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Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse
music styles This is a list of music genres and styles. Music can be described in terms of many genres and styles. Classifications are often arbitrary, and may be disputed and closely related forms often overlap. Larger genres and styles comprise more specifi ...
and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many linguistic dialects, with each country and region having their own traditional music. Arabic music has a long history of interaction with many other regional musical styles and genres. It represents the music of all the peoples that make up the Arab world today, all the 22 states.


History


Pre-Islamic period (Arabian Peninsula)

Pre-Islamic Arabia was the cradle of many intellectual achievements, including music, musical theory and the development of
musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
s.'' Amnon Shiloah, Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-cultural Study, Wayne State University Press, 2000''
/ref> In Yemen, the main center of pre-Islamic Arab sciences, literature and arts, musicians benefited from the patronage of the Kings of
Sabaʾ The Sabaeans or Sabeans (Sabaean:, ; ar, ٱلسَّبَئِيُّوْن, ''as-Sabaʾiyyūn''; he, סְבָאִים, Səḇāʾīm) were an ancient group of South Arabians. They spoke the Sabaean language, one of the Old South Arabian langua ...
who encouraged the development of music.''Singing in the Jahili period'' – khaledtrm.net
"Sharron Gu, A Cultural History of the Arabic Language"
/ref> For many centuries, the Arabs of
Hejaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provin ...
recognized that the best real Arabian music came from Yemen, and Hadhrami minstrels were considered to be superior. Pre-Islamic
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
music was similar to that of Ancient Middle Eastern music. Most historians agree that there existed distinct forms of music in the
Arabian peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
in the pre-Islamic period between the 5th and 7th century AD. Arab poets of that time—called ''shu`ara' al-Jahiliyah'' ( Arabic: شعراء الجاهلية) or "Jahili poets", meaning "the poets of the period of ignorance"—used to recite poems with a high notes. It was believed that
Jinns Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mytho ...
revealed poems to poets and music to musicians. The choir at the time served as a pedagogic facility where the educated poets would recite their poems. Singing was not thought to be the work of these intellectuals and was instead entrusted to women with beautiful voices who would learn how to play some instruments used at that time such as the drum, the
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
or the
rebab The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
, and perform the songs while respecting the poetic metre. The compositions were simple and every singer would sing in a single ''
maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning ...
''. Among the notable songs of the period were the ''huda'' (from which the ''ghina'' derived), the ''nasb'', ''sanad'', and ''rukbani''.


Early Islamic period

Both compositions and improvisations in traditional Arabic music are based on the ''maqam'' system. ''Maqams'' can be realized with either
vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...
or instrumental music, and do not include a rhythmic component. Al-Kindi (801–873 AD) was a notable early theorist of Arabic music. He joined several others like al-Farabi in proposing the addition of a makeshift fifth string to the oud. He published several tracts on musical theory, including the cosmological connotations of music. He identified twelve tones on the Arabic musical scale, based on the location of fingers on and the strings of the oud. Abulfaraj (897–967) wrote the '' Kitab al-Aghani'', an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions. Al-Farabi (872–950) wrote a notable book on Islamic music titled '' Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir'' (The Great Book of Music). His pure
Arabian tone system The modern Arab tone system, or system of musical tuning, is based upon the theoretical division of the octave into twenty-four equal divisions or 24-tone equal temperament (24-TET), the distance between each successive note being a quarter tone (5 ...
is still used in Arabic music.Habib Hassan Touma (1996), ''The Music of the Arabs'', p. 170, trans. Laurie Schwartz, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, Al-Ghazali (1059–1111) wrote a treatise on music in Persia which declared, "Ecstasy means the state that comes from listening to music". In 1252, Safi al-Din developed a unique form of
musical notation Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...
, where rhythms were represented by
geometric Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...
representation. A similar geometric representation would not appear in the Western world until 1987, when Kjell Gustafson published a method to represent a rhythm as a two-dimensional graph.


Al-Andalus

By the 11th century, Islamic Iberia had become a center for the manufacture of instruments. These goods spread gradually throughout France, influencing French troubadours, and eventually reaching the rest of Europe. The English words
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
, rebec, and naker are derived from Arabic oud, rabab or Maghreb rebab, and naqareh.


16th to 19th century

Bartol Gyurgieuvits Bartol Gyurgieuvits (also Bartol Jurjevic or Gjurgjevic) (1506–1566) was a Croatian musicologist and Lexicography, lexicographer born in Turopolje near Zagreb. As a musicologist Gyurgieuvits was captured by the Ottoman Empire, Ottomans in the Ba ...
(1506–1566) spent 13 years as a slave in the Ottoman empire. After escaping, he published ''De Turvarum ritu et caermoniis'' in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
in 1544. It is one of the first European books to describe music in Islamic society.


20th century–present


Egypt and the Levant

In the early 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. Any English, French or European songs got replaced by national Egyptian music. Cairo became a center for musical innovation. Female singers were some of the first to take a secular approach. Egyptian performer Umm Kulthum and Lebanese singer Fairuz were notable examples of this. Both have been popular through the decades that followed and both are considered legends of Arabic music. Across the Mediterranean, Moroccan singer
Zohra Al Fassiya Zohra Al Fassiya ( ar, زهرة الفاسية, he, זוהרה אלפסיה) was a Moroccan singer and poet. Considered as the queen of the melhoun and gharnati genres, and one of the pioneers of modern Arabic music, she was the first female ...
was the first female performer to achieve wide popularity in the Maghreb region, performing traditional Arab Andalusian folk songs and later recording numerous albums of her own. During the 1940s and 1960s, Arabic music began to take on a more Western tone – Egyptian artists Umm Kulthum and Abdel Halim Hafez along with composers Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Baligh Hamdi pioneered the use of western instruments in Egyptian music. By the 1970s several other singers had followed suit and a strand of Arabic pop was born. Arabic pop usually consists of Western styled songs with Arabic instruments and lyrics. Melodies are often a mix between Eastern and Western. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Lydia Canaan, musical pioneer widely regarded as the first rock star of the Middle EastO'Connor, Tom
"Lydia Canaan One Step Closer to Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame"
'' The Daily Star'', Beirut, 27 April 2016.
fused English lyrics and Western sound with Middle-Eastern quarter tones and
microtones Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...
and became the first internationally successful Lebanese recording artist. Western pop music was also being influenced by Arabic music in the early 1960s, leading to the development of surf music, a rock music genre that later gave rise to
garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
and punk rock. Surf rock pioneer Dick Dale, a Lebanese American guitarist, was greatly influenced by the Arabic music he learnt from his uncle, particularly the oud melodies and skills which he later applied to his electric guitar playing when recording surf rock in the early 1960s. In the 1990s, several Arab artists have taken up such a style including Amr Diab, Moustafa Amar, Najwa Karam, Elissa, Nawal Al Zoghbi, Nancy Ajram, Haifa Wehbe,
Angham Angham Mohamed Ali Suleiman ( ar, أنغام محمد علي ; born 19 January 1972), known by the mononym Angham ( ar, أنغام), is an Egyptian singer, recording artist, and actress. Her debut was in 1987 under the guidance of her father, ...
, Fadl Shaker,
Majida Al Roumi Majida El Roumi Baradhy ( ar, ماجدة الرومي برادعي; born 13 December 1956) is a Lebanese soprano singer and UN, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. Early life Majida El Roumi Al Baradhy was born on 13 December 1956 in Kfarsh ...
, Wael Kfoury,
Asalah Nasri Assala Mostafa Hatem Nasri ( ar, أصالة مصطفى حاتم نصري; born 15 May 1969), commonly known as Assala ( ar, أصالة), is a Syrian musical artist. She is one of the most popular and famous Arab singers. Early life and career ...
,
Myriam Fares Myriam Fares ( ar, ميريام فارس , ; born 3 May 1983) is a Lebanese singer, actress, and entertainer. Personal life Fares, born in Kfar Chellal, Sidon District to a Maronite Christian family, married a Lebanese-American busine ...
, Carole Samaha,
Yara Yara may refer to: People * YARA (girl group), a Filipino girl group * Yara (given name) * Yara (surname), a Japanese surname * Yara (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese pop singer * Yara (footballer) (born 1964), Brazilian footballer Locations ...
, Samira Said,
Hisham Abbas Mohammad Hisham Mahmoud Mohammad Abbas ( ar, محمد هشام محمود محمد عباس; born September 13, 1963), commonly known as just Hisham Abbas , is an Egyptian pop singer best known for his hit song " Habibi Dah (Nari Narain)" and h ...
,
Kadhem Al Saher Kadim Jabbar Al Samarai (born September 12, 1957), better known by his stage name Kadim Al Sahir ( ar, كاظم الساهر}), is an Iraqi singer and composer. He typically performs with an orchestra of twenty to thirty musicians on Arabic ...
,
Mostafa Amar Moustafa Amar ( ar, مصطفى قمر; born 22 September 1966) is an Egyptian musician and actor. Career Amar's first song was "Wala Yabou Khad Gameel", released on a collective album. In 1990, he released his first solo album, Wassaf. In 1 ...
,
Ehab Tawfik Ehab Tawfik ( ar, إيهاب توفيق is an Egyptian singer and actor. He performs mostly in the '' shababi'' genre of Egyptian popular music. He has also recorded songs in the '' watani'' (nationalistic) tradition, among them "Set saʿat" ('S ...
,
Mohamed Fouad Mohamed Fouad Abd El Hamid Hassan ( ar, محمد فؤاد عبد الحميد حسن; born December 20, 1961) is an Egyptian singer, actor and songwriter. He filmed his first television series "Agla Min Hayaty" in 2010, and hosted the television ...
, Diana Haddad, Mohamed Mounir,
Latifa Latifa or Lateefa is a feminine Arabic (لٓطِيفٓة) given name which means "gentle" or "pleasant". It corresponds to the masculine Latif. Notable persons Lateefa * Lateefa Al Gaood, Bahraini politician * Lateefah Simon, American activist ...
,
Cheb Khaled Cheb (; german: Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 30,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Ohře. Before the 1945 expulsion of the German-speaking population, the town was the centre of the German-s ...
, George Wassouf, Hakim, Fares Karam, Julia Boutros, and Amal Hijazi.


Iraq

Due to Iraq's diversity and the long history, the country encompasses the music of a number of ethnic groups and musical genres. In 1936, Iraq Radio was established by two of Iraq's most prominent performers and composers, the Iraqi Jewish musicians, Saleh and Daoud al-Kuwaity with an ensemble, with the exception of the percussion player. The brothers had a pioneering role in the modern music of Iraq. Saleh was considered the father of Iraqi maqam as he was the pioneer of its first song. He also composed for the most famous singers of that era in Iraq and in the Arab world, such as Salima Murad,
Afifa Iskandar Afifa Iskandar Estefan ( ar, عفيفة إسكندر إصطيفان) was an Iraqi singer throughout the middle of the 20th century. She was born on 10 December 1921 in Mosul, Iraq. She was considered one of the best female singers in Iraqi hist ...
, Nazem al-Ghazali, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab. One of the main reasons for the predominance of Jewish instrumentalists in early 20th century Iraqi music was a prominent school for
blind Blind may refer to: * The state of blindness, being unable to see * A window blind, a covering for a window Blind may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Blind'' (2007 film), a Dutch drama by Tamar van den Dop * ''Blind' ...
Jewish children in Baghdad, which was founded in the late 1920s by the great ''qanunji'' ("qanun player") Joseph Hawthorne ('' Yusef Za'arur'') ( Hebrew: דנדהי ללוואלד-יוסף זערור‎).
Salima Pasha Salima Mourad or Salima Murad ( ar, سليمة مراد; 2 February 1900 – 28 January 1974) was a well-known Iraqi Jewish singer and was well known and highly respected in the Arab world. She was given the nickname "Pasha" by the Iraqi Prime Mi ...
was one of the most famous singers of the 1930s–1940s. The respect and adoration for Pasha were unusual at the time, since public performance by women was considered shameful by some countries in the region, and most female singers were recruited from brothels. The music in Iraq began to take a more Western tone during the 1960s and 1970s, notably by Ilham Madfai, with his Western guitar stylings with traditional Iraqi music which made him a popular performer in his native country and throughout the Middle East.


Influence of Arabic music

The majority of
musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
s used in European medieval and classical music have roots in Arabic musical instruments that were adopted from the medieval Arab world. They include the
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
, which shares an ancestor with the '' oud''; rebec (an ancestor of the violin) from ''
rebab The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
'', guitar from ''qitara'', naker from '' naqareh'', adufe from '' al-duff'', alboka from ''al-buq'', anafil from ''al-nafir'', exabeba (a type of flute) from ''al-shabbaba'', atabal (a type of
bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...
) from ''al-tabl'', atambal from ''al-tinbal'', the
balaban Balaban may refer to: Places Azerbaijan * Balaxanı, Azerbaijan, formerly Balaban Iran * Balaban, Khoy (Persian: , ''Balabān'') * Balaban, Piranshahr (Persian: , ''Bālābān'') Syria * Balaban ( ar, بلابان, Bālābān) is a village ...
,
castanet Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a similar ...
from ''kasatan'', and sonajas de azófar from ''sunuj al-sufr''. The Arabic rabāb, also known as the spiked fiddle, is the earliest known bowed string instrument and the ancestor of all European bowed instruments, including the rebec, the Byzantine lyra, and the violin. The Arabic oud in Arab music shares an ancestor with the European
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
. The oud is also cited as a precursor to the modern guitar. The guitar has roots in the four-string oud, brought to Iberia by the Moors in the 8th century. A direct ancestor of the modern guitar is the ' (Moorish guitar), which was in use in Spain by the 12th century. By the 14th century, it was simply referred to as a guitar. A number of medieval conical bore instruments were likely introduced or popularized by Arab musicians, including the xelami (from ''zulami''). Some scholars believe that the troubadors may have had Arabian origins, with
Magda Bogin Magda Bogin is a New York-based writer and literary translator who has produced a body of work that straddles fiction, poetry, opera and non-fiction. Born in Manhattan, she has lived and worked extensively in Mexico, France, Italy and Russia. Th ...
stating that the Arab poetic and musical tradition was one of several influences on European "courtly love poetry". Évariste Lévi-Provençal and other scholars stated that three lines of a poem by William IX of Aquitaine were in some form of Arabic, indicating a potential Andalusian origin for his works. The scholars attempted to translate the lines in question and produced various different translations. The medievalist Istvan Frank contended that the lines were not Arabic at all, but instead the result of the rewriting of the original by a later scribe. The theory that the troubadour tradition was created by William after his experience of
Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...
arts while fighting with the Reconquista in Spain has been championed by Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Idries Shah. George T. Beech states that there is only one documented battle that William fought in Spain, and it occurred towards the end of his life. Beech adds that William and his father did have Spanish individuals within their extended family, and that while there is no evidence he himself knew Arabic, he may have been friendly with some Europeans who could speak the language. Others state that the notion that William created the concept of troubadours is itself incorrect, and that his "songs represent not the beginnings of a tradition but summits of achievement in that tradition." Most scholars believe that
Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a ma ...
's Solfège musical notation system had its origins in a Latin hymn, but others suggest that it may have had Arabic origins instead. It has been argued that the Solfège syllables (''do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti'') may have been derived from the syllables of an Arabic solmization system ''Durr-i-Mufassal'' ("Separated Pearls") (''dal, ra, mim, fa, sad, lam''). This was first proposed by Meninski in his ''Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalum'' (1680). However, there is no documentary evidence for this theory, and no Arabic musical manuscripts using sequences from the Arabic alphabet are known to exist.
Henry George Farmer Henry George Farmer (17 January 1882 – 20 December 1965) was a British musicologist and Arabist. He studied under Thomas Hunter Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages at University of Glasgow. He wrote extensively about Arab musical influ ...
believes that there is no firm evidence on the origins of the notation, and therefore the Arabian origin theory and the hymnal origin theories are equally credible.


Improvisational Music in the Arabic Mediterranean region.

Ethnomusicologist Ali Jihad Racy talks about the
improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
style of music that is present in much of the Mediterranean world. Racy discusses the regional attitudes towards improvisation music in the Middle East describing that improvisation can suggest casual or untrained or even non-professional music-making. This is held only by certain communities within the Arabic world and can differ from each region or community. Some regions look at improvisation music as the intuitive artistic ability that momentarily expresses the feeling of the player. Other groups tend to view improvisation as though it is the fulfillment of music transcending the classical maqam style or other styles of music playing. Other schools of thought on improvisation music, in the Arab world, believe that improvisation music shows a lack of understanding in musical training. Racy does not specify which groups have what views. Rather, the discussion is more focused on the idea that the Arabic music world is not
monolithic A monolith is a monument or natural feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock. Monolith or monolithic may also refer to: Architecture * Monolithic architecture, a style of construction in which a building is carved, cast or excavated ...
in its view on improvisation in music. Other groups view improvisation as only learned through trial and error taking many years to perfect thus being a style played professionals.


Taqasim

A respectable tradition in improvisation music is known as
Taqasim ''Taqsim'' ( ckb, تەقسیم, ar, تَقْسِيم / ALA-LC: ''taqsīm''; el, ταξίμι, translit=taksimi, tr, taksim) is a melodic musical improvisation that usually precedes the performance of a traditional Arabic, Kurdish, Greek, Midd ...
. Taqasim music uses a
maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning ...
and improvises the form or structure of the song, which creates a cathartic experience for the listener. Further, the improvisation aspects go beyond the form and are expressed in the quartertones of the song. This tradition historically was performed as a chant. Now it is used by performers on the oud/ud, violin, or nay, a type of flute. This style of improvisation is known for the effects it can conjure from a listener. Listeners have been known to laugh, cry, and shout, all from different parts of the same performance due to the improvisation music aligning exactly to draw extreme emotion from someone.


Improvisation in Chant

* A certain type of Arabic chant is in the melismatic style and is both long and highly ornamented. It has specific elements of free rhythm and improvisation as part of its structure. Syllabic chant is isochronic and is accompanied by an al-durbkkeh (a percussion instrument. drum.) while being relatively fast in its nature. There is usually participation from the listeners who contribute through the clapping of hands to the rhythm. * Ethnomusicologist Jargy tells of another type of improvisation music in which he uses the name ''Median''''.'' This music is a combination of the syllabic chant and the melismatic style. Median improvisation music uses more extreme improvisation methods and expands the boundaries of improvisation and is usually faster than syllabic chant. * The last improvisation style discussed by Jargy is the recitative style that is sung predominantly by women and is built on aural tradition.


Genres


Franco-Arabic

Franco-Arabic music is a popular form of West-meets-East style of music, similar in many respects to modern Arabic Pop. This blend of western and eastern music was popularized by artists such as Dalida (Egypt), Sammy Clark (Lebanon), and Aldo from Australia. Although Franco-Arabic music includes many forms of cross-cultural blending between the West and the Middle East, musically the genre crosses over many lines as is seen in songs that incorporate Arabic and Italian, Arabic and French and, of course, Arabic and English styles or lyrics.


Arabic R&B, reggae, and hip hop

There has also been a rise of R&B, reggae and hip hop influenced Arab music in the past couple of years. These songs usually feature a rapper in a traditional
Arab pop The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...
song (such as Ishtar's song 'Habibi Sawah'). The Moroccan singer
Elam Jay Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
developed a contemporary version of the Gnawa genre that is fused with R&B which he named ''Gnawitone Styla''. Another variation of contemporary Gnawa played in Morocco is introduced by Darga. Based in
Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
, the group fuses Gnawa with Reggae. Political Reggae artists such as TootArd from the occupied
Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...
Golan Heights and from Haifa (Originally from Iqrith) started gaining popularity in
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
in 2011 after the YouTube premiere of a song about the Arab Spring (mainly the Tunisian revolution), called "The Green Revolution", sung by them and an ensemble of Palestinian artists, most notable among them being Mahmoud Jrere of DAM. Notable is Shadia Mansour, a Palestinian British rapper known as "The First Lady of Arab Hip Hop." Much of her music focuses on the Palestinian cause. Also there is the Moroccan pop introduced by the Moroccan singer
Oussama Belhcen OUBEL or Oussama Belhcen ( ar, أسامة بالحسن, born March 18, 1991) is a Moroccan pop and R&B singer, songwriter and producer.Darine Darine ( ar, دارين; born 1983) is a Lebanese-Swedish singer-songwriter. With two albums in account, her debut single was "Aiwa" on her album ''Ma Rulez''. In 2006, she released her second studio album ''My Compliments''. Biography Darine ...
. This has been met with mixed critical and commercial reaction. As of now it is not a widespread genre.


Arabic electronica

Electronic dance music is another genre to come out into popularity. Often, songs in this genre would combine electronic musical instruments with traditional Middle Eastern instruments. Artists like
Richii Richard Abicair (born 17 August 1989 in Melbourne, Australia), better known by his stage name Richii (Arabic: ريتشى) is a singer, dancer, songwriter, and music producer. He sings in Arabic in a Western style, and incorporates western elect ...
popularized this style with songs like "Ana Lubnaneyoun".


Arabic jazz

Another popular form of West meets East, Arabic jazz is also popular, with many songs using jazz instruments. Early jazz influences began with the use of the saxophone by musicians like Samir Suroor, in the "oriental" style. The use of the saxophone in that manner can be found in Abdel Halim Hafez's songs, as well as Kadim Al Sahir and Rida Al Abdallah today. The first mainstream jazz elements were incorporated into Arabic music by the Rahbani brothers. Fairuz's later work was almost exclusively made up of jazz songs, composed by her son Ziad Rahbani. Ziad Rahbani also pioneered today's oriental jazz movement, to which singers including Rima Khcheich, Salma El Mosfi, and (on occasion)
Latifa Latifa or Lateefa is a feminine Arabic (لٓطِيفٓة) given name which means "gentle" or "pleasant". It corresponds to the masculine Latif. Notable persons Lateefa * Lateefa Al Gaood, Bahraini politician * Lateefah Simon, American activist ...
adhere. We can also find a lot of jazz music in Mohamed Mounir's songs starting from his first album
Alemony Eneeki Alemony Eneeki ( ar, علموني عنيكي, tr: "''Teach me about you''") is a 1977 studio album by Mohamed Mounir Mohamed Mounir ( ar, محمد منير; born October 10, 1954) is an Egyptian singer and actor, with a musical career spannin ...
in 1977, and he is considered to be the King of Arabic Jazz and Arabic Music generally. Another notable performer of this genre is the Palestinian singer Reem Kelani who blends jazz with Arabic music, both in her own compositions and in her arrangements of traditional songs. Arabic Jazz has met many new kinds of composition since the end of the 20th century: * Modal forms with
Anouar Brahem Anouar Brahem ( أنور براهم); born on 20 October 1957) is a Tunisian oud player and composer. He is widely acclaimed as an innovator in his field. Performing primarily for a jazz audience, he combines Arabic classical music, folk music and ...
and Rabih Abou Khalil * Mixed electric sound experiences with
Dhafer Youssef Dhafer Youssef ( ar, ظافر يوسف; born 19 November 1967) is a Tunisian composer, singer and oud player. Biography Dhafer Youssef was born in Téboulba (a small village of coastal Tunisia); his grandfather was a muezzin. He calls the ra ...
and Kamal Musallam * New pop jazz styles with
Titi Robin Thierry "Titi" Robin (born 26 August 1957 in Rochefort-sur-Loire) is a French composer and improviser. His style combines Western culture, Mediterranean world including Romani (term), Romani, Oriental and Culture of Europe, European cultures. He ...
and
Toufic Farroukh Toufic Farroukh ( ar, توفيق فرّوخ) is a Lebanese jazz composer, working in France. Overview Toufic Farroukh is a saxophone player and composer of jazz with a middle-eastern flavour stemming from his bi-cultural roots in Lebanon and ...
* Other acoustic youth experiences with
Hamdi Makhlouf Hamdi Makhlouf ( ar, حمدي مخلوف), born on in Tunis, an oud player, vocalist, composer and a musicologist. Focusing on jazz and world music, Hamdi Makhlouf researches musical creation and Arabic modern composition. Since 2007, Hamdi Ma ...
, Amine & Hamza M'raihi and
Jasser Haj Youssef Jasser Haj Youssef (, born 18 June 1980 in Sousse) is a Tunisian violinist and, viola d'amore player, musicologist and composer who works in Oriental music, contemporary music, and jazz. He has performed and recorded with Barbara Hendricks, Yous ...


Arabic rock

Rock music is popular all around the world, the Arab world being no exception. There have been many Arab rock bands along the years that fused rock, metal and alternative rock sounds with traditional Arab instruments. Arabic rock has been gaining a lot of attention lately in the Middle East with bands like JadaL, Kayan, Autostrad, El Morabba3 and Akher Zapheer of Jordan, The Wanton Bishops, Mashrou' Leila, Adonis and Meen of Lebanon, Cairokee,
Massar Egbari Massar Egbari is an Egyptian Rock band that was officially launched in 2005 from Alexandria, Egypt. The band consists of 4 musicians: Ayman Massoud (Keyboards), Hany El Dakkak (Guitar and Lead Vocal), Ahmed Hafez (Bass guitar), and Tamer Attalla ...
, Sahara, Wyvern and Cartoon Killerz of Egypt,
Khalas Khalas are a Palestinian Israeli-Arab Oriental metal rock band, band, formed in 1999. The name of the band means "enough" in Arabic. In 2013, the band embarked on a tour across Europe along with Israeli band Orphaned Land, an event which brough ...
, and Chaos of
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
and Acrassicauda of Iraq. The Tunisian rock band
Myrath Myrath ( ar, ميراث ''mīrāth'', "Legacy") is a Tunisian progressive metal band formed in 2001 by guitarist Malek Ben Arbia and currently based in Tunisia. The band has been noted for its mix of Arabic and Middle Eastern instrumentation w ...
is gaining popularity worldwide. The band Hoba Hoba Spirit from Morocco is also gaining popularity, especially in the Maghrebi region. Rachid Taha, an Algerian musician, played a fusion of rock and raï. Recently, there has been a new wave of bands emerging in the underground scene across the Arab world. These include Shaghaf, Khayal, Sada That, Code Masr and Hawas of Egypt and Ayloul of Lebanon.


Musical regions

The world of modern Arabic music has long been dominated by musical trends that have emerged from Cairo, Egypt. The city is generally considered one of the important cultural centers 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 an important city where singers can fluently sing in various Arabic Dialects. Other regional styles that have enjoyed popular music status throughout the Arab world, including:


North Africa

*
Al Jeel Al Jeel, also known as Jeel, Geel (Egyptian Arabic), is an Egyptian alternative to foreign popular forms of music that developed in the 1970s. Modeled after foreign rock and roll and pop music, Al Jeel became oriented around dance/pop, and had a ...
( Egypt) * Shaabi Music ( Egypt) * Mawwal ( Egypt) * Semsemya ( Egypt) * Andalusian classical music ( Morocco and Algeria) and Tunisia * Malouf (Libya) *
Chaabi (Algeria) Chaabi is a traditional music of Algiers (Algeria), formalized by El Hadj M'Hamed El Anka. Originally from the Casbah, the music known as chaabi belongs to a tradition of recent origin. It emerged during the 1930s, and has lost none of its power ...
* Chaabi (Morocco) * Gnawa ( Morocco and the southwest of Algeria) *
Haqibah The rich and varied music of Sudan has traditional, rural, northeastern African roots and also shows Arabic, Western or other African influences, especially on the popular urban music from the early 20th century onwards. Since the establ ...
* Malhun ( Morocco) * Mezwed ( Tunisia) * Raï ( Algeria)


Arabian Peninsula

* Adani * Ardah * Ardham * Bandari Khaliji * Dazah * Fann at-Tanbura * Fijiri * Khabayti * Khaliji * Khuwizaani *
Liwa Liwa may refer to: Places ; Chad *Liwa (sub-prefecture) in Mamdi Department ; Indonesia *Liwa, Indonesia ; Oman * Liwa, Oman, place in Oman, area around Sohar University *Liwa Province, Oman (wilayah) ; Poland *Liwa, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeshi ...
* Mizmar * M'alayah * Rumba Khaliji * Samri * Sawt * Shaabi Khaliji * Yanbaawi * Yowlah * Zafah Khaliji


Sacred and Art music


Sacred music

Arabic religious music includes Jewish ( Pizmonim and Baqashot),
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
, and
Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...
music. However, Islamic music, including the '' Tajwid'' or recitation of Qur'an readings, is structurally equivalent to Arabic secular music, while
Christian Arab Arab Christians ( ar, ﺍَﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, translit=al-Masīḥīyyūn al-ʿArab) are ethnic Arabs, Arab nationals, or Arabic language, Arabic-speakers who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab ...
music has been influenced by
Syriac Orthodox , native_name_lang = syc , image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg , imagewidth = 250 , alt = Cathedral of Saint George , caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascu ...
, Catholic, Greek Orthodox,
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
, Coptic, and
Maronite The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
church music.


Art music

Secular art musical genres include
maqam al-iraqi Iraqi Maqam ( ar, المقام العراقي) is a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq. The roots of modern Iraqi maqam can be traced as far back as the Abbasid Caliphate, when that large empire was controlled from Baghdad. The ensemble of ...
, andalusi nubah, muwashshah, Fijiri songs, qasidah, layali, mawwal, taqsim, bashraf, sama'i, tahmilah,
dulab Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many ...
, sawt, and
liwa Liwa may refer to: Places ; Chad *Liwa (sub-prefecture) in Mamdi Department ; Indonesia *Liwa, Indonesia ; Oman * Liwa, Oman, place in Oman, area around Sohar University *Liwa Province, Oman (wilayah) ; Poland *Liwa, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeshi ...
.


Characteristics of Arabic music

Much of Arabic music is characterized by an emphasis on
melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...
and rhythm, as opposed to
harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
. There are some genres of Arabic music that are
polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
, but typically, Arabic music is homophonic. Habib Hassan Touma submits that there are five components that characterize Arabic music: # The Arab tone system; that is, a
musical tuning In music, there are two common meanings for tuning: * Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice. * Tuning systems, the various systems of pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases. Tuning practice Tun ...
system that relies on specific interval structures and was invented by al-Farabi in the 10th century # Rhythmic-temporal structures that produce a rich variety of rhythmic patterns, known as '' awzan'' or "weight", that are used to accompany metered vocal and instrumental genres, to accent or give them form. # A number of
musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
s that are found throughout the Arab world that represent a standardized
tone system The musical system of ancient Greece evolved over a period of more than 500 years from simple scales of tetrachords, or divisions of the perfect fourth, into several complex systems encompassing tetrachords and octaves, as well as octave scales d ...
, are played with generally standardized performance techniques, and display similar details in construction and design. # Specific social contexts that produce sub-categories of Arabic music, or musical genres that can be broadly classified as urban (music of the city inhabitants), rural (music of the country inhabitants), or
Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
(music of the desert inhabitants)..." # An Arab musical mentality, "responsible for the esthetic homogeneity of the tonal-spatial and rhythmic-temporal structures throughout the Arab world whether
composed Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
or improvised, instrumental or vocal, secular or sacred." Touma describes this musical mentality as being composed of many things.


Maqam system

The basis of Arabic music is the
maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning ...
(pl. maqamat), which looks like the mode, but is not quite the same. The tonic note, dominant note, and ending note (unless modulation occurs) are generally determined by the maqam used. Arabic maqam theory as described in literature over the ages names between 90 and 110 maqams, that are grouped into larger categories known as fasilah. Fasilah are groupings of maqams whose first four primary pitches are shared in common.


Ajnas

The maqam consists of at least two ''ajnas'', or scale segments. ''Ajnas'' is the plural form of ''jins'', which in Arabic comes from the Latin word ''genus'', meaning "type". In practice, a jins is either a trichord (three notes), a tetrachord (four notes), or a pentachord (five notes). A maqam usually covers only one
octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
(usually two ajnas), but can cover more. Like the melodic minor scale, some maqamat use different ajnas when descending and ascending. Due to continuous innovation and the emergence of new ajnas, and because most music scholars have not reached consensus on the subject, a solid figure for the total number of ajnas in use is uncertain. In practice, however, most musicians would agree there are at least eight major ajnas: ''rast'', ''bayat'', ''sikah'', ''hijaz'', ''saba'', ''kurd'', ''nahawand'', and ''ajam'', and commonly used variants such as ''nakriz'', ''athar kurd'', ''sikah beladi'', ''saba zamzama''. For example, ''Mukhalif'' is a rare jins (in the Sikah) family used almost exclusively in Iraq, and it is not used in combination with other ajnas.


Microtones in Arabic music

Unlike the tradition of Western music, Arabic music contains
microtones Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...
, which are notes that lie between notes in the Western chromatic scale. While notes in the chromatic scale are separated by semitones (or half steps), notes in Arabic music can be separated by quarter tones. In some treatments of theory, the quarter tone scale or all twenty four tones should exist, but according to Yūsuf Shawqī (1969), fewer tones are used in practice. Additionally, in 1932, at the Cairo Congress of Arab Music held in Cairo, Egypt—and attended by such Western luminaries as
Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...
and
Henry George Farmer Henry George Farmer (17 January 1882 – 20 December 1965) was a British musicologist and Arabist. He studied under Thomas Hunter Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages at University of Glasgow. He wrote extensively about Arab musical influ ...
—experiments were done that determined conclusively that the notes in actual use differ substantially from an even-tempered 24-tone scale. Furthermore, the intonation of many of those notes differ slightly from region to region (Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iraq).


Regional scales

As a result of these findings, the following recommendation was issued: "The tempered scale and the natural scale should be rejected. In Egypt, the Egyptian scale is to be kept with the values, which were measured with all possible precision. The Turkish, Syrian, and Iraqi scales should remain what they are...." Both in modern practice, and evident in recorded music over the course of the last century, several differently-tuned Es in between the E-flat and E-natural of the Western Chromatic scale are used, that vary according to the types of maqams and ajnas used, and the region in which they are used.


Practical treatment

Musicians and teachers refer to these in-between notes as
quarter tone A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, a ...
s, using "half-flat" or "half-sharp" as a designation for the in-between flats and sharps, for ease of nomenclature. Performance and teaching of the exact values of intonation in each jins or maqam is usually done by ear. It should also be added, in reference to Habib Hassan Touma's comment above, that these quarter tones are not used everywhere in the maqamat: in practice, Arabic music does not modulate to 12 different tonic areas like the
Well-Tempered Klavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of in ...
. The most commonly used quarter tones are on E (between E and E), A, B, D, F (between F and F), and C.


Vocal traditions

Arab classical music is known for its famed virtuoso singers, who sing long, elaborately ornamented, melismatic tunes, coloraturas unheard in any other musical genres and are known for driving audiences into ecstasy. Its traditions come from pre-
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic times, when female singing
slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
entertained the wealthy, inspired warriors on the battlefield with their rajaz poetry, and performed at weddings. A vast number of female Arab vocalists are mezzo-sopranos who possess darker and richer tones than generic Soprano voices as a result of having thicker vocal folds and larger larynx.


Instruments and ensembles

The prototypical Arabic music ensemble in Egypt and Syria is known as the
takht Takht may refer to: Places Iran *Takht-e Olya, a village in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Takht-e Sofla, a village in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Takht, Golestan, a village in Mindasht County, Golestan Province, Iran *Takht, Hamadan, a villag ...
, and includes, (or included at different time periods) instruments such as the
'oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...
, qānūn, rabab, ney, violin (introduced in the 1840s or 50s),
riq Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...
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 The santur (also ''santūr'', ''santour'', ''santoor'') ( fa, سنتور), is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origins.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻU ...
—accompanied by the
riq Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...
and dumbek. The Arab world has incorporated instruments from the West, including the electric guitar, cello, double bass and oboe, and incorporated influences from jazz and other foreign musical styles. The singers have remained the stars, however, especially after the development of the recording and film industry in the 1920s in Cairo. These singing celebrities are (or were) the biggest stars in Arabic classic music, they include Farid Al Attrache,
Asmahan Amal al-Atrash ( ar, آمال الأطرش ', North Levantine ; November 25, 1918 – July 14, 1944),
, Abdel Halim Hafez, Sayed Darwish, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Warda Al-Jazairia, Wadih El Safi, Fairuz, Sabah, and Umm Kulthum.


Research and documentation of Arabic music

Even though musical traditions in the Arab world have been handed down orally, Arab scholar Al-Kindi,and Persian scholars Abulfaraj or Al-Farabi and later Safi al-Din published treatises in Arabic on Persian music since at least the 9th century AD. In 1932, the first Congress of Arab Music was held in Cairo, where scholarship about the past, present and future of Arabic music was presented both from Western as well as Arab experts. The results were later documented, both in writing as well as in the form of audio recordings. Research on Arabic music is a focus of departments of
ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
at universities worldwide, and the global interest in World music has led to a growing number of studies and re-issues of historic recordings by independent researchers or private companies. Making use of digital archives for texts, pictures and sounds, detailed information on the history of Arabic music is also made accessible over the Internet. The Lebanese foundation AMMAR, for example, is committed to the preservation and dissemination of traditional Arab music and has published a host of historical documents.


See also

*
Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry ...
*
Byzantine music Byzantine music (Greek: Βυζαντινή μουσική) is the music of the Byzantine Empire. Originally it consisted of songs and hymns composed to Greek texts used for courtly ceremonials, during festivals, or as paraliturgical and liturgical ...
* Durood * Hamd * Islamic music * Islamic poetry *
Mawlid Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi ash-Sharif or Eid Milad un Nabi ( ar, المولد النبوي, translit=mawlid an-nabawī, lit=Birth of the Prophet, sometimes simply called in colloquial Arabic , , among other vernacular pronunciations; sometimes , ) ...
* Mehfil *
Middle Eastern music The various nations of the region include the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East, the Iranian traditions of Persia, the Jewish music of Israel and the diaspora, Armenian music, Kurdish music, Azeri Music, the varied traditions of Cypriot ...
* Music of Africa * Music of Asia * Music of Southeastern Europe * Na'at *
Nasheed A nasheed (Arabic: singular ', plural ', meaning: "chants") is a work of vocal music, partially coincident with hymns, that is either sung ''a cappella'' or with instruments, according to a particular style or tradition within Islam. Nasheed ...
* Pizmonim * Sufi music * Sufi poetry *
Sufism Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...
* History of Sufism * Arabic Oud House *
Arabic pop music Arabic pop music or Arab pop music is a subgenre of pop music and Arabic music. Arabic pop is mainly produced and originated in Cairo, Egypt; as Egyptian music genre is by far the most widespread within the region. Also Beirut, Lebanon, and Gul ...


References


Further reading

* Lodge, David and Bill Badley. "Partner of Poetry". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), ''World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East'', pp 323–331. Rough Guides Ltd., Penguin Books. ISBN * Shiloah, Amnon. ''Music in the World of Islam. A Socio-Cultural Study'' 2001. ISBN * Julián Ribera y Tarragó. ''La música árabe y su influencia en la española'' (1985). * Fernández Manzano, Reynaldo. ''De las melodías del reino nazarí de Granada a las estructuras musicales cristianas. La transformación de las tradiciones Hispano-árabes en la península Ibérica''. 1984. * Fernández Manzano, Reynaldo y Santiago Simón, Emilio de (Coordinación y supervisión ed.). ''Música y Poesía del Sur de al-Andalus''. 1995. * Fernández Manzano, Reynaldo.: ''La música de al-Andalus en la cultura medieval, imágenes en el tiempo'', Granada, Universidad e Granada, 2012.


External links


A Brief History of Arab Music – VideoInformation about history of music from Arabic textsArabic 78 RPM Records Collection at Harvard Loeb Music LibraryMaqam World
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arabic music Wikipedia Student Program Middle Eastern music North African music Classical and art music traditions