Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

The Mehter (Ottoman military band)

فرقة المهتر

The Ottoman military band — the world's oldest organised military music, which inspired Mozart and Beethoven and still performs in Istanbul.

Depth

At a glance

Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

129013001310
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era

Music and its permissibility

Overview

The Mehter was the historic Ottoman military music band, the oldest well-known military band in the world. It played before armies and roused enthusiasm, and it is revived today in Istanbul as part of heritage ceremonies. 1

People and things also explored

Sama' (hearing) and its rulings· Shi'ar (the distinctive sign: the inner garment, a battle cry, and dress that sets a group apart)· Tasfiq (clapping, in prayer and elsewhere)· Fez Festival of World Sacred Music· Şeb-i Arus· Urs of Ajmer Sharif· Junoon· Native Deen

Sources

  1. Wikidata
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The Mehter (Ottoman military band)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/group/mehter-band/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Related

Sama' (hearing) and its rulings

In the lexicon sama' means perceiving by the sense of hearing, and it carries the senses of answering, understanding and accepting; the technical sense does not depart from them. The jurists treat hearing in several separate rulings: joining the congregation for one who hears the call to prayer, reading aloud in prayer, listening to the Friday sermon, the prostration of recitation, hearing a claim before a judge, testimony by hearing, listening to singing, the Qur'an, hadith and idle talk.