Nouri Iskandar
Syrian Musicologist and composer
Nouri Iskandar (Syriac: ܢܘܪܝ ܐܣܟܢܕܪ, Arabic: نوري إسكندر, 1938–2023) was a Syrian musicologist and composer. Influenced from his youth to pursue musical studies, he became a composer of Syriac sacral and Assyrian folk-pop music, for which he is most well-known.
With a career that spanned more than 50 years, Iskandar is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Assyrian music, having presented many studies, musical works, and independent research on Syriac melodies. He is considered one of the most popular Western Assyrian musicians alongside Gabriel Asaad and Joseph Malke. Throughout his career, he played a role in establishing multiple choirs and creating/preserving more than 700 sacral songs.
Early life
Nuri Iskandar was born in Deir al-Zor to an Assyrian family originally from Urfa in modern-day Turkey. His family moved to Raqqa before settling in Aleppo, where he later joined the local Syriac Orthodox scout band playing the trumpet. He studied at the Higher Institute of Music at the University of Cairo between 1959 and 1964 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in music. After finishing his studies he returned to Aleppo and began to work as a school teacher, teaching singing and choir courses.
Throughout his time as a schoolteacher, Iskandar continued to teach himself music lessons from textbooks and learned how to play the oud.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7063908. VIAF identifies the subject as 17153833103664330718. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 2023, 1959 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nouri Iskandar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.