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…

Why do we collect?

In 1974 the Italian writer Italo Calvino wrote an essay called ‘Collection of Sand…