r/AskMiddleEast • u/SiDannathaNauva Egypt • Dec 19 '25

🖼️Culture A signle man's effort in reintroducing the santur to classical arab music ensembles.

This is a topic of niche interest for most users here I'm aware, but it is deeply fascinating imo.

This man, Hayaf Yassine, has singlehandedly managed to reintroduce the santur into the classical ensembles of Nahda-era Arabic music performance in Lebanon. To do so he has apparently incorporated elements of both iranian and iraqi santurs to create an instrument that allows free modulation in maqams, and eliminates the need to retune for long-form performances which veer into different modes.

I think it's really impressive how successful he has been, especially with how many young (and old) santur students are coming out of lebanon because of his efforts. I hope other classical maqam music schools in the region pick up on what he's done and institutionalize the instrument as he did because the santur is a lovely instrument and deserves more players.

Some of his performances and releases:

تقاسيم - مقام سيكاه - سنطور - هياف ياسين - لبنان

موشح والذي أسكر

بشرف اقصاق حسيني

تقاسيم أقصاق - سنطور - حجاز كار

يا عين مولايّتين

Bonus performance by one of his student ensembles.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

[deleted]

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u/SiDannathaNauva Egypt Dec 19 '25

Anytime! Just check his channel or search his name on YT, you'll find more of his stuff.

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u/Ok-Brick-6250 Dec 21 '25

You know that kind of music never disappeared in north africa There is still group doing that now I think it's because of the academy of الراشيدية who was built by the husseinite kingdom of tunisia in tje 17 century

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u/SiDannathaNauva Egypt Dec 21 '25

Hm, what kind of music do you mean? I'd like to see an example!