Middle Eastern and North African music traditions

Lists of folk music traditions

Sub-Saharan Africa

Asia

Caribbean

Central America

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Middle East & North Africa

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This is a list of folk music traditions, with styles, dances, instruments and other related topics. The term folk music cannot be easily defined in a precise manner. It is used with widely varying definitions depending on the author, intended audience and context within a work. Similarly, the term traditions in this context does not connote any strictly-defined criteria. Music scholars, journalists, audiences, record industry individuals, politicians, nationalists and demagogues may often have occasion to address which fields of folk music are distinct traditions based along racial, geographic, linguistic, religious, tribal or ethnic lines, and all such peoples will likely use different criteria to decide what constitutes a "folk music tradition". This list uses the same general categories used by mainstream, primarily English-language, scholarly sources, as determined by relevant statements of fact and the internal structure of works.

These traditions may coincide entirely, partially or not at all with geographic, political, linguistic or cultural boundaries. Very few, if any, music scholars would claim that there are any folk music traditions that can be considered specific to a distinct group of people and with characteristics undiluted by contact with the music of other peoples; thus, the folk music traditions described herein overlap in varying degrees with each other.

Middle East and North Africa

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  Algerian musician Abderrahmane Abdelli performing in Belgium

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  A Turkish mandolin-banjo

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  A Turkish baglama

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  A Turkish cümbüş

Country	Elements	Dance	Instrumentation	Other topics
Armenian	kef - folk - liturgical - Tashnakzootyoun	tamzara - kochari - religious	duduk - oud - dumbeg - saz - bouzouki - shvi
Algerian [1]	medh - melhun - raï - zendani		gasha - guellal	berrah - cheikha - meddhahates - mehna - wa'adat
Assyrian	diwaneh - liliana - raweh		baglama - Çiftelia - davul - dhol - dutar - tambura - zurna - saz - watariyat
Bahraini	See Persian Gulf region	–	–	–
Bedouin [2]	zajal	fantasia	mijwis - mismar - yaghul
Berber [3]	amarg - ammussu - astara - ritual music - tabbayt	aberdag - ahidu - ahouach - ahwash	ajouag - bendir - ghaita - lotar (instrument) - nakous - ney - rabab - t'bel - tinde - viol	amydaz - imdyazn - laamt - rwai
Chleuh	See Berber	–	–	–
Djiboutian	balwo		bowl lyre - tanbura
Egyptian [4]	Saiyidi - sawahili - wedding music	awalim	mismar saiyidi - nahrasan
Emirati	See Persian Gulf region	–	–	–
Eritrean	folk - liturgical - popular		kebero - kobar - kraar - lyre - wata
Ethiopian	folk - liturgical - popular		begena - kebero - kraar - masenqo - sistrum - washint
Georgian [5]	Georgian polyphony - krimanchuli - naduri - orovela - table song		accordion - changui - chonguri - chuniri - clarinet - duduk - panduri
Iranian [6]			daff - dohol - lute - ney - ney-anban - zurna
Kabyle	See Berber	–	–	–
Khaleeji	See Persian Gulf region	–	–	–
Kuwaiti	See Persian Gulf region	–	–	–
Kurdish [7]	epic		Bloor - daff - dhol - doozela - duduk - kamanche - ney - oud - santur - shimshal - tabalak - tar - tenbur - zil - zurna	chirokbej - dengbej - stranbej
Persian Gulf region [8]	Khaleeji music - sawt (music)-tarab-Adani-shela	Ardha, dabkah	duff - teeran - nay - oud - rababa - merwass - tabla - binges - qanun
Lebanese [9]		dabkah
Mauritanian	al-bayda - epic - fagu - l'-gnaydiya - al-kahla - karr - labyad - lakhal - lebtayt	dabkah	ardin - daghumma - tbal - tidinit	iggawin[10]
Moroccan [11]	takht	ait atta - ait Bodar - ait Bugemaz (ait bouguemaz) - taskiwin	aghanin - bendir - darbuka - duff - garagab - ghaita - gimbri - guedra - kamanjeh - kanum - nai - nakous - oud - rabab - taarija - tabl - tan-tan - tar	moussem
Nubian [12]			duff
Omani	See Persian Gulf region	–	–	–
Palestinian [13]	dalauna - meyjana - Zaghareet - wedding music- Ataaba - Sahja - zajal	dabka	duff - mijwiz - nay - oud - rababa - shababi - tabla - yarghoul-oud-qanun	zajaleen
Pashtun [14]	Afghan wedding music - kiliwali	chub bazi - atan	daireh - dhol - rubab - tanbur	landai
Persian	See Iranian	–	–	–
Qatari	See Persian Gulf region	–	–	–
Saudi Arabia	Qasida	Ardah - Mizmar - Daha	Oud - Rebab - Tar - Ney - Mizmar	{{{Other}}}
Arabic, Islamic, Jewish music [15]	cantica - copla - endechas - romance - Songs for Purim - wedding music		accordion - darabouka - kanun - oud - tambourine
Somali	balwo, qaraami, dhaanto		batar drum - oud
Sudanese Arab [16]	haqiiba		oud - tambour
Tuareg	See Berber	–	–	–
Turkish [17]	bozlak - türkü	çifte telli - halay - horon - karsilama - köçek oyunu - semah - sword dance - zeybek	darbuka - davul - kemence - ney - saz - sipsi - Tulum (bagpipe) - zurna	ashik - chengi - düg¨nsalonu - köçekce
Yemeni [8]			oud	ghat

Notes

1. Morgan, Andy, "Music Under Fire" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 413 - 424
2. Lodge, David and Bill Badley, and Badley, Bill and Zein al Jundi, "Cairo Hit Factory" and "Europe Meets Asia in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 338 - 346 and pgs. 391 - 395; Kinney, pgs. 207 - 208
3. Includes the music of Kabylie and the Tuareg; Morgan, Andy, François Bensignor, and Dave Muddyman, "Bards of Immigritude", "Sounds of the Sahel" and "A Basic Expression of Life" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 425 - 426, pgs. 585 - 587 and pgs. 567 - 578; World Music Central
4. Lodge, David and Bill Badley, "Cairo Hit Factory" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 338 - 346; World Music Central
5. Broughton, Simon, "A Feast of Songs" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 347 - 350
6. Nooshin, Laudan, "The Art of Ornament" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 356 - 362
7. Nooshin, Laudan, and Eva Skalla and Jemima Amiri, "The Art of Ornament" and "Songs of the Stateless" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 356 - 362 and 378 - 384
8. Badley, Bill, "Sounds of the Arabian Peninsula" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 351 - 354
9. Manuel, Popular Musics, pg. 159
10. Muddyman, David and Richard Trillo, "The Ways of the Moors" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 563 - 566
11. Muddyman, Dave, "A Basic Expression of Life" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 567 - 578; ; World Music Central
12. Lodge, David and Bill Badley, "Cairo Hit Factory" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 338 - 346
13. Morgan, Andy and Mu'tasem Adilah, "The Sounds of Struggle" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 385 - 390
14. Manuel, Popular Musics, pg. 196; Doubleday, Veronica, "Red Light at the Crossroads" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 3 - 7
15. Cohen, Judith, "Ladino Romance" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 370 - 377
16. Verney, Peter with Helen Jerome and Moawia Yassin, "Yearning to Dance" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pgs. 672 - 680
17. Stokes, Martin, "Sounds of Anatolia" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pg. 396 - 410; Kinney, pgs. 216 - 217; World Music Central

References

• Broughton, Simon and Mark Ellingham (eds.) (2000). Rough Guide to World Music (First ed.). London: Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-636-0.
• Karolyi, Otto (1998). Traditional African & Oriental Music. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-023107-2.
• Kinney, Troy and Margaret West (1935). The Dance: Its Place in Art and Life. Tudor Publishing.
• Manuel, Peter (1988). Popular Musics of the Non-Western World. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505342-7.
• Philip V. Bohlman; Bruno Nettl; Charles Capwell; Thomas Turino; Isabel K. F. Wong (1997). Excursions in World Music (Second ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-230632-8.
• Fujie, Linda, James T. Koetting, David P. McAllester, David B. Reck, John M. Schechter, Mark Slobin and R. Anderson Sutton (1992). Jeff Todd Titan (Ed.), ed. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples (Second ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-872602-2.
• "International Dance Glossary". World Music Central. Archived from the original on February 7, 2006. Retrieved April 3, 2006.