THE art music of the eastern Arab world has a long and dynamic history: with roots going back two millennia, it has evolved greatly over time and continues to evolve today. Concentrated in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus and Aleppo, it has many shared features across the region; we may think of it as a single tradition, but there are local variations. The shared features include scales and rhythms, instruments, types of ensemble, repertoire and performance contexts. As such, the above description – of a 1980s performance by the Arabic Music Ensemble in Cairo – could represent similar concerts in many parts of the eastern Arab world. Yet compositions by the Egyptian Sayyid Darwīsh and Muḥ ammad ‘Abd al-Wahhāb, for example, are regarded as distinctly Egyptian; performances by the singer Fayrouz are felt to exhibit a uniquely Lebanese character; and traditional songs performed by the Aleppan singer Ṣabāḥ Fakhrī are regarded as reflecting a quintessentially Syrian tradition. Thus do styles differ within this shared music.

Early history

The history of Arab music predates the birth of Islam. Early vocal and poetic traditions from nomadic tribes and flourishing urban centres like Mecca were further developed in opulent court settings from the seventh century, first in Damascus, the capital of the Umayyad dynasty (661–750), and then in the Abbasid-dynasty capital, Baghdad (750–1258).