Ahmad Barrin

Shaykh Ahmad Barrin (1939 – 1 July 2015) was an Egyptian religious singer and munshid, known as a bearer of the folk heritage of Upper Egypt. ^{1 2}

He was born at Salwa Bahari in Aswan governorate to a family of the Ja'afira tribe. Blind, he overcame it through intelligence and memory, learned at a neighbouring village's kuttab, and in the 1960s took a licence from al-Azhar's Faculty of Theology. ¹

He settled at al-Dayr near Esna and became famous for inshad and praise songs in the Sa'idi dialect and for reciting the folk epics. He set poems to the daff, the riqq and the baz, and improvised on national occasions such as the 23 July revolution and the October War. ¹

His mawwal mixed praise of the Prophet with talk of the world, life's lessons and the stories of the prophets. The article says he also sang at Coptic nights and was a regular guest at the mawlid of the Virgin in Asyut, and that Muslims and Christians from Luxor, Aswan and Qena attended his funeral. His best-known works include 'Our Master Moses and al-Khidr' and 'Ya Hamam Betnouh Leih', and the opening of the series 'Wahat al-Ghurub' is his verse and improvisation. ¹

He worked with his nephew, the munshid Muhammad al-Agouz, on pieces such as 'The Ship' and 'Farsh wa Ghata'; years later al-Agouz went his own way to Cairo, until his death in an accident in April 2010. ¹

He died at al-Dayr on 1 July 2015. ^{1 2}

Wikidata listed an article on him in Arabic Wikipedia only on 6 November 2026. ²

• Arabic Wikipedia article, revision of 7 March 2026. ¹

• Wikidata item Q133521186. ²