Syria’s traditional oud-making on the decline
One of Syria’s last traditional lute makers, Antoun Tawil waits in vain in his Damascus workshop for orders of the oud — an instrument his country was once renowned for producing. While the war that has ravaged Syria over the past six years has devastated many of its historic crafts, the production of the oud […]
One of Syria’s last traditional lute makers, Antoun Tawil waits in vain in his Damascus workshop for orders of the oud — an instrument his country was once renowned for producing.
While the war that has ravaged Syria over the past six years has devastated many of its historic crafts, the production of the oud — the oriental lute — has been particularly hard hit, AFP reported.
Lute-makers have emigrated in large numbers, and the Damascene wood used to build the instruments has also become rare.
“There were around 20 workshops before the crisis, between Damascus, Aleppo and Hama… Now there are no more than six,” four of them in Damascus, said Tawil.
The slender 57-year-old is one of them.
In his tiny nine-square-meter shop in Tekkiyeh Sulamaniyeh — an Ottoman complex made up of a mosque and a crafts market — Tawil contemplates the ouds hung around him.
Named after the Arabic word meaning a piece of wood, the oud is a key instrument in Middle Eastern music.
It is related to the guitar, the Russian balalika and the Greek bouzouki, and the instrument is characterized by its short neck and large, full body that gives the instrument a pear shape.