Egyptian music is ancient…as Sheikh Ahmed Al Tuni of Egypt will show us in this Islamic (Sufi) ritual.
When historians of music say Egypt has always been at the musical forefront in the Middle East, they may as well mean always–according to ancient Egyptians, the god Thoth invented music and the god Osiris used it as a tool to help him civilize the world. Egyptian music may not have originated at the dawn of time, but it certainly did begin a long while ago–fifteen hundred years or more–as we know from the remnants of ancient Egyptian rhythms and melodies still present in ancient Sufi Muslim dhikr rituals. Dhirk rituals take place at Muslim and Coptic traditional celebrations called mulids, which are held to celebrate particular saints. Watch this video of Sheikh Ahmed Al Tuni, one of Upper Egypt’s most accomplished ritual singers.
