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| This photograph was sent to us by the above
Moroccan belly dancer who wanted us to promote her
interests in Dubai.
The violin is a popular instrument in Arabic music. Note the 'Oud'
(the guitar-like instrument being played by the musician in the
center). This is a typically Arabic musical instrument.
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Arabian Music
The world of Arab music has
long been dominated by musical trends that have emerged from Cairo,
generally considered a cultural center in the Arab world. Innovations in
popular music via the influence of other regional styles have also abounded
from Morocco to Saudi Arabia. In recent years, Beirut has become a major
center, dictating trends in the development of Arabic popular music. Other
regional styles that have enjoyed popular music status throughout the Arab
world include the Algerian
raï,
theMoroccan
gnawa, the Kuwaiti
sawt, the
Egyptian
el gil and Turkish
Arabesque-pop music.
Early years
By the 11th century, Moorish Spain was a centre for the manufacture of
instruments. These spread gradually throughout France, influencing French
troubadours and reaching the rest of Europe. The English words lute, rebec,
guitar, organ and naker are derived from Arabic oud, rabab, qitara, urghun
and nagqara'. al-Ghazali (1059 - 1111) wrote a treatise on music in Persia
which declared, "Ecstasy means the state that comes from listening to
music". The oud was popular between the tenth and sixteenth centuries then
fell into disuse, enjoying renewed popularity in the nineteenth century. The
Persians invented the Ghazal (love song), often used since in Arabic music.
Sixteenth century
Bartol Gyurgieuvits (1506 - 1566) spent 14 years as a slave in the
Turkish empire. After escaping, he published "De Turvarum ritu et caermoniis"
in Amsterdam in 1544. It is one of the first European books to describe
music in Islamic society. In India, the Islamic Mughal emperors ruled both
Muslims and Hindus. The greatest of these, Akbar (1542 - 1605) had a team of
at least fifty musicians, thirty-six of whom are known to us by name.
Female slaves
Slavery was widespread around the world. Just as in the Roman empire, slaves
were often brought into the Arab world from Africa. The Qur'an specifically
forbids slavery. Nonetheless, Black slaves from Zanzibar were noted in the
eleventh century for the quality of their song and dance. The "Epistle on
Singing Girls", written in Baghdad in 9 CE satirizes the excessive money
that could be made by singers. The author mentioned an Abyssinian girl who
fetched 120,000 dinars at an auction - far more than an ordinary slave. A
festival in 8 CE is mentioned as having fifty singing slave-girls with lutes
who acted as back-up musicians for a singer called Jamilia.
Male instrumentalists
Male instrumentalists were condemned in a treatise in 9 CE. They were
associated with vices such as chess, love poetry, wine drinking and
homosexuality. Many Persian treatises on music were burned by zealots.
Following the invasion of Egypt, Napoleon commissioned reports on the state
of Ottoman culture. Villoteau's account reveals that there were guilds of
male instrumentalists, who played to male audiences, and "learned females,"
who sang and played for women. The instruments included the oud, the zither
and the ney (flute). By 1800, several instruments that were first
encountered in Turkish military bands had been adopted into European
classical orchestras: the piccolo, the cymbal and the kettle drum. The
Santur or hammered dulcimer was cultivated within Persian classical schools
of music that can be traced back to the middle of 19 CE. There was no
written notation for the santur until the 1970s. Everything was learned
face-to-face (or chest-to-chest as the Persian language has it).
Twentieth century
In the 20th century, Egypt was the first in a series of Arab countries
to experience a sudden emergence of nationalism, as it became independent
after 2000 years of foreign rule. Turkish music, popular during the rule of
the Ottoman Empire in the region, was replaced by national music. Cairo
became a center for musical innovation.
The first Conference of Arab Music hosting musicians from across the Arab
world was held in Cairo in 1932. Umm Kalthum (1904 - 1975), along with
Fairuz were by far the most popular singers of the Arab world. Although in
her time, Umm Kalthum was slightly more popular than Fairuz, in Umm
Kalthum's last years and after her death, Fairuz was able to reach the same
level of popularity that Umm Kalthum had. Both are considered Arabic Music
Legends. There are many spellings of Umm Kalthum's name, including "Oom
Kalsoum". More recently, popular artists have included Khaled, Elissa, Amr
Diab, Nancy Ajram, Ehab Tawfik, Hisham Abbas, Haifa Wahbi, and Natacha
Atlas.
In Islam, there is an obligation called Tajwid or Tajweed - to recite every
letter correctly. Records broadcast in Islamic countries often have to pass
a test of clarity. Compared to the much of the rest of the world, the
diction of singers is therefore of very high quality.
Instruments and ensembles
The prototypical Arabic music
ensemble in Egypt and Syria is known as the
takht, and includes, (or included at different time periods) instruments
such as the
'oud,
qanún,
rabab,
ney,
violin (introduced in the 1840s or 50s),
riq
and
dumbek. In Iraq, the traditional ensemble, known as the chalghi,
includes only two melodic instruments - the jowza (similar to the rabab but
with four strings) and
santur- accompanied by the
riq
and
dumbek.
The Arab world has
incorporated instruments from the West, including the electric guitar,
cello, double bass and oboe, and incoporated influences from jazz and other
foreign musical styles. The singers remained the stars, however, especially
after the development of the recording and film industry in the
1920s in
Cairo. These singing celebrities include
Abd el-Halim Hafez,
Farid el-Atrache,
Asmahan,
Sayed Darweesh,
Mohammed Abd el-Wahaab,
Warda Al-Jazairia, and possibly the biggest star of modern Arab
classical music,
Umm Kalthum
