[Afropop] On February 12, Egypt lost one of its greatest champions of traditional culture. Zakariah Ibrahim, director of the El Mastaba Center for the Preservation of Egyptian Folk Music, and founding leader of the traditional ensemble El Tanbura, passed away in Cairo at age 72. It is difficult to overstate the contribution this man made to preserving and uplifting ancient traditional music of Egypt. (He took a particular interest in one of the world's oldest lutes, the simimiyya.) But you can get a sense of
