Tag Archives: Arabic culture
The Lute Oud Posted by aziza on Oct 29, 2012
The lute (العود) is a string musical instrument that is very important in Middle Eastern music. It has a distinctive shape. See pictures! Oud has developed over a long period of time. Some date it back to the times of Ancient Egypt, based on some images and artefacts of an instrument that looks…
Eid Mubarak Posted by aziza on Oct 26, 2012
Eid Mubarak (عيد مبارك)! Todays is Eid ul Adha (عيد الأضحى), or the feast of sacrifice. Muslims celebrate this feast by slaughtering a sheep. The aim of this is to remember the story of Prophet Abraham (إبراهيم) who was willing to slaughter his own son in submission to God’s orders, but then God sent him…
Fairouz and Fall Posted by jesa on Oct 22, 2012
Fairouz (فَيروز), one of the most famous and respected Arab artists, is a Lebanese singer (مُغَنِّيَة) born on November 21, 1935. Born Nouhad Haddad, she acquired her stage name Fairouz which means ‘turquoise’ after she was introduced to Halim el-Roumi (حَليم الرّومي), head of the Lebanese Radio Station in the 1950s. Her fame later…
An Introduction مُقَدِّمَة Posted by jesa on Oct 13, 2012
“Record it, I am an Arab and my identity card number is 50,000”, (سَجِّل أنا عَربي ورَقِم بطاقَتي خَمسون أَلف) says the great Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish (محمود دَرويش) in his famous poem Record it, I am an Arab. And I say to you too: record this, I am an Arab. In my blog posts…
Baklava Posted by aziza on Sep 12, 2012
Do you like baklava (البقلاوة)? It is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. Here is one way of preparing it: Ingredients 1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough 1 pound chopped nuts 1 cup butter 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup…
Um Ali – Dessert recipe Posted by aziza on Aug 27, 2012
I am writing this post now as I eat a very nice dessert from Egypt called Um Ali (ام علی). Um Ali is made up of pastry, nuts, milk and sugar; you can also add cream on top if you like! I prepare it at home, and I follow very easy recipe! There are no…
Persian words in Egyptian Arabic Posted by aziza on Aug 25, 2012
In the previous post, I presented some words that are of Persian or Farsi origin that are currently used in Arabic. These words are treated like any other Arabic word, and most Arabs use them without even realizing that they are not originally Arabic. In this post, I present some more words that are…