From Lennie Clark's Web Site:

Christmas Songs in Arabic

Although Islam is the religion of the majority in the Middle East, there are in fact many Christians from throughout the region. According to census data collected by the Ottoman Empire, the Christian population in 1914 was 40% of the modern-day area consisting of Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. Although today this number has dropped to about 5% due to emigration, there is still a large Arab population around the world which embraces Christianity.

In Egypt, the Copts are believed to be one of the oldest sects of Christianity in existence, pre-dating the Roman Catholic church. Some of the oldest historic Christian churches in the world still existing today are based in Egypt. Christian populations have existed in large numbers in the Levant, which even today is still known as the Holy Land. The Apostle Paul's conversion occurred "on the road to Damascus", a city in modern-day Syria. Turkey hosts some sites with strong Christian connections, such as Efes (Ephesus), known to Christians as the city connected to the Apostle Paul and his epistle to the Ephesians.

For this reason, it shouldn't be surprising that Arabic-language lyrics are available for some Christmas hymns.

The lyrics below come from Linda Grondahl. (See "About the Contributor" below after the songs.) Linda learned these carols when her troupe did a program for an Arabic-speaking church in San Francisco.

Please note that it would be deeply offensive to many Christian Arabs to see these humns used as accompaniment to a belly dance performance. Please treat these songs as "music for istening".

Table of Contents

* Important note: If you don't speak Arabic yourself, don't try to use the written notes below by themselves to sing in Arabic. It's best if you can work with someone who speaks Arabic to learn proper pronunciation, and then use the notes below as a memory aid.

Angels We Have Heard on High

Note from Shira: these lyrics are different from those sung by Fairuz on her album titled Christmas Hymns in the track titled "Najmet Eid".

O Come O Come Emanuel

A Sound Heard on High

Silent Night

Note from Shira: these lyrics are different from those sung by Fairuz on her album titled Christmas Hymns in the track titled "Sawt El Eid".

O Holy Child of Bethlehem

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

The First Noel

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Acknowledgements

About the Person Who Provided these Lyrics

Linda Grondahl's background is that of a devoted lover of Arabic music and dance. She danced with Amina and the Aswan Dancers for many years. She took Arabic percussion with Mary Ellen Donald, Su Su Pampanin, George Dubai, Vince Deldado, and Tony Lammam. She took Arabic singing from Nicole Ibrahim, Mimi Spencer, Georges Lammam. On the oud, she studied under Nazir Latouf, Mimi Spencer, Abdullah Kdough. She was a member of the Aswat Arab-American Choir under the direction of Elias Lammam. She is now a member of the El Ashaab dance troupe, and Tahneen, the all-girl, all-American Middle eastern music ensemble. They have played for Arab and American events, and for many years at the Rakassah festival.

"I just saved whatever I could get my hands on, for years", writes Linda, "and really don't know why. It was always so dificult to get music, so I just kept on saving."

Linda lives in San Francisco, California. Her favorite color is any shade of purple.

About the Source

This article originally appeared on Lennie Clark's web site, "Arabic Song Translations." Lennie created this web site in 2002 as a response to discussion on the Internet regarding incidents of dancers who performed inappropriate sensual dances to religious music. Lennie's web site resided on a free web hosting service known as Geocities. When the planned October 2009 closure of the Geocities web hosting service was announced, Lennie and Shira agreed to move the contents of Lennie's site to Shira.net. To explore all the articles and song translations that once appeared on Lennie's Geocities site, visit Lennie's portal page here on Shira.net.

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