Tunisian malouf
The Tunisian malouf or Tunisian ma'luf, is one of the principal types of traditional music in Tunisia. A particular branch of Andalusi classical music, it can be seen as the result of a synthesis between the cultural substrate specific to the region of Ifriqiya and Andalusi, Eastern, African, and Mediterranean influences.
History
In the late 8th century, Kairouan—capital of the Aghlabids and the country's first religious city—cultivated a musical art comparable to that flourishing in Baghdad, and its influence extended to Fez via Béjaïa, Constantine, and Tlemcen in Algeria. This is why the illustrious musician Ziryab, recently expatriated from Baghdad, made a long stop there on his journey west before settling in Córdoba, where he founded the first school of Andalusian music. With Ziryab, a specific style was born in Al-Andalus, though, owing to its origins, it remained strongly marked by the East.In the 13th century, under the Hafsids, around 8000 Andalusians expelled by the advancing Christians during the Reconquista arrived in Tunis. They brought with them a musical repertoire rooted in the Maghrebi fund that had been enriched over the centuries in al-Andalus. The styles and repertoires introduced by Andalusian immigrants quickly came under local influence and changed through contact with the native population. In this context, Turkish culture in Tunisia—become a province of the Ottoman Empire in 1574—exerted a certain influence. The malouf thus integrated musical forms from the Eastern schools then in full bloom while Tunisian musicians adopted the oud and the qanoun.
Malouf occupies a special place in Tunisian musical tradition because it constitutes an important part of the traditional heritage and includes both a secular repertoire and a religious repertoire tied to the liturgy of various brotherhoods. It covers several forms of classical traditional song: the muwashshah, the zajal, shghul, foundou, and the bashraf. But the central form of malouf is the nouba—originally meaning a session of music, now comparable to a "musical suite."
Nouba, the core form of Tunisian malouf
According to al-Tifāshī al-Gafsī, the nouba formerly consisted of the following pieces: nashīd, istihlāl, ʿamal, muḥarrak, the muwashshah and the zajal. According to Shaykh Muḥammad al-Dharīf, noubas once followed fourteen different musical modes: rahāwī, dhīl, ʿIrāq, sīkāh, ḥsīn, rasd, raml al-māyā, nawā, asbaʿayn, rasd al-dhīl, rmal, asbahān, mazmūm and māya. Muhammad Rachid Bey—a music lover, oud player and violinist—is credited with revising and fixing the repertoire of Tunisian noubas: he arranged the various parts and added Turkish-inspired instrumental pieces. He is also credited with composing most of the noubas' instrumental pieces, namely the overtures and the interludes. Thirteen noubas were thus compiled and worked in thirteen of the modes mentioned above.Today, the nouba is a musical composition built on a principal mode from which it takes its name, and formed as a sequence of vocal and instrumental pieces performed in an agreed order. The structure of the Tunisian nouba highlights contrasts and symmetries between its parts and within each of them: the first part favors duple meters, the second triple meters; each part begins with slow rhythms and ends with lively ones; the alternation of slow and lively rhythms can also recur within the pieces themselves.
noubas draw on poetic forms of the classical genre or post-classical. The abyāt that open the sung part of the nouba, generally two in number, are in Classical Arabic. Other sung parts are in Tunisian, in Classical Arabic, or a combination of both. Favorite themes include love, nature, and wine, as well as other worldly topics. Some khatm treat religious subjects, promoting piety and imploring divine mercy. Most nouba texts are anonymous.
noubas are usually performed by small ensembles featuring string instruments, chiefly the Tunisian ʿūd—distinct from the Eastern lute by its longer shape and number of strings—the rbāb with two gut strings on a monoxyle soundbox, the violin, and the qānūn. Orchestras also include a wind instrument, the ney, and percussion: nagharet, the tar, and more recently the darbouka. Small ensembles tend to give way to larger orchestras with around fifteen instrumentalists and about ten choristers. The use of European string instruments alongside traditional ones—and the adoption of notation, necessary for large ensembles—has given malouf performance a new spirit and dimension.
As the centerpiece of the traditional heritage, noubas are still performed in public concerts and at family celebrations, especially in urban settings. Towns with Andalusian refugee communities maintain this tradition. Today, the nouba is experiencing a revival among Tunisian diaspora communities in France and Italy, who value reviving endangered instruments and see it as a way to reconnect with their cultural identity of origin.
Other traditional forms
The muwashshah is a post-classical form that departs from the rigid frame of the classical qaṣīda. It features a fixed poetic structure with varied rhymes, often in multiple stanzas, invented in Al-Andalus in the 11th century by the blind poet of Cabra, Muqaddam ibn Mu'afā al-Qabrī. In Tunisian malouf, the musical form is marked by renewed metrical patterns. Considered the summit of Ifriqiyan and Arabic poetic expression by Ibn Khaldun, the muwashshah is distinguished by its specific structure. Famous examples include Badri badā and Aṭalta al-hajr.The zajal is a form traditionally sung in Tunisian. It is characterized by a strophic structure and frequent use of internal rhymes. Themes vary—from love and nature to inebriation, nostalgia for al-Andalus, and even philosophical topics. Examples include Āh ʿalā mā fāt and Dīr al-mudām fī al-kās. Rhythm may be free or follow specific metrical patterns, adding to its expressive diversity. In malouf, the zajal is crucial for showcasing vocal virtuosity and poetic creativity.
Shghul is marked by a distinctive, elaborate rhythmic and melodic style. Literally meaning "work" or “well-crafted workmanship,” it reflects the care given to its melodic and rhythmic construction. Noted pieces include Yā lā qawmī ḍayyaʿūnī and Rifqan malīka al-ḥusn. This sung form features modal and rhythmic variations, including odd meters such as 5/8 or 7/8. Shghul is rich in ornamentation and innovation, while remaining close to the nouba's noble style. Musicians such as Ahmed el-Wafi and Khemaïs Tarnane innovated in this form, opening Tunisian malouf to outside influences while staying faithful to Tunisian musical synthesis.
Foundou denotes a form known for depth and authenticity. It typically uses verse–chorus structure with adwār and a radda, and draws on a variety of rhythms such as mdawwar ḥawzī or btayḥī. Using Tunisian, foundou helped bring malouf to a broader audience. Well-known examples include Shūshāna and Nammayt namm al-mkhalīl, which testify to the integration of classical and popular Tunisian traditions. Although songs like Yā khīl Sālem or Frāg Ghezālī are popular foundou pieces, musicologists generally do not classify them within Tunisian malouf; however, as with malouf foundou, performances often conclude with one or more malouf items—typically a barwēl or a khatm.
The bashraf is a piece characterized by non-measured rhythm and strict unison performance. Though of Ottoman origin, the Tunisian version incorporates instruments tuned in a typically Tunisian manner and remains deeply anchored in the Andalusian genre. Unlike the Eastern peşrev, built on long rhythmic cycles, the Tunisian bashraf generally uses shorter cycles and is composed of two principal parts separated by improvisations of the istikhbār or taqsīm type. The first part, badaniyya, comprises phrases of unequal length, while the second, ḥarbī, is played at a faster tempo. Although inspired by its Ottoman ancestor, the Tunisian bashraf has evolved with distinct features suited to malouf, notably through variations introduced by oral transmission. A typical example is Bashraf nawā.