(b Tohayta, Tihama, South Arabia, c1892; d San‘ā, 1965). Yemeni singer and lutenist. He began singing while in Zabid, accompanying himself on a copper plate. He studied the qanbūs (lute) with Muhammad Sha'bān and Muhammad al-‘Attāb, both of whom he met in Ethiopia where they had taken refuge from the puritanism of Imām Yahyā. Al-‘Antarī’s life story is surrounded by legends, and it is also said that he met al-‘Attāb in San‘a and became his servant. Listening to al-‘Attāb, al-‘Antarī practised singing secretly until his master overheard him, recognized his talent and ordered him to sing to his guests. At the end of the 1930s al-‘Antarī recorded 25 songs for the Odeon company in Aden, and his subsequent career included numerous radio broadcasts and performances at weddings. He had an exceptional voice and was an accomplished lute player; he excelled in both the classical repertory of San‘ā (al-ghina‘ al-san‘ānī) and the lahjī repertory (see Lahjī, Muhammad Fadl al-). He probably also sang in the Ethiopian language.
During the 1950s al-‘Antarī retired to Zabid and gave up performing any music apart from religious song. His career was unexpectedly revived when he went to San‘ā to support the new republic in 1962, and his last public performance took place at the Bilqis Cinema in 1965 on the anniversary of the revolution. He died shortly afterwards, his health undermined by alcohol; his death is rumoured to have been the outcome of a plot devised by jealous young musicians. He lived in a transitional period and represents a link between several geographical, social and aesthetic areas; he was the first Yemeni musician of true national stature.
M.M. Naji: Al ghinā al-yamānī al-qadīm wa mashāhīruhu [Ancient Yemeni song and famous performers] (Kuwait, 1984)
J. Lambert: La médecine de l’âme: le chant de Sanaa dans la société yéménite (Nanterre, 1997)
JEAN LAMBERT