Folk Music on the Streets of Egypt

In my previous post I shared photos of Al Sahaba Mosque, one of the must-sees in Sharm El Sheikh. It’s located in the Old Town where you can meet a group of local musicians playing on the streets every evening. They’re accompanied by a tanoura dancer.

Tanoura translates to skirt in English. Makes sense, since the cloth is usually attached to the spinners waist and only detached and spun in the air later on during the dance.

The folklore instruments you can see here are tabla or darbuka (goblet drum), mizmar (a high-pitched wind instrument) and tabl baladi (drum with mallets).

Tabla is my favourite - it adds so much energy that it’s impossible to stand still while listening. It’s the national symbol of Egyptian Shaabi Music, but it’s popular in some contemporary forms as well.

The playing was really loud but a lot of fun to watch.

Historians believe that the tanoura dance was introduced by Rumi, a Turkish philosopher and poet, and that it came to Egypt in the 14th century. Rumi was a well known Sufi scholar. Back then, the dance was limited to the Sufi community but today it’s performed by non-Sufis as well.

Here’s a random photo of a camel that is probably wondering what is she doing in the middle of all these lights.

This is the mosque you can see in the background on the photo with the camel. Pretty, isn’t it?