Tunisian music draws from a variety of influences and cultures. Malouf is a classical Arabic style that originated in the medieval courts of North Africa and Spain, while Mezwed incorporates Amazigh rhythms and instruments like bagpipes. Sufi music is used in spiritual rituals and varies between brotherhoods. Stambeli music combines Sub-Saharan African traditions brought by former slaves with local Islamic practices. Today, rap and pop have emerged alongside continued innovation in traditional folk styles.

1. Tunisian music
A myriad of styles, origins and
cultures

2. FOLK MUSIC AND DANCE:
There is the Bedouin music which we also share with Morocco,
Algeria and Lybia.

4. Malouf is an emblem of Tunisian national
identity.
It is well-known in Algeria and Morocco
as well.
During the Ottoman empire, it was
influenced by Turkish music. However,
Tunisian repertoires, styles and
instruments remain distinctive.
Malouf

5. The earliest roots of the malouf can be
traced to a court musician from Baghdad
named Ziryab. He was expelled from the city
in 830, and travelled west, stopping finally
at Kairouan. The city was a center for North
African culture, and was the capital of
the Aghlabite dynasty. Ziryab crossed the
Maghreb and then entered Cordoba during a
period of cultural innovation. He became a
court musician again, and used influences
from the local area, the Maghreb and his
native Middle East to form a distinctively
Andalusian style.

6. Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger is an important figure of
modern Tunisian music. He collected the rules and
history of malouf in 1932, which filled six volumes,
and set up The Rachidia, an important
conserevatory which is still in use.
20th century musicians from Tunisia include Ziad
Gharsa, Lotfi Bouchnak, Anouar Brahem, an oud
player, Jasser Haj Youssef, a composer and a violin
player, and El Azifet, a rare all-female orchestra.

7. The lute or EL OUD is an indispensaaable instrument in
Malouf and Arabic music.

8. Mezwed: is purely Tunisian
music based on North African Amazigh scale
rhythms,
The main instruments used for this kind of
music is Mezoued which is a bagpipe and
darbouka.

9. Soufi music and tradition:
A kind of spiritual music. It’s a way to commune with God
and reach the ultimate truth and it is a sacred Islamic vocal
music, pertaining primarily to various religious brotherhoods
throughout Tunisia. Tunisia has a 1,000-year-old tradition of
mystic Sufi orders.
It’s not just one type of music , but many types that have
spread and flourished in all regions of the country, which has
had a positive implication: a diversity in musical production
that is specific to every Soufi brotherhood.

10. Today, in spite of the pressures and threats
that this kind of music has suffered from since
the revolution of 2011, it is a very cherished
and popular music in Tunisia. Many artists
have mixed it with traditional and modern
instruments as well other types of music.
Fadhel Jaziri is the one who regrouped these
different types of Soufi music and
brotherhoods and revived it again in a very
successful production in Carthage festival,
2001.
Listen to the following: it mingles Tunisian
and Turkish music.
https://youtu.be/TsGTxLGD1AE

11. Women run many Sufi shrines across
Tunisia, prepare and serve food for
worshipers and the needy. They are allowed
to pray at shrines alongside men – a rarity
at Islamic sites.
Women take part in joint ziker recitations in
shrines and at homes. They perform their
own rituals, such as a weekly recitations
and Islamic songs at shrines such as Sidi
Abul Hassan Shadhili zawiya in south Tunis.

12. Stambeli
Tunisia was a geographically strategic point for the trans-
Saharan routes, until slavery was abolished in 1846.
Sub-Saharan music cultures from places we now know of as
Mali, Nigeria, and Sudan were brought into Tunisia by both
caravans of traders and shackled slaves.
The languages, customs, and rituals of these places mixed
with those of Tunisia, including forms of Islam and Sufism,
resulting in a decidedly unique form of music.
A Stambeli performance involves multiple musicians playing a
variety of instruments. The main instruments are the gumbri,
the shqashiq, and the tabla.

14. Arabic music:
It is the music of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and
recently the Gulf region.
Egyptian music and songs used to dominate
the Arab world with famous singers like Oum
Kalthum and Abdelhalim Hafedh as Egypt used
to be the cultural capital of the Arab world.

15. CONTEMPORARY/MODERN
MUSIC:
Today, Rap along with other types of pop music have flourished after the
revolution of 2011, Rap is the music that expresses young people’s revolt
and frustration as well as their way of fighting against oppression and poor
conditions.
Many other artists, however, have revisited our traditional and folk music,
have done much research about them and reinvented and created
beautiful productions that appeal to the new generations.

16. Conclusion:
These different types of music are
bridges that link us to our past and
future. They are part of our traditions
and our identity, and here in Tunisia
our artists have worked hard and have
succeeded in finding ways that
preserve this rich and diverse cultural
heritage.