Encyclopedia of Islam

Umm Kulthoum

 

(Umm Kulthu

 

m) 

(1904–

1975)  famed Egyptian singer

First a provincial religious singer, Umm Kul-

thoum became one of the most prominent artists 

in the 20th-century a

rab

 world. Her childhood 

in the Nile Delta village of Tammay al-Zahayra 

laid the foundation for her career: She studied 

Quranic recitation from age five and joined her 

family’s local performances of songs narrating the 

Prophet’s life. In the 1920s she established herself 

in c

airo

 by singing an increasingly romantic rep-

ertory in elite homes and 

mUsic

 halls.

By the 1930s she was performing this reper-

tory with a growing instrumental ensemble. Her 

performances were distinguished by skills she 

had developed through quranic recitation and 

her religious repertory—correct pronunciation, 

breath control, melodic ornamentation, and var-

ied vocal timbres. She excelled in improvising and 

communicating poetic meaning. As her commer-

cial recordings, radio airplay, and musical films 

boosted her popularity, she ensured her success 

through business acumen and artistic control.

The work of outstanding poets and compos-

ers, her songs appealed to changing popular 

sensibilities. Thus, the 1940s featured her sing-

ing two contrasting groups of songs: accessible 

romantic songs in colloquial Arabic and denser 

qasidah compositions in formal Arabic, including 

several on religious themes (e.g., “Wulid al-Huda” 

and “Nahj al-Burda”). Following the 1952 revolu-

tion in Egypt, she recorded numerous patriotic 

songs and the radio program (later film) Rabia 

al-Adawiyya. She married in 1954.

Her final years were distinguished by her 

response to the war of June 1967. She offered 

fund-raising concerts in e

gypt

, the Arab world, 

and Europe to rebuild the Egyptian military. These 

concerts reinvigorated the sexagenarian’s career, 

intensified her fan base across the Arab world, and 

solidified her image in national and regional mem-

ory as a patriotic figure—an image persisting long 

after her death in Cairo on February 3, 1975.

While romantic texts dominate her output of 

roughly 300 songs, her career’s trajectory reveals a 

commitment to religious projects and a return to 

her beginnings with her 1960s plan to record the 

Prophet’s life story, including quranic recitation. 

Having established a popular, yet respectable, 

platform by singing romantic songs, she repeat-

edly used it to disseminate serious religious songs 

to an extraordinarily wide audience.

See also 

cinema

; 

Women

.

Laura Lohman