By Nili Belkind and Edwin Seroussi in collaboration with Hadas Bram and Netanel Cohen-Musai.
The following entry is part of our project on Ezra Aharon’s life and legacy supported by the Israel Academy of Sciences, grants 786/21 (2021-2024: Between Baghdad and Jerusalem: Migration, Cosmopolitanization and Nationalization of Arab/Jewish Music through the Archive of Ezra Aharon) and 1174/24 (2024-2029: Music, Muslims, Jews: Exploring Past and Contemporary Relationalities). For more information, see also the project “Music, Muslim, Jews.”
This document summarizes Azuri al-Awad/Ezra Aharon’s life story based on his early autobiographies as well as on interviews he granted to journalists and ethnomusicologists between 1936 and 1960. It consists mostly of straight translations of these documents or close paraphrases combined with brief commentaries on their content as well as on the interrelations between these texts. For exhaustive analyses of and theorizing about these sources, see our formal publications on this Iraqi Jewish musician.
Two Autobiographies
1) 1936
“The History of the Life of Singer Ezra Aharon” is the title of one of the earliest specimens of handwritten autobiographical documents preserved in Azuri’s estate at the National Library of Israel.[1] Written in Hebrew, and in third person, the unnamed writer’s voice features a relatively meagre command of the language’s syntax and, at times, discloses that the writer’s mother tongue is Arabic.[2] Moreover, the rudimentary Hebrew is peppered with sophisticated expressions, some of Biblical origin, betraying a traditional Jewish education or at the very least, familiarity with traditional Jewish linguistic codes. All these indicate that it was most probably Azuri himself who penned the text.
Interestingly, the title of this text refers to Azuri as “zamar,” singer in Hebrew, instead of an appellate that would highlight the consummate musician and oud player Azuri was, or foreground his status as a prolific composer—a role that was no less fundamental to his musicianship. Assuming that this text was written by Ezra perhaps choosing this title aligns with his self-esteem as a singer, or contemporary conceptualizations in urban Arab culture that assign singers a higher standing than instrumentalists; that of “artist.” As Azuri himself stated in an interview with ethnomusicologists Esther Warkov and Amnon Shiloah (c.1981), “the singer is, how to say, the light of the ensemble.” (hazamar hu, eikh omrim, ha-or shel ha-lehakah).
A translation of this document (including some parts that appear to have been crossed out), attempts to preserve Ezra’s stylistic idiosyncrasies while adding the punctuation missing in the original for clarity.
Mr. Ezra Aharon was born in Baghdad to a well-known and famous family named Sha’ashū’. From an early age Ezra Aharon’s heart was attracted to becoming a musician [lit. an instrumentalist] and he showed outstanding talents for the music [of the] Orient. At the age of ten Ezra Aharon was orphaned by his father. Ezra then became a free soul, [able] to realize the aspiration of his life because [until his passing] his late father barred him from dedicating himself to the profession that leads to abandonment [of the study] of Torah (bitul torah). However, he [Ezra] did not want to abandon music and continued on this path. Two famous Turkish musicians recognized his talents and taught him music theory (torat hamusika) and playing [instruments]. After some time, Ezra Aharon was asked to join the state orchestra of Iraq. Since then, his name gained fame among many and he became head and shoulders above others (ha-ari shebahavurah, lit. ‘the lion of the group’; after Talmud Bavli, Qiddushin 48b). King Faisal [Faisal I bin Al-Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi, 1885-1933] adopted him and supported him. In the year 1932 he was sent by the Government of Iraq to the Oriental music competition that took place in Cairo, Egypt. This great competition is very well known in the world of Oriental music. The best singers and musicians [instrumentalists] came to it from Asia and Africa, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Indians, Libyans, etc.
Mr. Ezra Aharon used the nevel (nevel is usually translated into the terms lyre or harp; here it signifies the oud) and the violin in this competition and won the first prize at this conference [spelled out in Hebrew as conferens].
Mr. Ezra Aharon knows this music very well, and is an expert on the genre’s secrets. He has also visited Europe, namely Berlin, has absorbed Western music, and has amalgamated East and the West together to create a unique world unto itself. Many Oriental musicians have attempted to follow his footsteps and still do, but have not mastered his abilities. By contrast, many of these [musicians] are disciples who have studied closely with him[3] in Eretz [Israel] and abroad. In recent years, due to the surge in hate and the persecutions of the Jews of Iraq, Ezra Aharon was attacked by the Arab press, his sin of being a Zionist was exposed and Ezra hence exited “the daughter of Babylon doomed to destruction” [Psalms 137: 8] and came to Zion. His departure from Iraq was a hard blow to Oriental music there as he did not leave behind anyone who compares with him, be it among the Jews or among the Arabs. His absence is felt especially now, following the establishment of the Iraqi radio. Ezra Aharon is missed there (one has to note [to the fact] that ninety percent of the singers and musicians of Iraq are Jews and that today, eighty percent of the musicians are Jewish).
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[1] NLI, Mus. 294, N1.
[2] For instance, Aharon tends to generate lengthy sentences lacking punctuation, mirroring Arabic syntax, in which such sentences are common and natural. Furthermore, his choice of the term "menagnim" instead of the conventional modern Hebrew "naganim" aligns with the pattern observed in Arabic (as well as medieval Hebrew), where the agent noun form of a verb (ism al-fāʿil) is utilized for the names of professionals.
[3] The original Hebrew is yatzku mayyim al Yadav, lit. “poured water on his hands”, a rabbinical expression for a very close disciple of a master, based on 2 Kings 3:11.
