In Arab musical heritage, the mawwal stands as a cornerstone of folk art – a vocal form that expresses melancholy, nostalgia, and popular wisdom. Historians offer two accounts of its origin, both tracing back to Baghdad. One version holds that the mawwal emerged after Caliph Harun Al Rashid ordered the execution of the Barmakid family and banned any poetic mourning for Jaʿfar Al Barmaki (767–803 CE), a powerful and well-loved minister at the Abbasid court. Only a servant girl from the mawālī (a term for non-Arabs who had been integrated into Abbasid society) was allowed to lament him. She did so in song, delivering the following verses: "O house, where are the Persian kings, where are the horsemen? Where are those who protected it with spears and shields? She said: you see them as bones beneath the ravaged lands Their tongues, once eloquent, now silenced." The second account, from the book Ship of the King and Precious Vessel, states that the people of Wasit were the first to speak the mawwal, in verses beginning with: "Dwellings where you were, after your departure, have become ruins Desolate, fit neither for consolation nor for wedding So where are your eyes that the horses look into? They judge, while the tongues of the praisers are mute.” The mawwal travelled from Iraq to the Levant and was initially embraced in Syria by Aleppo, Ghouta, and the Jazeera region, where it branched out and diversified into various forms, most notably the seven-verse mawwal, Zuhairi, Sharuqi, and Baghdadi, becoming a fundamental feature of celebrations, evening gatherings, and religious, political, and emotional occasions across Syrian society. Among its subtypes, the seven-verse mawwal emerged most distinctly in Syria, and became associated with an audience known as the sammi'a – those who appreciate melody, lyrics, and performance. The late singer Sabah Fakhri once said, “What the singer always needs is the sammi'a.” The seven-verse mawwal became a vehicle for saying what could not be said, and a form for expressing human suffering, prayer, religious devotion, love, and even political protest, continuing until the late 1960s and the Ba'ath Party’s rise to power. The seven-verse mawwal is usually performed following instrumental taqasim and vocal preludes such as Ya layli, ya 'ayni, aman aman, and is often delivered with emotional tarab-style performance, using the maqams of Bayat, Rast, Ajam, and Sika. It consists of seven poetic lines, distributed as follows: - The Qafiya (opening/threshold): The first three lines, which share the same end rhyme. - The Arja (rhyme): The next three lines, which follow a different rhyme pattern. - The Ghalaq (closure): The seventh and final line, which returns to the opening rhyme. Several notable names emerged in Syria who excelled in performing the seven-verse mawwal, most notably Mohammad Abu Salmo, who was called the King of the Seven-verse. Others include Sabah Fakhri, Mohammed Khairi, Abu Hassan Al Haritani, Sabri Mudallal, Hassan Al Haffar, and Mustafa and Radwan Sarmini from the northern region; and Abu Riyah, Abu Abdu Al Atrmani, and other singers from Ghouta and southern Syria. Yasser Al Mazlum (Abu Ammar) is considered one of the most prominent voices to perform the seven-verse mawwal in concerts and evening gatherings in Homs and central Syria. The last two decades have witnessed a gradual decline in the presence of the seven-verse mawwal in Syria, partly due to the retreat of contemplative tarab music in the face of faster, more contemporary styles. The war and successive waves of displacement also impacted the live tarab sessions that once brought together sammi'a communities. However, our archive preserves many cassettes that document a time when the seven-verse mawwal enjoyed the attention of prominent singers and drew the widest audiences across Syria. In this article, we highlight five of these cassettes. Sabah Fakhri Isqi Al Itash Concert Despite gaining fame through his performances of Aleppine qudud and qasidas, Sabah Fakhri’s career is richly marked by frequent returns to the seven-verse mawwal. Here, we listen to one of his most iconic mawwals, Ya la’imi fi al hawa al ‘udhri kafak shjar (composer and lyricist unknown), performed at his legendary Isqi Al ‘Atash concert. In this performance, the mawwal appears as a dignified interlude, interspersed between a more colorful and spectacular set of songs, doubling its impact. The accompaniment of the qanun enhances this effect, delicately embroidering the edges of the mawwal with scattered, expressive notes. This mawwal, along with others performed by Sabah Fakhri, became a landmark at Aleppo’s weddings and within the archive of mawwal sammi'a. Many singers performed it after him in talent competitions throughout the Arab world, regarding it as one of the most difficult tarab mawwals. Mohammed Khairi Collection of Traditional and Folk Songs Mohammed Khairi played a key role in reviving Andalusian muwashshahat and Aleppo’s traditional musical heritage, earning him the nickname King of the Muwashshahat. In this recording from the Eshbilia Concert in Damascus, Khairi presents a selection of songs, qudud, and mawwals, including the seven-verse mawwals Li khulla ya khalq saʿat al shidda baʿuni and Khalli al saqani bi-kasat al sabr rahat, the former being one of the most famous Aleppine mawwals, performed by many, including Adib Al Dayekh. The two mawwals share slow rhythms that suit Khairi’s deliberate vocal delivery, supported by a warm arrangement of violin and nay that complements the warmth of his voice. In the background, we hear an audience of sammi'a, whose cheers rise and fall with Khairi's intonation and the careful articulation of every word and syllable of the mawwals. Mustafa Sarmini Mawaweel Arabea '96 (Arabic Mawwal '96) Mustafa Sarmini, along with his brother Radwan and their friends Nihad Najjar and Abboud Bashir, formed a quartet called The Arab Youth Club. After the group disbanded, Mustafa’s strong presence in the Aleppine music scene endured. He continued to faithfully perform the seven-verse mawwal, one of his favourite forms, until his passing in 2019. In this live recording, Sarmini presents several seven-verse mawwals in a style inspired by Egyptian music. His delivery echoes the structure of qasida and classical maqam singing, marked by vocal discipline and precise phrasing. This contrasts with the more fluid style of the Syrian mawwal, which allows greater freedom of movement between vocal lines, instrumental interludes, and expressive sighs. Elia Baida Attaba and Migana One cannot speak of the Baghdadi mawwal in the Levant without mentioning Elia Baida, the Lebanese composer, singer, and oud player who left a profound auditory legacy in contemporary Levantine music. His influence continues to echo in the work of researchers and archivists, who preserve stories of his role in spreading musical forms beyond their geographic boundaries. Elia performed many iconic Baghdadi seven-verse mawwals, including Ya Maʿshar al Nās Mā Ẓann Bil-Dahr Ṣāḥib, which appears on this cassette. The mawwal was later featured in the plays and films of the Rahbani brothers, and performed by Mohammad Mor'ebi in the film Safar Barlak, as well as by the late Syrian artist Amer Al Sebi'i in the television series Zaman Al Barghuth. Mohammed Adib Al Dayekh Qasa'ed Ghazaliyah (Flirtation Poems) When it comes to the Sufi and classical saba’awy mawwal in Syria, the name Mohammed Adib Al Dayekh (1938–2001) always comes to mind. The Aleppine singer and chanter combined Quranic recitation, religious chanting, and tarab singing, making him one of the most distinguished voices to carry forward the Arab poetic heritage. In his famous mawwal O Heart, Stay Away from the Paths of Sin and Its Traps, Al Dayekh appears in a trembling, sorrow-tinged voice on maqam al hijaz, addressing the heart as though it were a being independent of the body and its companions - a recurring theme in Sufi mawwals. The piece also bridges Sufi tarab with the Baghdadi-Shami mawwal, a connection that came to define Mohammed Adib Al Dayekh’s legacy in the two and a half decades following his untimely passing.