Oudmigrations launched in Arabic!

It has been some time since we have published a new article, but now, finally, we can announce the launch of the Arabic site! Please spread the word to your Arabic-reading friends and send them this link https://arabic.oudmigrations.com/ This mirror site was made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad al-Thani. We are…

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A Tunisian musical icon

… the ʻAbd ʻAzīz Jemaīl Tunisian ʻūd (1923) in the Collection of Jellāl Ben ʻAbdallah

Salman Shukur’s oud

…a relationship between player and instrument could last after the player himself passed on…

The oud as a luxury toy

By Rachel Beckles Willson When in 2006 Ritter Instruments made an oud in its ‘Royal’ series that sold at auction for $620,000, it pushed the so-called King of Arab instruments into new territory. The price was partly a result of its materials, but wood was not the deciding component. Rather, it was the 103-carat black…

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Egyptian Ouds from 1800 to the 1930s

By Tarek Abdallah In the period 1800-1895, written and iconographic sources relating to Egyptian musical instruments describe one predominant model of oud, namely the seven-course instrument known appropriately as al-‘ūd as-Sab‘āwī. However, as discussed elsewhere on Oudmigrations, of the two 19th-century ouds that travelled from Alexandria to Brussels, one has only six courses, and a…

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