… an instrument belonging to Jamil Bashir …
Tag: Syria
Nostalgia and the female oud player
How much have women shaped the world of the oud?
My New/Old Damascene Oud
… from Damascus to Istanbul to New York …
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…
She played them a tune on her oud…
…that would make solid rocks dance.
An Iraqi gift from Syria
… a gift that preserved a treasure …
Nur al-Din and the green satin bag
What lies within…?
The refined craft of Damascus in Istanbul
Children need Qudmany ouds too…
Syrian brothers in Istanbul
The movements of Damascene luthiery …
Why do we collect?
In 1974 the Italian writer Italo Calvino wrote an essay called ‘Collection of Sand…
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
By Rachel Beckles Willson The label of this oud tells an interesting story. It seems to have been made by a man called Mustafa, who was a student registered as ‘no. 77’ at a vocational school of arts in Adana. The date of the making is noted in the Rumi calendar, which translates to the…
