Zakaria Ibrahim, an Egyptian artist, gathered in 1989 three generations of musicians, singers, fishermen and philosophers around their shared love for the simsimiyya, an old five-string lyre mostly played on the shores of the Red Sea. With nostalgia, this group revives ancestral Sufi-inspired music, as well as music about social themes, love and sea adventures.
Since then, they became guardians of these popular melodies. The Al-Tanbûrah ensemble also recites songs of resistance from Port Said, Suez and Ismailia dating from the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Available album : The Simsimiyya of Port-Saïd