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This page groups hymns by the era their tradition first began. Wikipedia notes that "the Western tradition of hymnody begins with the Homeric Hymns, a collection of ancient Greek hymns, the oldest of which were written in the 7th century BC." Browsing by start year lets a visitor compare how old one hymn tradition is against another.

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Hymns & Liturgical Texts 1
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Nine Devotional and Liturgical Songs from the Daily Calls to Prayer to Poems of Praise

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Islam Hymns gathers nine of the atlas's Islamic devotional and liturgical songs, from the two daily calls to prayer through Sufi and communal repertoires to poems of praise for the Prophet.

The Adhan and Iqama are the calls that open and immediately precede congregational prayer, their wording established by practice rather than drawn from the Quran, so Sunni and Twelver practice differ over added lines and the schools differ further over repetitions and length, denominational differences the atlas names rather than blurs. The 99 Names of Allah gathers the great name corpus of Islamic devotion drawn from Quranic command and a canonical hadith. Salawat, the invocation of blessings on the Prophet, is grounded in Quran 33:56 and required in every prescribed prayer, with an enormous devotional literature grown around its short formula.

Regional and Sufi repertoires include the Ginans of the South Asian Nizari Ismaili communities, composed in South Asian languages and written in the purpose built Khojki script; Nefes, the sung poetry of the Alevi and Bektashi traditions performed to the saz within the cem; and Man Kunto Maula, the founding song of qawwali built on the Prophet's words about Ali at Ghadir Khumm. Qasidat al Burda, the Poem of the Mantle composed by Busiri, is probably the most copied poem in the Islamic world after the Quran, chanted at mawlid gatherings though its veneration is internally contested by some reformist currents. Tala al Badru Alayna, traditionally the song that greeted Muhammad's arrival at Medina, would be the oldest surviving Islamic hymn if the tradition carrying it is accurate.

Origin Period Start Year
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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