Iskandar Shalfūn

Biography

Lebanese composer and qanun player Shalfun was born in Cairo and studied in Beirut; his birth year is disputed.

Original Rawdat al-Balabil issues name Iskandar Shalfun as publisher, editor and director of the Egyptian music institute, using Alexandre Chalfoun in French. Magazine pages advertise his library’s books, scores and instruments and publish compositions crediting their proprietor with words and music. They connect his musical publishing with teaching and the provision of study materials for performers.

Ennejma Ezzahra preserves his French correspondence with Rodolphe d’Erlanger in 1926. He describes music activity and lectures on Arab music history in Upper Egypt, sends magazine issues and discusses the publication’s losses and limited resources. His letters provide testimony from within his work on the practical burdens of musical publishing and research.

The newspaper material reproduced by Al-Ahram shows his criticism of taqtuqa and advocacy of older adwar and muwashshahat. It reproduces an October 1920 announcement of the magazine’s first issue and Tawfiq Habib Malika’s 1934 obituary describing his teaching of instruments and notation. These are dated press accounts; his birth year and circumstances of the fatal building collapse remain disputed.