Mohamed Ali Street’s oldest oud maker

The shop of Sami Afifi, 52, is in the middle of the historical street and has a distinguished feature as piles of oriental oud instruments fill the small workshop.

This is not the only feature as he is also considered one of the most skilled manufacturers of oud in the street and in the whole country.

Afifi learned how to manufacture oud from a young age and is now teaching other people the profession.

“It is something like air. I cannot live without it,” he told the Egyptian Mail.

Afifi inherited the profession from his father who worked as a clarinet player in a famous band called Hassaballah.

Afifi’s father brought him in on Muhammad Ali Street and he has been working there for more than 40 years.

His customers are mostly music students and those who are fond of playing out loud.

Afifi recalls his memories with the old Mohamed Ali Street, which has become completely different. Now, the shops selling musical instruments have largely disappeared make room for dozens of ceramic shops.

The street is more than 135 years old and was steeped in art and music. But now it is more prosaic with building
supplies and paints.

Until the 1970s, Mohamed Ali Street still retained its splendor and the artistic and musical families refused to leave it.

It was the most famous street for weddings and celebrations, with offices for renting folk singers in addition to
artists’ cafes and musical instrument workshops.

According to Afifi, the types of oriental oud instruments are various. But the raw materials determine their quality and thus their price.

The prices of oud range between LE450 and LE1200 and sometimes as much as LE2000.

Afifi said that the oud made of almond wood is the most expensive.

“I am very proud that I have made more than five almond wood instruments since I started in 1951,” he said.

Umm Kulthoum was accompanied by one of these oud and it was the instrument of choice for Mohamed Abdel-
Wahhab and Farid Al-Atrash.

The oud is a stringed musical instrument, pear-shaped, with a deep chest, and contains a percussion board. It is a hollow instrument made of one or more types of wood, containing five pairs of strings, and the sixth string is added to some of them.

Many Arab countries are famous for the oud industry, and the most famous of them are Iraq and Egypt.

Musicians and composers from all over the world go to Afifi’s shop for the high quality Iraqi oud. The oud is one of the oldest oriental stringed instruments.

To make an oud, Afifi said that he cuts the wood and puts it on a hot iron press, then he puts glue after that. He uses no nails.

He paints and polishes the boards, and finally, the instrument is fitted with strings and keys.

Afifi said that his profession is rare these days, but it has a whiff of history and reminds us of the good old days.

“Despite technological advances, I do not think that this profession will ever die because it has its own customers who will never replace the hand-made oriental oud with anything else,” he said.