2. See for example Davis 2002a and 2002b for accounts of the Rashidiyya’s innovations and the effects of Tunisian musical policy following independence.

3. See Guettat 2000: 215-16 for an alternative perspective proposing North African origins for the ma'luf.

4. See Guettat 2000: 220-28 for a discussion of the role played by the Sufi movement in perpetuating the Andalusian heritage.

5. I refer to to specific ma’luf borrowings in Davis 1999.

6. Tunisian ensembles were increasingly adopting instruments from Egyptian ensembles such as the violin, ‘ud sharqi (Middle Eastern short-necked lute with five or six strings) and qanun (trapezoidal plucked zither). European instruments of fixed pitch such as the harmonium and mandolin were also popular. For an extensive account of the instruments and ensembles used in Tunisian urban music see Sakli 1994: 173-207.

7. I discuss relationships between the ma'luf and newly composed songs in Davis 1996(b): 318-19 & 321; and more fully, in Davis, in press.

8. I use the institution’s current name Etablissement de la Radio et de la Television Tunisienne.

9. Mourad Sakli explores the influence of the mass media on Tunisian song in his seminal study of La Chanson Tunisienne (Sakli 1994)

10. Jihad Racy provides a penetrating analysis of the conflicting worldviews of the European and Egyptian participants in the 1932 Cairo Congress, in Racy 1993.

11. See Davis 1992: 90-94 and 2002a: 327-28 for accounts of the Rashidiyya’s introduction of notation and its intended function.

12. Boushnak did not intend to abandon the ma’luf completely. He told me that he was composing a new nubat al-sikah, with contemporary lyrics, in collaboration with the Tunisian poet Adam Fethi.

13. Srarfi does however acknowledge the encouragement and promotional opportunities she receives from the Municipality of Tunis and the Ministries of Tourism and Culture.