ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on two sets of data illustrating liturgical literacy practices capturing two particular moments in the recent history of the Muslim madrassah in the UK. Choosing to understand liturgical literacy practice as a verbal art and as entextualisation, the work of Richard Bauman and others will be drawn upon to account for the verbal practices manifest in young people's acquisition and practice of Qur'anic literacy. The chapter concludes with an appeal to reappraise certain acts of performance that not only index young people's identities but also allow for meaning to be interpreted within an aesthetic framework. The Classical Arabic heard in the madrassah and in the mosque is a particularly stylised form of reading aloud with elaborate conventions for pronunciation, phrasing, pausing, intonation, pitch and rhythm. The chapter shows how language and literacy practices evident in the madrassah can be further illumined by treating them as performances.
