhythm and through the build of the vocal lines. Nothing in the evening depends on following the words.

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