Given its simple design, the instrument has developed many variations over the centuries but the essential idea still remains true to its ancient Middle Eastern origins. 3. Lute ...

The guitar-like oud is used widely in Middle Eastern music. Only a handful of traditional oud makers still work in Cairo. Performer and composer Naseer Shamma runs oud music schools in three countries ...

A craftsman in the old Medina neighborhood of Tunis tries to keep alive the art of making the traditional oud — a guitar-like instrument. An oud is basically a Middle Eastern lute.

What’s the quintessential musical instrument of the Middle East? Many of you might be quick to say it’s the drum, more specifically the darbouka or tabla.

This post was updated May 14 at 4:45 p.m. The saz – a Middle Eastern instrument with a long, ornamented neck – gives voice to a lizard in a one-woman play.

THE Middle East is shattered. From the civil war in Libya to the killing fields of Iraq and Syria, the region has never been more divided. But amid the chaos, a few symbols still manage to unify ...

The guitar-like oud is used widely in Middle Eastern music. Only a handful of traditional oud makers still work in Cairo. Performer and composer Naseer Shamma runs oud music schools in three countries ...