Salman Al Mankoub

Bakaret Al Arbaeen (The Turn of Forty Days)

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According to the cassette's introduction, it was recorded at the request of a young man commemorating his father who had passed away forty days earlier. If the introduction is accurate, the tape was recorded in 2007, making it one of the later works of Iraqi rural poet, singer, and musician Salman Al Mankoub, who died four years after recording this tape. Despite its relatively recent recording date, the cassette doesn't sound different from Salman Al Mankoub's works recorded in the mid-twentieth century, whether in terms of arrangement, singing style, or the rough recording quality - all of which carefully preserve the aesthetics of traditional Iraqi rural singing. Salman Al Mankoub was born in 1918 to a religious family that opposed his passion and interest in music. Salman worked as a sailor for a period, during which he learned English, Persian, Turkish, Russian, and Hindi, before moving to Baghdad in 1945 and joining its radio station three years later. Salman developed into a complete traditional musician, composing colloquial poetry in various forms, excelling in composition and playing the oud, violin, and rababa, and managing to compose much of what he sang. He recorded music for Baidaphon Records and for Iraqi radio and television, and achieved great popularity with the advent of cassettes in Iraq, reportedly recording around 600 cassettes. He passed away in 2011 after leaving a significant musical legacy in Iraqi rural music.