A Biography of the Ney

This chapter traces the key shifts in the ney’s modern history, from its de-legitimization in the early Republican period, its survival in the transitional years of its learning through the master-disciple pedagogic system (meşk), to its re-invigoration in the 1990s. These episodes underline how the meanings informing the ney are context-bound and socially constructed. The chapter also sketches out the incredibly rich sonic landscape of the city of Istanbul with which the ney interacts. Attention is given to the creation and consumption of new forms of ‘Sufi music’, and the popularization of Sufism sponsored by both private and state actors in Turkey, including the implications of these processes on the re-contextualization of the ney as a ‘spiritual sound.’