Children need Qudmany ouds too…
Category: Articles
A gem from Damascus, 1897
… the only known Damascus-made oud by the Qudmany family …
India to Kuwait
… an oud that crossed the Arabian Sea …
Syrian brothers in Istanbul
The movements of Damascene luthiery …
An oud in layers
All woods are linked to times and places…
Alexandria to Brussels, 1879
By Rachel Beckles Willson There’s a bit of a mystery surrounding this oud. Victor Mahillon, curator of the Museum of Musical Instruments at the Brussels Conservatoire, acquired it from Alexandria in 1879. Saskia Willaert, curator of African Collections at the museum, has gathered sources relating to the purchase, and from these we learn that Mahillon…
Oud of a luthiery student
By Karim Othman Hassan We know nothing of Mustafa, the maker of this oud, apart from the fact that he was studying carpentry or instrument making. So Stockholm’s Swedish Museum of Performing Arts (Scenkonstmuseet) is home to the instrument of an intermediate-level student. Why might the instrument be significant? Part of the answer lies in…
Adana to Stockholm
… who was Mustafa?
Our oldest Nahat
… by Yousif Nahat, of Damascus …
Damascus to London c.1880
… our oldest Nahat…
But is it an oud?
… a Tunisian instrument in London …
Cairo to London, 1867
By Rachel Beckles Willson England’s first oud arrived in 1867 thanks to some obscure international diplomacy involving Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. The French state mounted its second Exposition Universelle in Paris that year, and it involved not only massive displays of French industry, but also exhibits from other nations. Many of these presented…