Maurice Jarre | The Message (Original Film Score)
The story behind Maurice Jarre’s Oscar-nominated score for The Message (1976) and filmmaker Moustapha Akkad’s impossible journey to bring Islam’s origins to the screen.
Quick Facts: Release, Genre, and Credits
Maurice Jarre composed the original score for The Message (1976), an epic film chronicling the birth of Islam directed and produced by Moustapha Akkad. The score was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jarre himself. Nominated for Best Original Score at the 50th Academy Awards, it lost to John Williams’ Star Wars. The film, known as Çağrı in Turkey and Al-Risalah in the Arabic-speaking world, starred Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, and Michael Ansara. An international co-production between Libya, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, and the UK, with a final budget of $17 million.
Two Stories in One Film
This isn’t a standard song post. The score for The Message can’t be separated from the film’s creation, because the music exists only because one man refused to stop making a movie the entire world tried to prevent. Maurice Jarre’s composition is the sound of that stubbornness: vast, reverent, and impossible to ignore.
This is two stories. The first is about a Syrian teenager who left Aleppo with $200 and a Quran and became a Hollywood director. The second is about a French composer who turned desert silence into orchestral prayer.
The Filmmaker: Moustapha Akkad’s Impossible Quest
From Aleppo to Hollywood with $200
Moustapha Akkad was born on July 1, 1930, in Aleppo, Syria. His father was a customs officer. When Akkad turned 18, he told his father he wanted to move to America and become a Hollywood director. In 1940s Aleppo, this was a fantasy.
His father listened. At the Damascus airport, he handed his son $200 he had saved and a copy of the Quran, and said: “All I can do for you is to give you these.”
Akkad studied film direction and production at UCLA, then earned a master’s degree at USC, where he met director Sam Peckinpah. He spent years working in American film and television. But the project that defined his life started with a different film entirely.
In 1962, Akkad watched David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and was transfixed by the scene where Omar Sharif emerges from the desert on horseback. “To me, the scene that I admired most in my life is David Lean’s scene when Omar Sharif was introduced,” Akkad later recalled. “I was so moved by that scene, and I tried to really kind of do similar.” He wanted to create a truly Arab screen epic: a film about the Prophet Muhammad and the birth of Islam.
Everything That Could Go Wrong Did
Akkad began developing the project in 1967. He told the Washington Post: “Being a Muslim myself who lived in the West, I felt that it was my obligation, my duty, to tell the truth about Islam.”
What followed was a decade of obstacles that would have stopped anyone less determined.
The script, written by H.A.L. Craig, was approved by a scholar at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. It was also approved by Shiite scholars in Iran. But the Muslim World League in Mecca, Saudi Arabia rejected it, partly due to a false rumor that Anthony Quinn would portray the Prophet Muhammad directly, which would violate the Islamic prohibition on depicting religious figures.
The governments of Kuwait, Libya, and Morocco initially promised financial support. When the Muslim World League rejected the project, Kuwait withdrew its funding. King Hassan II of Morocco stood by the production. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi continued to provide the majority of financial support. $10 million was raised, eventually reaching a final budget of $17 million.
Production began in Morocco in April 1974 with a crew of 300, 40 actors for both English and Arabic language versions, and over 5,000 extras. A $700,000 replica of Mecca was built near Marrakech.
After six months of filming, Saudi Arabia pressured Morocco to shut down the production. The Moroccan police forced Akkad to stop filming on August 5, 1974. King Hassan II told Akkad there was nothing he could do and that they needed to leave the country within two weeks.
Gaddafi Saves the Film
As the deadline approached, Akkad managed to arrange a meeting with Gaddafi. He showed the Libyan leader the footage they had managed to shoot in Morocco. The scenes moved Gaddafi deeply. He told Akkad he would solve all of his problems.
Akkad moved the entire production to Libya. Filming resumed in October 1974 and continued until May 1975. Gaddafi was so supportive he even sent special air conditioners to the set, worried that the film crew was suffering in the desert heat.
Akkad filmed the English and Arabic versions simultaneously with different casts. To depict interactions with Muhammad without ever showing or voicing him, Akkad used a camera technique: scenes were shot from Muhammad’s point of view, with a light bulb on the camera representing his presence. Islamic scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl praised this approach: “To figure out a way to have the prophet become a person without showing him, it was brilliant.”
The Premiere That Turned Into a Hostage Crisis
The film’s troubles didn’t end with production. Five days before its London premiere, threatening phone calls forced Akkad to change the title from Mohammed, Messenger of God to The Message, at a cost of £50,000. The film was banned in Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
In the United States, the premiere triggered the worst outcome imaginable. Members of the Hanafi Movement, a splinter group of the Nation of Islam, staged a siege of the Washington, D.C. chapter of B’nai B’rith. Under the mistaken belief that Anthony Quinn played Muhammad in the film, they threatened to blow up the building and its hostages unless the film’s opening was cancelled. The movie was pulled from theaters on the day of its premiere, resuming only after the three-day siege ended.
Akkad offered to show the film to the Hanafi Muslims, saying he would destroy it if they found it offensive.
An Ending Written by Cruelty
On November 9, 2005, Moustapha Akkad and his daughter Rima were attending a wedding at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Amman, Jordan. An al-Qaeda suicide bomber entered the hotel lobby, ordered an orange juice, and detonated his bomb belt. Both Akkad and Rima were killed.
The man who had spent his entire career trying to bridge the gap between Islam and the West was murdered by the very extremism he had dedicated his life to countering. He was 75 years old.
Aleppo named a school and a street after him. Beirut renamed a street in his honor. The 2007 remake of Halloween(which Akkad had produced as a franchise since 1978) was dedicated to his memory.
The Composer: Maurice Jarre’s Score for The Message
The Man Behind Lawrence of Arabia
Maurice Jarre was born on September 13, 1924, in Lyon, France. He studied engineering at the Sorbonne before abandoning it against his father’s will to study composition and percussion at the Conservatoire de Paris. He became director of the Theatre National Populaire and composed his first film score in 1951.
In 1961, his career transformed when producer Sam Spiegel asked him to write the score for David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Given just six weeks to compose two hours of orchestral music, Jarre created one of the most celebrated film scores in history, ranked third on the American Film Institute’s list of greatest film scores.
Jarre won three Academy Awards for Lean’s films: Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India(1984). By the time Akkad approached him for The Message, Jarre was one of the most respected film composers in the world, known for his ability to combine Western orchestral forms with ethnic musical traditions.
The Call of the Muezzin as Musical Foundation
Jarre built his score for The Message around a variation of the Call of the Muezzin, the summons to prayer at the mosque. This theme, rooted in the maqam Hijaz melodic mode, became the score’s primary motif, appearing in various arrangements throughout the film and reaching its fullest expression in the finale, “The Faith of Islam.”
The score alternates between two distinct approaches. The grand orchestral pieces use the full symphony orchestra enriched with percussion and Arabic instruments, creating moments of sweeping pageantry in cues like “Building the First Mosque,” “Entry to Mecca,” and “The Declaration.” The more introspective passages feature Jarre’s signature instrument, the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic device that produces an ethereal, otherworldly sound somewhere between a human voice and a singing saw.
The Ondes Martenot had been a Jarre trademark since Lawrence of Arabia. In The Message, it appears in cues like “The Sura,” “Presence of Mohammad,” and “Spread of Islam,” backed by distant strings to create what one critic described as “an ethereal, dreamy effect.” This combination of Arabic instruments, Ondes Martenot, and full orchestra gave the score a texture that captured both the spiritual intimacy and the historical sweep of the story.
One reviewer noted that the score “favors panorama over drama,” calling it “a colorful score more about idea than personality.” This was the right choice for a film whose protagonist could never be seen or heard. Jarre’s music had to carry the emotional weight of a character who existed only through the reactions of everyone around him.
Losing to Star Wars
The score was nominated for Best Original Score at the 50th Academy Awards (1978). It lost to John Williams’ Star Wars. In any other year, Jarre’s nomination might have been a victory. But 1977 was the year that changed film scoring forever, and even a three-time Oscar winner couldn’t compete with the cultural earthquake that was the Death Star.
Notes About The Message Score
Film Release: 1976
Composer: Maurice Jarre (1924-2009)
Director: Moustapha Akkad (1930-2005)
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Maurice Jarre
Key Instruments: Full symphony orchestra, Arabic percussion, Ondes Martenot, cithara
Primary Theme: Variation of the Call of the Muezzin (maqam Hijaz)
Academy Award: Nominated for Best Original Score (50th Academy Awards, 1978); lost to Star Wars (John Williams)
Film Cast: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara, Johnny Sekka
Film Budget: $17 million
Known as: Çağrı (Turkey), Al-Risalah (Arabic)
Soundtrack Tracks: “The Message,” “Hegira,” “Building the First Mosque,” “The Sura,” “Presence of Mohammad,” “Entry to Mecca,” “The Declaration,” “The First Martyrs,” “Fight,” “The Spread of Islam,” “Broken Idols,” “The Faith of Islam”
Film and Soundtrack Credits
Film Details
Director/Producer: Moustapha Akkad
Screenwriter: H.A.L. Craig
Cinematographer: Jack Hildyard
Costume Designer: Phyllis Dalton (also worked on Lawrence of Arabia)
Co-production: Libya, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, United Kingdom
Filming: April 1974 - May 1975 (Morocco, then Libya)
Two versions: English-language and Arabic-language, filmed simultaneously with different casts
Islamic consultation: Script approved by Al-Azhar University (Cairo) and Shiite scholars (Iran); rejected by Muslim World League (Mecca)
English Cast
Anthony Quinn - Hamza (the Prophet’s uncle)
Irene Papas - Hind
Michael Ansara - Abu Sufyan
Johnny Sekka - Bilal
Michael Forest - Khalid
Andre Morell - Abu Talib
Music Credits
Maurice Jarre - Composer, conductor
London Symphony Orchestra - Performance
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Performance
Remastered edition: Tadlow Records (limited collector’s edition of 2,000 copies, paired with Lion of the Desertscore)
Why This Score Matters
Music for an Invisible Protagonist
The most extraordinary challenge Maurice Jarre faced was composing music for a character who could never be depicted. Islamic tradition prohibits visual or vocal representation of the Prophet Muhammad. In most films, the score supports what you see. In The Message, the score had to become the presence the audience could not see.
Jarre solved this by using the Ondes Martenot to represent Muhammad’s unseen presence, creating an ethereal, transcendent sound that filled the spaces where a visible protagonist would normally stand. The Call of the Muezzin theme served as Muhammad’s musical signature, growing in complexity and power as the faith spreads through the narrative.
This wasn’t just compositional technique. It was a form of respect, achieving through music what Akkad achieved through cinematography: making absence feel like the most powerful presence in the room.
A Score Born from Akkad’s David Lean Obsession
It’s not a coincidence that Akkad hired the composer of Lawrence of Arabia to score his Arab epic. Akkad’s entire project was born from watching David Lean’s film. Hiring Lean’s most trusted composer was both an artistic choice and a statement of ambition: this film would stand alongside the greatest epics ever made.
Jarre understood Arab music and instrumentation. He had been composing for Middle Eastern settings since Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. By 1976, he had spent 14 years developing a musical vocabulary that could bridge Western symphonic traditions with Arabic scales and rhythms. The Message was the culmination of that knowledge.
The costumer Phyllis Dalton had also worked on Lawrence of Arabia. The cinematographer Jack Hildyard was a veteran of British epic productions. Akkad wasn’t just making a film. He was assembling the team that had defined what a desert epic could look and sound like, then pointing them toward an entirely different story.
Common Questions
Q: What is The Message (1976)? A: An epic film directed by Moustapha Akkad about the birth of Islam and the life of the Prophet Muhammad, who is never directly shown or voiced in the film. Starring Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, and Michael Ansara. Known as Çağrı in Turkey and Al-Risalah in Arabic.
Q: Who composed the music for The Message? A: Maurice Jarre, the three-time Oscar-winning French composer known for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India. The score was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Q: Did The Message win an Oscar? A: The score was nominated for Best Original Score at the 50th Academy Awards (1978), but lost to John Williams’ Star Wars. It remains one of Jarre’s most acclaimed works.
Q: Why was The Message controversial? A: The film faced opposition from the Muslim World League in Saudi Arabia, was banned in multiple countries, lost its production base in Morocco due to Saudi pressure, and was linked to a hostage siege in Washington, D.C. during its U.S. premiere. Despite this, it has become a beloved cultural touchstone, especially in Turkey and the wider Islamic world.
Q: What happened to Moustapha Akkad? A: Akkad and his daughter Rima were killed in the 2005 Amman hotel bombings in Jordan, an al-Qaeda terrorist attack. He was 75. He is also known for producing the original Halloween film franchise.
Q: What instruments does Jarre use in the score? A: A full symphony orchestra combined with Arabic percussion instruments and the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument that produces an ethereal, voice-like sound. The score’s primary theme is based on a variation of the Call of the Muezzin in the maqam Hijaz melodic mode.
Q: What is the Çağrı connection? A: The Message is known as Çağrı (meaning “The Call” or “The Invitation”) in Turkey, where it is considered a cultural institution. For generations of Turkish viewers, it has been the definitive cinematic introduction to the early history of Islam.