The project — which aims to revive Islamic heritage in a new approach — will be introduced in a performance scheduled for Sunday 7 August at the Cairo Opera House’s Open Theatre.

The concert’s repertoire will include new arrangements for the pair’s known songs, including Qamarun, El-Burda, Umm El-Khier, Waggeh Fouadak Lel-Elah, Zedny Befart El-Hob, and Ana Moghram Behawah.

The godfather of many first-row indie bands and musicians, Salama — who played a vital role in shaping mainstream pop in the 1970s and 1980s — has paid special attention to traditional Islamic music since he formed Sharkiat in the 1980s and won a Grammy and a BBC award for another Sufi project with Senegalese music icon Youssou N’Dour.

The son of the famous Sufi chanter Sheikh Yassin El-Tohamy, Mahmoud mastered the deep-rooted Islamic musical art from early childhood, following in his father’s footsteps. He is also the founder of the Egyptian Association of Religious Hymns and Litanies, as well as the Prince Taz Palace School of Chanting and Music in Cairo.

The internationally acclaimed duo are reuniting in the Sufism vs Modernism Project, which was first launched in February 2018 before being developed in a few concerts in Cairo and Abu Dhabi.

Programme:
Sunday 7 August, 8pm
Open Theatre, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek