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Can this mystical musical tradition make comeback in Egypt?

Some Egyptian artists are attempting to revive Zar folk music, believed to have been brought to Egypt from Ethiopia and Sudan.
Cairo, EGYPT:  TO GO WITH STORY BY JOELLE BASSOUL Zar musicians and healers perform their ritual in Cairo late 21 June 2006. The Zar trans religious ceremony, which uses drumming and dancing to cure an illness thought to be caused by a demon, is most prominent in southern Egypt and is practiced further south into the Sudan, though in fact it may be performed anywhere in Egypt. The ritual, a type of a healing cult, is prohibited by Islam as a pagan practice but it continues to be part of Egypt's popular cult
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CAIRO — In a narrow alleyway in the Abdin neighborhood in central Cairo, the band Asyad el-Zar (Zar Masters) performs a traditional show the first week of every month in a small theater located in the midst of old houses. The sounds of tambourines and traditional musical instruments are central in these performances to remind Egyptians of the Zar art, which has been disappearing gradually from Egyptian folklore in the past two decades.

Zar shows aim at “reviving folk music, searching for it in its source and presenting it to the audience,” Zakaria Ibrahim, the founder of El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music, told Al-Monitor. “Zar is disappearing in Egypt. Those who know it and practice it are having trouble keeping it alive.”

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