A master of the oud and the tar, Hamza El Din was an Egyptian musician and composer devoted to preserving his Nubian heritage. He appealed to fans of minimalism, world music, and devotional music, and his first recordings for Vanguard in the 1960s were part of a wider Western awakening to foreign sounds. He garnered influential friends like the Kronos Quartet and Mickey Hart, who studied his drumming techniques and later produced recordings for him. Hamza El Din enjoyed a long career of touring and recording before his death in 2006.