Rababa (Jordan, Little Petra)

In the Siq al-Barid region, a site less frequented than the famous Petra but just as steeped in history, Bedouin traditions are rooted in stone and the breath of the wind.

The man here plays the rababa , a one-stringed instrument emblematic of the nomadic peoples of the Middle East. This rudimentary fiddle—often handcrafted from wood, hide, and horsehair—is one of the oldest bowed instruments in the region, predating the Western violin.

The rababa is not only used to make music: it is a vector of oral transmission. It accompanies Nabataean poems , love songs or battle stories, punctuating desert vigils. The musician is sometimes also a storyteller, guardian of a collective memory transmitted without book or score.

In Jordan, the rababa is part of the living intangible heritage , although it is tending to disappear, competed with by digital music. Hearing it resonate in the gorges of Little Petra is to experience a suspended time where the rock becomes a theater of ancient echoes.