Hassan El Ashry

Simsimiyya
Egypt

Hassan El Ashry, AKA Mohssin, is the celebrated lead simsimiyya player in Al Tanbura, a collective of veteran Egyptian master musicians, singers, fishermen and philosophers. For nearly twenty-five years they’ve been custodians to some of Egypt’s oldest folk melodies at their home in Port Said, the Mediterranean gateway to the Suez Canal. Their music is driven by the seductive call of the simsimiyya – the ancient lyre dating back to the times of the Pharaohs.