# The call to prayer. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625 "2010-11-14T04:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/1 "2010-11-14T04:56:20Z")
If done by a person vs speakers, who is it that does the actual five daily calls to prayer? BTW; These calls, as I’ve heard here and in movies etc, are hauntingly beautiful, and peaceful for me. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/2 "2010-11-14T05:01:58Z")
I’m not sure if I got all that, but are you asking about the person who does a call to tell Muslims to pray? That’s the [Muezzin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muezzin). ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/3 "2010-11-14T05:10:41Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I’m not sure if I got all that, but are you asking about the person who does a call to tell Muslims to pray? That’s the [Muezzin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muezzin). Hey, a couple little typos ain’t all that bad. I’m playing the “gettin’ old” card. ti = to peron = person Okay? But thanks, that’s what I wanted. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/4 "2010-11-14T05:27:42Z")
I believe, for the most part, that it’s not live - it’s either a cassette or CD, except maybe on Fridays. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/5 "2010-11-14T05:47:06Z")
What spelling errors? Two typos? ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/6 "2010-11-14T06:03:56Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > If done by a person vs speakers, who is it that does the actual five daily calls to prayer? > BTW; These calls, as I’ve heard here and in movies etc, are hauntingly beautiful, and peaceful for me. When I was a little kid, the 5 AM prayer call used to scare the shit out of me something bad. Imagine pitch dark and a weird chant half from this Earth. Since muezzins are mentioned, I can not resist this: https://www.youtube.com/embed/EZTZ1zrxeoQ?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/7 "2010-11-14T06:11:20Z")
Couldn’t find the subtitle button. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/8 "2010-11-14T06:12:15Z")
The chant is totally from this earth, and it’s quite pleasant. Nowhere near as annoying and cacophonic as church bells. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/9 "2010-11-14T06:25:12Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The chant is totally from this earth, and it’s quite pleasant. Nowhere near as annoying and cacophonic as church bells. Really depends. My brother used to work in Cairo, so I visited him a few times there. And Cairo is really the city of a thousand mosques. That is there are way more mosques than what is necessary, so a lot are almost unused but they almost all have prayer calls. And they’re all out of synch. So, at 5 am, you get a good dozen desynchronized prayer calls, wherever you are, wherever you go. Believe me, it is rapidly maddening. It is way more pleasant with the end of day prayer. **Johnny L.A.** : sorry , could only find the original French version, or the German translation. Still most of the muezzin joke is dialogueless, so you should be able to figure it out. Comes from OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, definitely a must see. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/10 "2010-11-14T06:28:20Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The chant is totally from this earth, and it’s quite pleasant. Nowhere near as annoying and cacophonic as church bells. I miss the sound of church bells every Sunday morning. I wouldn’t want to hear them 5 times a day though. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/11 "2010-11-14T06:31:56Z")
Chiming in from some one who lived in Saudi Arabia -Qatar. I got used to the call for prayer/ It was the Friday Iman’s ranting that got to me. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/12 "2010-11-14T06:42:23Z")
It depends on the muezzin and or the quality of recording. There was one near my grandparents house who sounded like a band of cats screeching. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/13 "2010-11-14T06:52:54Z")
I lived right next to a mosque in Thailand, with a live and very elderly muezzin. Every call to prayer started with the muezzin de-snotting his nose with the microphone on before he started singing. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/14 "2010-11-14T16:06:56Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Couldn’t find the subtitle button. Same here. I think he was bragging and she didn’t think it was funny. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-call-to-prayer/560625/15 "2010-11-14T16:06:56Z")
I’ve stayed in lots of Muslim cities and found that, often times, the call to prayer is being broadcast from really wretched speakers, apparently set up by someone with no knowledge of what feedback is. Some are obnoxiously loud and scratchy, not very nice. But once you grow accustomed to it, it’s quite wonderful. In the smaller towns and cities of the countryside is was not uncommon for the call to be delivered by the cracking voice of a young boy still just learning. Sun just up, mist rising off the jungle, the sincere voice of a young boy calling the faithful to prayer, all come together, for me, into one great big awesome memory.