Mystery Oud Maker - Abdel Hamid Darwish?
I was just in Egypt a couple of weeks ago and came back with an oud from Markos shop (on shari'a Muhammad 'Ali)... there wasn't much of interest there
but I did find this one oud which they brought out only after I one by one passed up the many heavily-lacquered ornate new ouds they had out front.
The oud I ended up buying is an older instrument which was recently (2003) refurbished by Fathi Amin, who is well known to those who post here as a
worthy contemporary oud maker. Fathi has left his tag inside the instrument, but annoyingly it may be partially covering the original maker's tag,
thus I don't know the age of the instrument. What is visible reads "Ma'radh al-Fan al-Raqi Lil-Alat al-Musighi [line break] Abdel Hamid Darwish [line
break] al-Shahir: Mahmidu ( <- difficult to read the last word, which is set off in ornate brackets). "Fine Arts Shop (Exhibitor) of Musical
Instruments... Abdel Hamid Darwish, a.k.a. Mahmidu (?)"
There are one or two other words below ("Taslih" being one, "Piano" another) that are readable although most of the text is torn or unreadable.
The typeface and style of the label lead me to think the label is from the first half of the twentieth century - the image of the proprietor shows him
in the style of an early twentieth century urban Arab/Egyptian.
I don't want to make matters more complex, but I'm fairly certain that there's yet a different label below the one that's visible, but I'd have to get
into the instrument to be certain.
In terms of its present state, I think Fathi Amin has put a new lattice ornament in the sound-hole, and probably is the one who has repaired a small
crack on the face of the instrument... I cleaned up the instrument and rubbed down the lacquer on the face (with fine steel wool) and with fresh
strings it's looking and sounding great.
I'm quite pleased as the sound of this instrument is beautiful to me -- not quite as resonant in the lower registers as I find many Egyptian
instruments to be, it has more of what I think of as a Syrian sound -- nice clear ringing mid and high registers, with a particular sweetness to the
notes.
I wonder if anyone more knowledgeable has heard of Abdel Hamid Darwish or seen ouds in this style? The style is a little atypical of Egyptian ouds
that I've seen, especially given that it only has one sound-hole. Any guesses as to the age of the instrument? I attach a couple of images -- the
picture of the label was hard to get (the lattice is pretty dense and the camera didn't want to focus too deep) but I think it's readable.
Thanks!
Kamran
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