Yusuf Za'arur

Yusuf Za'arur (; ; 1902 – November 14, 1969) was a world-renowned Iraqi-Jewish qanun player and director of Radio Orchestra of Baghdad during the 1930s.

Biography Za'arur was born in 1902 in Baghdad to a noble family with many children. As a child, he was swept away by the music and melodies in the synagogue and built himself a qanun-like instrument against the wishes of his parents, who feared that music would disrupt his general studies and Torah studies at the yeshiva. At the age of fourteen, he joined a group of people who made a living from the songs of blessings on celebrations. At the age of eighteen he bought himself his first qanun and soon mastered the intricate instrument and began to play flute, violin and cello as well. At the age of twenty, he opened a school for various musical instruments that was very successful. Being such an expert in the vast knowledge he acquired and in his absolute pitch, his playing on the qanun turned from a popular tune to modern and artistic playing, and he gained a much respectable status in the music world of Baghdad.

He had performed in Mandatory Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel, in 1944, and returned to Iraq. In 1951 he realized his ambition to make Aliyah to the Land of Israel, despite his great talent and honorable position as director at the Baghdad Broadcasting Station. In 1956, during the Sinai Campaign, the BBC boycotted recitals of his that were recorded in Iraq for the station after World War II, because he was Jewish.

Za'arur Composed many songs and melodies that are still being played. Among others, he is considered to have brought to the recognition and greatness of Nazem al-Ghazali in the Arab music community.