Iraq & the Arabian Peninsula
Baghdad · the Gulf · the Hejaz · Yemen
Baghdad has been known as a city of music since the Abbasid era; in the 20th century it was the centre of great oud players and the classical Iraqi maqam. Around the Gulf, khaleeji song; in Yemen, its own oud and poetry traditions.
25 recordings, 1927–2025
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1927
Various Artists, Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted - Baghdad, 1925-1929
In the mid-1920s the Gramophone Company held three sessions in Baghdad, making nearly a thousand recordings. Honest Jon’s drew on the EMI Hayes archive for this set: oud-led pieces by mostly Jewish musicians, Kurdish violin improvisations and dance songs by rural singers.
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1932
Muhammad al-Qubbanji, Congrès Du Caire 1932, Vol. 1 (REMASTERED 2024)
The first volume of the 1988 Bibliothèque nationale / Institut du monde arabe CDs of recordings made at the Cairo Congress of Arab Music, convened by King Fuad I in March–April 1932. It holds the singing of Iraqi maqam master Muhammad al-Qubbanji, the most recorded artist at the congress.
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1955
Nazem Al-Ghazali, The Voice of Nazem El Ghazali: Recordings 1948–1960, Vol. 1
A Baghdad singer trained in the Iraqi maqam who, with warmly approachable songs, led the golden age of Iraqi popular song.
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1971
Munir Bashir, Iraq: Ûd Classique Arabe
An oud player from Mosul who refined the improvised taqsim into a solo art and carried the Arab oud onto world stages.
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1973
The Three Kawkabani Brothers & Hassan Al Zabeede, Music from Yemen Arabia (Sanaani, Laheji, Adeni and Samar)
Yemeni song recorded in Sanaa and Taez in 1973: the Kawkabani brothers singing old poems to oud, double drums and tambourine, and oud player Hassan al-Zabeede in the Lahej style. Gathers two Lyrichord LPs.
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1978
The men's choir from the Dar Jnah in Muharraq, Bahrain: Fidjeri: Songs of the Pearl Divers (UNESCO Collection from Smithsonian Folkways)
Fidjeri, the songs of Bahrain’s pearl divers, sung by the men’s choir of the Dar Jnah in Muharraq — the island whose pearling community gave birth to the genre. Recorded and annotated by the Palestinian musicologist Habib Hassan Touma.
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1988
Abdallah Al Rowaished, Abdallah Al Rowaished 1988 Abdallah Al Rowaishid — عبدالله الرويشد 1988
An album by Kuwaiti singer and actor Abdallah Al Rowaished, who began his solo career in the early 1980s and released new albums almost every year, each more popular than the last — a document of Gulf pop in that decade.
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1989
Talal Maddah, Talal Madah
A singer from Mecca called the “Voice of the Earth,” who modernised Hejazi song with oud and strings.
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1990
Various Artists, Yemen: Songs from Hadramawt (UNESCO Collection from Smithsonian Folkways)
Field recordings made in Yemen’s Hadramawt region by Scheherazade Qassim Hassan between 1985 and 1995, sampling the many kinds of dân song, including pieces for entertainment and dance. First issued in the UNESCO Collection in 1998.
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1994
Munir Bashir, Munir Bachir: Maqamat
Iraqi oud master Munir Bashir in a 1993 studio session: three traditional maqams alongside two of his own compositions.
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1995
Abdallah Ali, Ensemble Al-tchâlghî Al-Baghdadi, Hassan Ali al-Nakib, Shaoubi Ibrahim & Yusuf Omar, Le Maqâm Irakien - Tradition de Bagdad (Iraqi Maqâm - Baghdad Tradition)
A tribute to Yusuf Omar, one of the great 20th-century singers of the Iraqi maqam: six maqams recorded in 1972, at the height of his fame, with Baghdad’s chalghi ensemble of santur, joza fiddle and percussion.
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1999
Ilham Al Madfai, Qatrat al-Matar Ilham Al Madfai — قطرة المطر
A guitarist and singer from Baghdad who reworked old Iraqi songs with guitar and a feel for jazz and Latin music.
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2002
Ahmed Mukhtar, Music from Iraq: Rhythms of Baghdad
London-based Baghdadi oud player Ahmed Mukhtar presents Iraqi maqam and the rhythms of Baghdad in duets with percussion.
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2002
Hussein Al Jasmi, Hussain Al Jassmi 2002
Hussain Al Jassmi’s debut, released by Rotana in 2002 bearing only his name and his photograph. According to Forbes Middle East he has released more than 15 albums since.
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2003
Naseer Shamma, Maquamat Zíryáb
An oud player from Kut in southern Iraq, heir to the Baghdad school, who founded the Arab Oud House in Cairo to teach new players.
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2003
Rahim Alhaj, Iraqi Music In a Time of War
A solo oud recital by Iraqi oud player Rahim AlHaj, recorded live on 5 April at Sufi Books in Manhattan and released on VoxLox, following The Second Baghdad of the year before. Robert Christgau reviewed it.
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2004
Hussain Al Jassmi, Hussain Al Jassmi Hussain Al Jassmi — Hussain Al Jassmi
The Emirati singer Hussain Al Jassmi, one of those who carried khaleeji — the song of the Gulf — to audiences across the Arab world.
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2004
Ensemble Al-Umayri, The Sawt in Kuwait
Kuwait’s Al-Umayri Ensemble plays sawt, the song form of the Gulf coast of the Arabian Peninsula, recorded live at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris in June 2001.
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2006
Rahim AlHaj & Souhail Kaspar, When the Soul Is Settled: Music of Iraq
Rahim AlHaj, a Baghdad-born oud master who fled political persecution for the US, plays Iraqi maqam in dialogue with percussion, for Smithsonian Folkways.
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2006
Ahlam, El Thokol Sana’a Ahlam — الثقل صنعة
Emirati singer Ahlam’s album from 2006, the year she signed to Rotana, counted with Hatha Ana (2009) among her most successful records.
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2009
Ahmed Fathi, Akher El Akhbar
A Yemeni singer and oud virtuoso carrying Yemen’s distinctive rhythms and melodies.
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2015
Acrassicauda, Gilgamesh
The first full-length album by Acrassicauda, often called Iraq’s first heavy-metal band and known from the film Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Made after they fled via Syria and Turkey to the US, it was co-produced by Testament’s Alex Skolnick.
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2017
Rahim Alhaj, Letters from Iraq: Oud and String Quintet
Eight pieces Rahim AlHaj — granted asylum in 2000 and based in Albuquerque — wrote after reading letters from Iraqi women and children given to him on a 2014 visit home, scored for oud, string quintet and percussion and released by Smithsonian Folkways.
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2017
Balqees, Arahenkom
Balqees’s third album, self-produced: twelve songs in Yemeni, Iraqi and Lebanese dialects as well as classical Arabic, with Spanish lines in the title track.
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2025
Hamid Al-Saadi, Maqam Al-Iraq
Iraqi maqam singer Hamid Al-Saadi’s first release since 1999, recorded with the Safaafir ensemble under Amir ElSaffar’s musical direction — the first release on ElSaffar’s new Maqām Records.