(b 1922, al-Hawta, British Protectorate of South Arabia [now Yemen]; d 1967). Arab singer and ‘ūd player. His life was closely linked to that of his patron, Prince Ahmad Fadl al-‘Abdalī, known as ‘the Commandant’ (al-Komandān). Before the Komandān, the music of the Lahij region near Aden was confined to popular songs and instruments (the double clarinet, the lyre and percussion). In the 1930s, young artists influenced by Egyptian song discovered the ‘ūd (short-necked lute). As an alternative to the other urban musical genres of the Yemen, which derived from Sana’a and Hadramawt, the Komandān invented a new style known as lahjī by adapting his poetry to traditional melodies; he later composed new melodies and provided patronage for young composers. The lahjī style was the first ‘urban’ musical genre of the Yemen in the contemporary sense, making its mark throughout the Yemen together with the polyrhythmic sharh dance. Many lahjī recordings were released in Aden during the 1940s by the al-Tāj al-Adanī company, and the lahjī became particularly well known in the Persian Gulf under the name of ‘adanī. Al-Lahjī added to this repertory new songs such as Yā ward yā kādhī (‘O rose, O kādhī, pears and apricots’). In many of his melodies it is difficult to tell the traditional from the new elements and to distinguish the contributions of al-Lahjī from those of the Komandān; al-Lahjī's work retains the pentatonic scale of popular origin which later became blurred in the work of artists such as Faysal ‘Alawī. Al-Lahjī pursued a traditional career, providing music for weddings; he joined the Musical Club of Lahij in 1955 and the Musical Club of the South in 1957, both of which associations played a part in the revival of Yemeni nationalism. He died prematurely, assassinated in 1967.
T. Fari': Lamahāt fī tā'rīkh al-ughniyya al-yamaniyya al-mu‘āsira [Aspects of the history of contemporary Yemeni song] (Aden, 1985)
J.A. Ahmad: ‘Fadl b. Muhammad al-Lahjī’, Al-mawsū‘a al-yamaniyya [Yemeni encyclopaedia] (Sana'a, 1992)
A. Qa'id: ‘Le chant de la rose et du coton: musique citadine de Lahej’, Musicales instituts du monde arabe, ix (1998), 10 only
JEAN LAMBERT