For centuries, the Middle East has been the crossroads of the world. Many ancient cultures—Egyptian, Jewish, Byzantine, and Islamic—have contributed to the music of the region, and in the 20th century, this has been further hybridised by immigrants to modern-day Israel, and the import of popular culture via radio and television.
The Islamic world can be divided into the eastern countries of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey , and Iraq and the north African Arab countries (see Africa). The...