Ezra Aharon, né ʿAzzori (ʿAzzūrī) Shashoua (Shaʿshuʿa), was a famous composer and master player of the ʿud (Heb. oud). Born in Baghdad around 1903, Aharon was educated in the old Ottoman musical tradition in Iraq but was also familiar with modern Egyptian styles of Arabic music. In 1932 he headed the Iraqi delegation to the legendary Congress of Arabic Music held in Cairo. Two years later, in 1934, he settled in Palestine, arriving there much earlier than the larger contingent of Iraqi Jewish musicians that emigrated to Israel in the early 1950s.

Aharon immediately began to compose so…